Resumen de Rural Environmental Registry: An innovative model for land-use and environmental policies

Iris Roitman, Ludgero Cardoso Galli Vieira, Tamiel Khan Baiocchi Jacobson, Mercedes M. C. Bustamante, Nívea Jorgia Silva Marcondes, Kátia Cury, Luciana Silva Estevam, Rômulo José da Costa Ribeiro, Vivian Ribeiro, Marcelo C.C. Stabile, Reinaldo José de Miranda Filho, Mario Lúcio de Avila

• Large-scale land governance and environmental monitoring are huge challenges for tropical countries with significant forest cover. In this discussion paper, we analyzed the conditions and achievements of the implementation of the Brazilian Rural Environmental Registry (CAR). CAR was an important breakthrough of the Native Vegetation Protection Law for environmental monitoring in Brazil. CAR is the mandatory and self-declaratory registry for rural properties. Owners must provide georeferenced delimitation of their property’s boundaries and legally protected areas, such as Areas of Permanent Preservation and Legal Reserves. We used the example of the State of Mato Grosso (transition between the two largest biomes in Brazil – Amazon and Cerrado) to discuss how CAR and its national information system (called SICAR) provide important inputs for land-use, environmental, economic, territorial, and food security policies. Future policies should include increasing investments and coordination between different sectors to integrate CAR and conservation efforts with agricultural production and sustainable management.