Land tenure regularization of small and medium-sized rural producers and collectively held territories inhabited by Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities, combined with technical assistance and environmental monitoring of regularized areas, is regarded as a key strategy for combating deforestation in the Amazon.

The Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm) identifies insecurity regarding land tenure and property rights as one of the main drivers of deforestation in the Amazon. The plan also highlights the weakening of state land agencies as a factor contributing to environmental governance challenges in the region. In Maranhão, most deforestation occurs outside protected areas. The state government, through the Maranhão Institute for Colonization and Land Affairs (ITERMA), is responsible for allocating and regularizing state public lands. Identifying land occupants and defining their environmental obligations are essential conditions for effective deforestation control and environmental management.

Land tenure insecurity disproportionately affects family farmers. Without formal recognition of land occupation rights, smallholders are more vulnerable to pressure from third parties and face greater difficulties in accessing credit and public policies that support sustainable production without the need to clear new areas. The PPCDAm also recognizes that registering land occupation alone is insufficient. The regularization of small holdings of up to four fiscal modules on state lands must be accompanied by technical assistance and monitoring of the environmental obligations associated with land titles, an approach that this project seeks to support.

Maranhão is home to the second-largest Quilombola population in Brazil, with approximately 269,000 people, representing 20.3% of the national total according to the 2022 Census. Quilombola territories are among the best-preserved areas in the state. In 2022, these territories accounted for only 0.19% of deforestation within Maranhão’s portion of the Legal Amazon. The PPCDAm includes the regularization of Quilombola territories and support for their territorial management among its objectives, and the project is expected to contribute to these efforts.

The project addresses this demand in the Maranhão portion of the Legal Amazon by supporting actions aimed at regularizing approximately 13,250 private rural properties and 20 collective Quilombola territories, while also strengthening the infrastructure and institutional capacities of ITERMA, the state agency responsible for land governance and agrarian policy.

By strengthening institutional capacity and supporting land tenure regularization efforts, the project seeks to ensure that the benefits of Amazon Fund support extend beyond the project’s implementation period, enabling ITERMA to continue advancing the regularization of small and medium-sized rural properties and collective territories in the Maranhão Amazon, while sustaining and expanding the environmental and social outcomes achieved through the project.

THE PROJECT