CONTEXTUALIZATION

The state of Roraima, located in the northern region of the country, borders internationally with Venezuela and Guyana, and internally with the states of Amazonas and Pará. In 1988, Roraima ceased to be a federal territory and became one of the 27 federal states of Brazil. It has an area of 223,000 km² is the least populous state in the country, with a population of 652,000 people (2021)¹.

Of its territory, approximately 46% are indigenous lands (known as TIs) and 8% conservation units (UCs), that is, more than half of the state of Roraima consists of protected areas². Its vegetation cover is characterized by the presence of the Amazon rainforest, meadows and savannah. At the northern end of the state is Mount Roraima, with 2,734 meters of altitude.

The State Foundation for the Environment and Water Resources of Roraima (FEMARH), responsible for the execution of the project, is a foundation of the state government that aims to promote, prepare, manage, coordinate and execute the policy of the environment and water resources of Roraima.

¹ Source: IBGE
² Source: Website of the State Government of Roraima

THE PROJECT

The “CAR – Roraima” project promoted the access of small rural producers and settlers in Roraima to environmental regularization, through the registration of their rural properties in the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR). Its actions consisted of (i) improving the infrastructure of the State Foundation for the Environment and Water Resources of Roraima (FEMARH) for the implementation and management of the CAR and (ii) promoting and supporting the registration in the CAR of the properties of small owners or rural squatters of up to four fiscal modules¹.

The CAR is a national electronic public registry created in 2012 with the purpose of integrating the environmental information of rural properties and possessions, composing a database for controlling, monitoring, environmental and economic planning and combating deforestation. Registration in the CAR is the first step for the environmental regularization of rural properties and is carried out through an electronic system, being conducted by the competent state agency.

¹ Fiscal module is a unit of measurement, in hectares, whose value is fixed by INCRA for each municipality taking into account several factors. The value of the fiscal module in Brazil ranges from 5 to 110 hectares (Source: Embrapa).

INTERVENTION LOGIC

The project is part of the “monitoring and control” component (2) of the Logical Framework of the Amazon Fund. Its direct effects were defined as follows: (2.1) “institutions for environmental monitoring, control and accountability in Roraima structured and modernized for the implementation and management of CAR” and (2.2) “expanded access of rural producers in the municipalities of Roraima to the environmental regularization of their properties.”

The strengthening of the state environmental agency of Roraima (FEMARH) and the expanded access of small producers to the environmental regularization of their properties and rural possessions contribute directly to the adequacy of anthropogenic activities to environmental legislation, which, in turn, contributes to the general objective of the Amazon Fund of “reducing deforestation with sustainable development in the Legal Amazon.”

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 

In order to improve FEMARH's infrastructure for the implementation and management of the CAR, office furniture, datashow and various computer equipment such as computers, servers, switches and printers were acquired.

Actions were implemented to promote and support the registration in the CAR of rural properties and possessions of up to four fiscal modules located inside and outside agrarian reform settlements. The activities carried out covered nine municipalities in Roraima: Amajari, Boa Vista, Bonfim, Caroebe, Rorainópolis, Iracema, Mucajaí, Alto Alegre and Cantá.

Among these activities are: (i) mobilization actions aimed at raising awareness with the target audience about the importance of the public policy of environmental regularization; (ii) the active search for properties to be registered; (iii) field activities such as visits to properties, collection of documents  and geographic information; and (iv) office activities, including the processing of geographic data, classification of documentation, sequencing, organization and  storage in a digital bank as well as the registration of rural properties in the CAR.

It should be noted that the actions to support the registration in the CAR of rural properties were initiated in the first half of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in Brazil.

Besides the advent of the pandemic, several issues impacted the project, especially the impossibility of completing the registration process in the National Rural Environmental Registration System (SICAR) for properties located within the settlements, since, by the end of the project's execution period, the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA)  in Roraima had not provided access to the computerized system (CAR Lot System) for the registration and generation of the registration receipt for properties in agrarian reform settlements.

This obstacle was overcome by defining, together with INCRA, a strategy that included a procedure according to which the documentation of the properties located in the settlements was received by FEMARH together with INCRA, for processing upon availability of the CAR Lot module.

RESULT AND IMPACT INDICATORS

The project activities contributed to the results related to the “monitoring and control” component (1) of the Amazon Fund Logical Framework.

