GEO Brasil - UNEP

soil conditions
the state of the environmet in Brazil
Table 4 - Evolution of the incidence rate of malariaregistered in B razil,
per region, in the 1980s and 1990s (per 100,000 inhabitants ).
R egions 1980/84 1985/89 1990/94 1995/99
North 14406.2 23085.1 17943.8 19110.4
Northeast 327.1 640.7 297.8 353.5
Southeast 21.0 36.7 14.1 6.0
South 3.9 80.3 41.9 10.0
Central West 1242.7 1942.5 20650.0 22140.0
Source: MS/FUNASA - 2001
of Brazil, respectively The Northeast, although modified by the man, has a
moderate intensity of land use, due to climate limitations; and the northern
municipalities have a low or even non-existent rate of intensity
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Soil use dynamics
Land Tenure Regime
Land tenure in Brazil causes pressure on soil use It may be analysed in two
different perspectives The first concerns how land is distributed among
landowners and leaseholders The second considers how land occupation and
exploitation is done by farmers Therefore, there are smallholdings (property
units) and large agricultural holdings (production units) In order to evaluate
land distribution, data collected by INCRA has been used In the second case,
data in the IBGE Agricultural and cattle - ranching Census was used for analysis
Although these sources are based on different methods and concepts, both
indicate the occurrence of unequal land distribution in Brazil
According to statistics from INCRA in 1998, rural estates with more than 1,000
ha, or 14 percent of the catalogued sample, represented 49 percent of the total
area Regarding large agricultural holdings, 09 percent of the total number,
measuring more than 1,000 ha occupied 437 percent of the total area in the 1996
census On the other hand, 311 percent of land estates with less than 10 ha
amounted to 14 percent of the total area In a more dramatic fashion, 529 percent
of agricultural holdings with less than 10 ha solely represented 27 percent of the
total area
The fact that Brazil is a large country with 415 million hectares catalogued by
INCRA in 1998 and 3536 million hectares according to the last IGBE Agricultural
and Cattle - Ranching Census makes
it clear that land in Brazil is strongly
concentrated An impressive example
is the fact that the total area of rural
estates with more than 1,000 hectares
is 33 times as large as the national
average and for agricultural holdings,
it is 43 times as large
As a consequence of historical colonial
system of land ownership and recent
disorderly land occupation, land
tenure in Brazil is inequitable This
situation has been dealt with by
successive governments, but little
success has been achieved
Nowadays, agrarian reform has been
intensified due to pressure from
organised civil society Also, land
regulations and policies have
contributed to more concrete
changes, especially during the last
three governmental terms
Another aspect to be considered is the
fact the analysis of national indicators
shows a high concentration of land
ownership in the whole country These
indicators tend to disguise or even
distort regional differences in land
ownership in systems of occupation
and dimension throughout history
This has been pointed out by the Gini
index (Table 4), used as a measure to
evaluate ownership concentration
The index varied between 1992 and
1998 It is important to note that the
North was the only region presenting
higher values than the national ones
during the two periods previously
mentioned
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