o The recent debate on the causes of the deforestation of over three thousand km2 of the Amazon forest, in the last five months of 2007, has been, as always, very ideological, with a witch-hunt character and without pointing to long-term solutions. This has also been the focus of debates and policies regarding the serious Brazilian land issue in recent years.

The current deforestation of the Amazon is the result of the continuity of the traditional form of expansion of the Brazilian agricultural frontier with the occupation of virgin lands (private or public), the extraction of hardwood, deforestation and the installation of livestock farming.¹. These economic activities play the role of generating income and legitimizing the occupation of new owners in the short term, with almost no need for resources.². In the long term, the lands will either remain under more intensive livestock farming, or if demand exists, they will be converted to grains or other economic activity.

But what matters is that there is an expectation that there will be demand for this land³, to be used at some point in the future, causing its prices to rise significantly. And the closer to productive use, the greater the value of these lands, causing deforestation to multiply their prices by more than 10 times depending on the region and area.⁴. It must be taken into account that land speculation is intrinsic to market economies and is inversely proportional to the State's capacity to regulate its markets, but it is impossible to stop. We will therefore always live with the increase in land values ​​in the Amazon and with the pressure to deforest its forest.

This process of acquisition and deforestation, which is already very profitable in private areas, becomes much more profitable in vacant lands, where more than 90% of deforestation occurred, and the additional cost consists of some henchmen, weapons and lawyers. That is, in the possession of vacant lands, the gains from timber, livestock and land appreciation multiply, as the land itself did not need to be acquired, just usurped from public property.

Therefore, to make any solution to the problem of deforestation in the Amazon viable, institutional instruments must be created to regulate the use of private lands and illegal private occupation of vacant lands. For the World Bank [World Bank (2002:37)], market regulation should be the central theme of the work of the world's development agencies, proposing that “the formal institutions of land markets include the registration of real estate, services titling and mapping of properties”. When building these institutions, there are four characteristics that cannot be left aside:

a) clear definition and administration of property rights;

b) simple mechanisms for identifying and transferring property rights;

c) careful compilation of property titles and free access to this information;

d) mapping of properties.

The institutions that regulate land markets through this set of rules are fundamental for the adequate implementation of other land policies: agrarian reform, land credit, effective taxation, zoning and even rural, urban and environmental territorial planning.

In this sense, to enable effective control over private and public properties and particularly those in the Amazon, land ownership must be institutionalized more clearly, through legal changes, creation of a registry, among others, in short, create in the State Brazilian an institution⁵ that effectively has control over land ownership. The first fundamental step is, without a shadow of a doubt, the mapping of the Brazilian agrarian reality, with indications of vacant land areas, reserves, identification of properties, registration of landowners' debts with the Federal Revenue Service (ITR), with the Banks and Ibama. This requires effective changes in mindset and the use of available technology. Most of the information exists in satellite images, Incra records and other public bodies. The steps to be taken to consolidate an effective registration are:

- organize the information available at Incra, IBGE, Embrapa, Inpe, Ibama and Federal Revenue, among others;

- map information using modern available technology;

- create a simplified local mechanism for confirming or rectifying existing registration information;

- create mechanisms for legal validation of information;

- create mechanisms for updating and socializing information.

Registration does not solve the problem of deforestation in the Amazon, but it is a necessary condition to face the problem. On the side of vacant lands, the registry, by allowing the identification and possession by the State of these lands, will make their private possession and deforestation much more difficult. It will also enable the use of these vacant lands in the implementation of Brazilian land policy, through organized colonization, agrarian reform and others.

On private lands, the registry will allow, based on knowledge of the reality and the discussion of priorities for its use, the planning and regulation of land use, through zoning and other coercive instruments. If properly monitored, it will prevent deforestation and certainly limit land speculation, which is the main cause of deforestation.

But the sufficient condition for reducing deforestation is the State's ability to effectively regulate land. This involves major institutional and cultural changes. It is necessary to use existing inspection mechanisms and have coercion mechanisms that work for adequate land use. All this to achieve national and global objectives of controlling deforestation in the Amazon.

Bastiaan P. Reydon is a professor at the Center for Agricultural Economics and the Environment at Unicamp and a consultant for the IDB, FAO, MDA and Terra Institute, among others.

Grades

¹ Reydon and Romeiro (2000) show that the main driver of livestock farming is, on the one hand, the existence of a lot of vacant land that can be appropriated, associated with the possibility of, at low costs, installing livestock farming, making deforestation a capital appreciation strategy. unbeatable.

² Often it is these same occupants who use slave labor.

³ This is due to the increase in prices for beef cattle, soybeans or even the announcement that the country will be the largest producer of alcohol in the world. At the end of 2007, all these factors converged, causing the demand for land to grow even more.

⁴ Reydon (2007) shows this for the state of Acre.

⁵ The author of this article participated together with the Land Tenure Center and USAID in a project that implemented this type of system in Afghanistan.

Bibliography used:

- REYDON, BP (2007) The institutional regulation of land ownership in Brazil: an urgent need. In: RAMOS, P. Dimensions of Brazilian Agribusiness: Policies, Institutions and Perspectives. Brasília MDA (NEAD – Studies 15), 2007

- REYDON BP; CORNËLIA FN (Org.).(2006) Land Markets in Brazil: Structure and Dynamics. Brasília: MDA (NEAD- Debate 7) 2006

- REYDON, Bastiaan Philip; ROMEIRO, Ademar Ribeiro. (2000) Development of Family Agriculture and rehabilitation of altered lands in the Amazon. Agrarian Reform and Sustainable Development, Brasília/DF, v. 1, p. 311-317, 2000.

- WORLD BANK (2002) Building Institutions for Markets World Development Report 2002. Oxford University Press. New York. NY. 249 p.