The following are the results of some agreed indicators for monitoring the expected effects.

• Number of rural properties of up to four fiscal modules and lots in settlements that had their application to join the CAR filed (effectiveness indicator)
  Target: 14,249 | Result achieved: 11,519

• Area of rural properties of up to four fiscal modules and lots in settlements that had their application to join the CAR filed (effectiveness indicator)
  Target: not defined | Result achieved: 671,877 hectares

• Annual deforestation in Roraima (effectiveness indicator)
  Target: not defined | Result achieved: 315 km² 

 The deforestation verified in 2018, the project's baseline, was 195 km², while in 2021 it was 315 km^². This fact reveals a 61% increase in the deforestation rate in the period in question, which indicates that despite the results delivered by the project, this was not enough to compensate for the other vectors responsible for the increase in deforestation, which was also observed in the Amazon in the same period, which showed an increase in the deforestation rate of 73%. 

It should be noted that the scope of the project was originally broader, also providing support for the adequacy of the state legal basis and the preparation of the Environmental Regularization Plan – PRA of Roraima, in addition to the training of public agents for the implementation and management of the CAR and the development of the Computerized System for Regularization and Environmental Licensing of Roraima (SIRLAR/RR). However, due to difficulties presented by the beneficiary for the execution of the project activities, the BNDES was requested to reduce its scope and readjust its goals, as well as the amount of support from the Amazon Fund.

Institutional and administrative aspects

Considering that a significant part of the properties registered in the CAR with the support of the project are in agrarian reform settlements, FEMARH signed a technical cooperation agreement with INCRA that had as its purpose the combination of efforts to promote the integration of actions aimed at receiving, analyzing and approving information and data for the registration and rectification of the CAR of the properties that make up the agrarian reform settlement projects in Roraima.

The project also relied on the support of municipal government representatives in the field work, mainly for the mobilization and awareness-building of family farmers with the aim of registering their properties in the CAR. Finally, it should be mentioned that FEMARH hired a specialized company, with the financial support of the Amazon Fund, to promote and support the CAR registration implemented by the project.

Risks and lessons learned 

The project has undergone a significant reduction in its scope and the amount of support from the Amazon Fund throughout its execution.  Various factors contributed to this, highlighting management difficulties presented by FEMARH to carry out operational and administrative procedures, as well as successive changes in the team responsible for project management.

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 also hampered the execution of the project.  The pandemic resulted in difficulties for the holding of meetings and collective registrations, in view of the impossibility of agglomerations due to the advance of the disease.

Due to insufficient prior information, there was also an overestimation of the original goals of properties to be registered in the CAR. During the registration process, the existence of lots for sale or with their owners gone, as well as lots that became farms through acquisition by third parties (remembrance), were identified, and consequently became ineligible for the registration promoted by the project because they exceeded four fiscal modules.

There were also cases of the occupants' lack of interest in joining the CAR, since registering in it is a declaratory act by the owner or squatter, as well as the existence of rural properties that have not yet been split from plots of land that are under processing and conference process by –the Institute of Land and Colonization of Roraima (Iteraima).

Sustainability of results

The project's support for the improvement of FEMARH's physical infrastructure for the implementation and management of the CAR provided operational support for its execution and may continue to directly benefit the state and its population in the implementation of CAR-related activities.

An additional result of the project was the internalization of environmental management, since the registration of properties of up to four fiscal modules meant that small farmers in the interior had access to information about the requirements of the Brazilian Forest Code.

Another legacy was the advance in the articulation between different government agencies, in this case with emphasis on the cooperation between FEMARH and INCRA.

With the project there was an increase in the possibility of access to rural credit for small producers, since by legal provision financial institutions only grant agricultural credit, in any of its modalities, to owners of rural properties that are registered in the CAR.

It should be noted that the project, by supporting the registration in the CAR of rural properties in Roraima, promoted the identification of their owners or possessors, as well as contributed to the construction of a georeferenced forest database, including information on the areas already deforested and the remnants of native vegetation in the properties.

This database becomes a relevant asset in the hands of government and society. This information has different uses, such as for environmental management and deforestation control actions, as well as great potential to create opportunities for the valuation of ecosystem services, including through the implementation of payment strategies for environmental services to preserve the standing forest.