Brazil
Brazil
* Mha = million hectares
In Brazil, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities have secure legal ownership rights to 118 million hectares of forestland as of 2017, an increase of over 40 million hectares since 2002, including a 7 million hectare increase in Indigenous Lands and Quilombola Territories since 2013. An additional 40 million hectares are also designated for communities. [Source: RRI 2018 (At a Crossroads)]
114.63 million hectares of land was formally recognized as owned by Indigenous Peoples and local communities in Brazil as of 2015 (13.72% of total country area); and communities have more limited rights to an additional 77.19 million hectares (9.24%), for a total of 22.95% of total country area. [Source: RRI 2015 (A Global Baseline)]
Brazil voted in favor of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and has ratified ILO Convention 169.
Secure community land rights are an intrinsic component of poverty alleviation goals and the achievement of national and global economic development goals.
Almost a third of the world’s population manages and depends on community-held lands. Land use by rural communities is more sustainable, benefits more people, and generates better environmental outcomes than large-scale plantations and extractive projects. Secure community rights are therefore vital to poverty reduction and sustainable development. [Source: RRI 2017]
Where Indigenous Peoples and local communities have secure rights, climate outcomes improve: deforestation rates are lower and carbon storage higher.
Globally, Indigenous Peoples and local communities manage at least 17 percent (293,061 Mt) of the total carbon stored in the forestlands of assessed countries—a global estimate that is 5 times greater than shown in a previous analysis of aboveground tropical forest carbon, and equivalent to 33 times the global energy emissions of 2017. In Brazil, legally recognized indigenous and community forests store nearly 40 billion metric tons of carbon -- the largest of all countries assessed. [Source: RRI et al 2018 (A Global Baseline of Carbon Storage in Collective Lands)]
In the Brazilian Amazon, the deforestation rate is 11x lower in Indigenous Peoples’ and community forests than in other forests. [Source: WRI and RRI 2014 (Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change)]
Indigenous and community forests in Brazil store 36% more carbon per hectare than other forests. [Source: WRI and RRI 2014 (Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change)]
Securing community rights is cost-effective: over the next 20 years, the costs of securing rights in Brazil would be less than 1 percent of the total benefits. Community-held forests in Brazil can generate ecosystem benefits worth over US$500 billion and up to US$1.2 trillion. [Source: WRI 2016 (Climate Benefits, Tenure Costs)]
Indigenous and community women’s land and forest rights are crucial for the achievement of global development goals.
According to a legal analysis of 30 low- and middle-income countries, governments are not respecting indigenous and rural women’s tenure rights and are failing to meet international obligations to do so. The nine countries in Latin America provide the strongest protections for women’s overarching inheritance rights and greater recognition of women’s community-level membership rights, but lag behind countries in Africa and Asia with respect to women’s community-level leadership rights and the affirmation of women’s property rights in overarching laws. [Source: RRI 2017, Power and Potential]
Brazil is one of 8 countries studied that recognizes inheritance rights for women in consensual unions at the national level. [Source: RRI 2017, Power and Potential]
The 8 legal frameworks in Brazil largely fail to address community-level governance: only 1 addresses community-level leadership (though it fails to establish a quota or quorum for women’s participation). [Source: RRI 2017, Power and Potential]
Insecure land rights can result in conflicts that threaten sustainable + inclusive economic development as well as corporate profits.
In an examination of 13 forest concessions in Brazil covering 59,130.02 square kilometers, people were already living in 100% of them. [Source: TMP Systems 2014 (Communities as Counterparties)]
In an examination of 115 oil and gas concessions in Brazil covering 239,832.62 square kilometers, people were already living in 96-100% of them. [Source: TMP Systems 2014 (Communities as Counterparties)]
Ignoring land rights can also cost investors billions in delays and legal fees: globally, ignoring community land rights can increase company costs by 29x the baseline [Source: TMP Systems 2012 (The Financial Risks of Insecure Land Tenure)]
The majority of conflicts are caused by communities being forced to leave their homes (46% of conflicts), with the second most common cause being destruction of the environment (26%).[Source: TMP Systems 2015]
Insecure land rights are driving conflict, insecurity, and a human rights crisis.
Brazil was the fourth deadliest country for land and environmental defenders in 2018, with 20 murders reported. For the first time, Brazil has slipped from first place in the Global Witness ranking. This is in line with an overall drop in homicide rates in 2018. [Source: Global Witness 2020 (Enemies of the State)]
Violence against Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Quilombola (Afro-Brazilian) communities has persisted with little impunity for those responsible. In 2016, 196 incidents of violence against rural communities were reported in the state of Maranhão, which was also the state with the highest number of murdered Indigenous Peoples. [Source: They Should Have Known Better 2018)]