Rural Environmental Registry: is it an instrument to evidence environmental conflicts on indigenous lands?

Abstract

The Rural Environmental Registry (Cadastro Ambiental Rural – CAR) is an instrument created by Law 12.651/2012 and is defined as a public, electronic, and national registry, mandatory for all rural properties with the purpose of integrating environmental information on rural properties and possessions, forming a basis of data for control, monitoring, environmental and economic planning, and combating deforestation within the Brazilian territory. Data from May 2017, provided by the Brazilian Forest Service, reported that there were 4.2 million registered properties, whose area comprise more than 100% of the national territory. Taking only the state of Mato Grosso as a unit of analysis, the Center of Life Institute pointed out that 1,412 registrations overlaid the indigenous lands. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to reflect, from the analysis of several geographic databases and bibliographic review, if the overlap of CARs with indigenous lands can be characterized as an environmental conflict and, therefore, whether this is an important instrument to highlight this type of dispute in rural areas. As a result, considering that the information provided in the CAR is declaratory in nature, it is observed that it has the potential to present different representations of the environment. Results also reveal that the overlays of registers may be evidencing various forms of organization of spatial relationships and modes of appropriation of territory and nature. It may be concluded that reported entries overlaying on indigenous lands signals the existence of two interest groups in the same space, thus threatening the livelihoods of the most vulnerable populations. In practice, even if removed from the system, these registers should guide monitoring and inspection on-site to verify whether or not there is an environmental conflict between the groups occupying the area. In addition, it is important to carry out studies with the incorporation of other research methods, especially the collection of primary data with the social actors involved, which will allow a deeper analyses of reality.