CONTEXTUALIZATION

With the New Forestry Code (Act Nº. 12,651/2012), the Rural Environmental Registration (CAR) was instituted as the electronic public registration on a national scope, which is mandatory for all rural properties. The aim is to integrate environmental information on rural properties and bailments, putting together a database for control, monitoring, environmental and economic planning, as well as to combat deforestation.

The state of Ceará has developed efforts aimed at land-title regularization for the entire state, after having surveyed the land-title data for rural properties in the 109 municipalities covered by the project. Implementing the CAR, which is to receive support from the project, will rely on the database, which will make demarking land more reliable for registration. The aim is for CAR to become the instrument through which all documents that require authorization from an environmental agency are requested and approved.

THE PROJECT

The project is part of the state’s strategy to implement the CAR as it aims to support the registration of 166,000 rural properties with up to four official government-measured modules, as well as improving infrastructure and communication related to registration throughout the entire state.

It has been structured into three components:

1. support for CAR registration;
   
   
2. institutional standardization, mobilization and communication; and
   
   
3. infrastructure to implement the CAR.

Support for the first component will include hiring outsourced parties to carry out the registration. The second component consists of a publicity strategy on the importance of the CAR as well as mobilizing rural land owners and rural bailees. The third component entails acquiring equipment to foster improvements to and modernization of Semace infrastructure, as well as guaranteeing the security of stored CAR information.

INTERVENTION LOGIC

The project falls within the "Monitoring and Control" (2) component of the Amazon Fund's Logical Framework.  

Click on the following image to view its objectives tree, that is, how the project's outputs and linked to the expected outcomes and impact.

ACTIVITIES CONDUCTED

A technical cooperation agreement was signed between the State Environmental Superintendence (Semace) and the Ceará Agrarian Development Institute (Idace) to carry out joint actions for the CAR registration of properties of up to four fiscal modules system in the 182 municipalities covered by the project.

Currently, 115,953 properties are registered in SICAR, corresponds to an area of 1,781,772.4 hectares. It is worth mentioning that registration rates vary by municipality between 12% and 100% due to the resistance of rural landowners to declare environmental liabilities, the restrictions of use in legal reserve areas, and the possibility of further extension of terms; private consultants also perform registration procedures.

The action strategy adopted by the project for the service occurs in 11 fixed bases, in municipalities that represent cities in the planning regions of the state of Ceará and itinerantly in the other municipalities, operating in public buildings, headquarters of labor unions, state and municipal public agencies. At these service stations, qualified professionals are available to complete the CAR and the entire structure, which has furniture and explanatory materials, such as banners and booklets.

Regarding the CAR implementation infrastructure, six vehicles were purchased and are being used in monitoring, inspection of contractor services and in the provision of guidance for family farmers on the CAR and the project’s importance, reaching approximately 11,000 participants. Technological support equipment such as UPS, GPS, digital cameras and switches were also purchased, as well as computer equipment such as microcomputers and notebooks.

It is also worth mentioning the preparation of a draft of the Term of Reference for the acquisition of dynamized analysis inputs, including the purchase of images with adequate resolution, with the consent of the SFB regarding the technical requirements.

An institutional leveling seminar and twelve regional mobilization seminars were held in eleven municipalities, with a total participation of 1,304 people.

Communication strategies are based on direct interactions in communities, local radio programs, lectures and distribution of educational material, using heat maps provided by the contractor, showing the areas with the highest density of registrations to be performed and low adherence, allowing a concentrated effort to be directed to these areas.

With regard to the communication plan, a Budget Credit Decentralization Agreement (TDCO) was signed with the Governor's Office to contract the preparation of communication material to support the implementation of the project. All the contracted material was elaborated and delivered to Semace.