LAND REFORM AND LAND CONFLICT

The National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2020. However, the atmosphere is far from joyful. The National Confederation of INCRA Civil Servants Associations reports in an official statement that the institute undergoes ‘one of the worst periods in its history because of deep budget cuts, discontinuation of actions to democratize land access (such as land reform and regularizing quilombo territories – traditional black communities, founded by people of African origin), individual and institutional threats against employees as well as appointment of unqualified managers. Its staff has been downsized to a third of civil servants originally employed. Its operations are currently restricted to land titling and regulation of occupied lands in areas owned by the Federal Government.’

INCRA was founded in 1970 in response to an escalation of land conflicts. The institution has ever since suffered a number of administrative instabilities which made it difficult to implement follow-up policies on settlements established. INCRA started gaining momentum thanks to social movements during former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s first term (1995-1998). The first land reform settlement census was carried out in 1996.

In spite of its mission to ‘implement land reform policies and bring about a national land-use plan’ (such as rural property registration, public land administration, land demarcation for settlements and quilombola communities), the Federal Government has often acted contrary to its duties.

Land reform was suspended for an indeterminate period of time in the first month of Bolsonaro Administration. After backlash, the Federal Government backtracked on the decision but, citing ‘lack of budget’, suspended it once again in March. The number of families settled in the first half of 2019 was consequently reduced in comparison to the previous year and 413 land reform procedures were on a hiatus by the end of 2020. The administration has also strived for institutional changes to INCRA, appointing unqualified managers in strategic positions and giving in to the pressure of agricultural lobbies.

Moreover, president Jair Bolsonaro had already shown opposition to land reform movements before taking office. The president has called the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST) members ‘terrorists’ and has shown support towards criminalizing similar groups. At the same time, he encourages violence against those movements and supports pro-gun measures and defense of private property with deadly force. Bolsonaro has even discredited proposals of land expropriation as a response against deforestation, stating that private property is a sacred right. In September 2019 the president passed a law allowing gun storage (previously only permitted at the farm’s headquarters) in the entire extent of the rural property. 

Bolsonaro administration measures so far threaten agrarian reform and worsen land conflicts in Brazil. According to the Pastoral Land Commission (‘CPT’), the number of occupations in 2019 was the lowest ever registered since 2010. Fear of retaliation is one of the several factors that explain the phenomenon. For CPT, the first year of the Bolsonaro administration was marked by ‘a feeling of leniency, […] as if violence was explicitly part of the State policy.’ Partial data concerning the 2020 period show an increase in violence against land occupation: 1,083 incidents affecting 130,137 families were already reported as opposed to 1,254 incidents affecting 144,742 families in 2019.

The current administration has yet to show a good prognosis for land reform implementation. The president has sent to the National Congress a budget proposal for INCRA, reducing funds for landless people and settlement improvement to almost zero while increasing financial reserves for judicial compensation to expropriated landowners.  

Check the timeline below to learn more about the dismantling of land reform policies and attacks against social movements: