CAR validation: reality and challenges

The establishment of the new Brazilian Forest Code in 2012 was a milestone in environmental and territorial management. The law is one of the most complete in terms of protecting native vegetation in the world. Among the innovations proposed by the new Code, the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) is one of the main tools to guarantee the environmental regularization of rural properties and generate information that can help contain growing deforestation rates.

CAR also plays an important role in achieving Brazilian biodiversity goals, restoring native vegetation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These were assumed by the country in the Paris Agreement, the Bonn Challenge, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Sustainable Development Goals.

However, the slowness of the states in analyzing and validating the registrations submitted over the last few years puts at risk the legal security of rural owners and squatters and has implications for the speed and effectiveness of the implementation of the law.

Despite this, as fundamental as the CAR validation process is, it should not involve the beginning of the Environmental Regularization Plans (PRA), another instrument provided for by the Forest Code. Most experts on the subject understand that plans should be initiated even before the CAR is analyzed.

And, in the future, if inconsistencies are found, the person responsible must make the necessary adjustments and rectifications. This allows the environmental regularization process not to depend on the analysis capacity of the states, being able to advance and guarantee the gains foreseen in the law.

Regularization progresses, but there are still challenges

Since 2014, there has been one of the largest national mobilizations for environmental regularization. The massive engagement of the agricultural sector was surprising in its speed and scope. The Brazilian Forest Service indicates that more than four million rural properties are registered in the National Rural Environmental Registry System (Sicar).

This is equivalent to an area of ​​444 million hectares – more than 50% of the national territory –, exceeding the area that was initially supposed to be registrable (based on IBGE data).

However, it is important to remember that some categories - such as rural settlements, family farmers, quilombola communities, traditional peoples, local communities that inhabit sustainable use Conservation Units - still face challenges in ensuring environmental regularization in their areas.

These categories require effective support to be integrated into the process. Therefore, due support is required from federal and state governments in advancing registration and the "post-CAR" agenda.

The Code now depends on the analysis of more than four million registrations by the competent state bodies, allowing rural owners and squatters to have security in the progress of their environmental regularization process – it is estimated that around 80% of rural properties have some type of environmental liability to be regularized.

Functionalities have been progressively improved and some states have increased even further, customizing attributes and integrating new layers of information. One of the great weaknesses of the process is the lack of concrete targets for validation by the states. There is no definition of deadlines and, as a result, there is no clear prospect of increasing the number of validated CARs.

As reported by the Brazilian Forest Service, the CAR analysis process consists of two stages, namely: 1) crossing the property base with automatic filters, identifying overlaps of properties and possessions with indigenous lands, conservation units and embargoed areas, in addition to the overlap between rural properties themselves (crossing that is up to the states); and 2) technical analysis of the CAR by human action, property by property (responsibility also of the states), including analyzes of consolidated areas, APPs, Legal Reserves, Restricted Use Areas, etc.

Naturally, the second stage will be the one that will require greater effort, operational capacity and time on the part of the competent state bodies. As seen, the first stage will be conducted automatically, comparing polygons and filtering CARs, which will clean part of the database and simplify human action during the second stage.

CAR validation in numbers

Nine states are effectively analyzing the CAR: Acre, Amazonas, Ceará, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Pará, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro and Rondônia;

The analysis module and its approval environment were made available to 23 states.

Number and area of ​​CARs analyzed

160.498 is the total number of CARs analyzed, which corresponds to around 4% of the total CARs in the system;

The area analyzed is 129 million hectares, around 30% of the total registered area;

Pará is the state with the largest number of CARs analyzed, 93,3 thousand, followed by the states of Goiás (26.594), Amazonas (13.994) and Rondônia (6.097). Among the others, seven states had between one and five thousand CARs analyzed and the rest carried out less than a thousand analyses.

Regarding the total area analyzed, the state of Amazonas is the one that comes first, with 44,3 million ha, followed by the states of: Pará (38,4 million ha), São Paulo (13,1 million ha), Mato Grosso (9,2mi ha), Goiás (7,1mi ha), Maranhão (5,2mi ha) and Rondônia (2,2mi ha). The combined area of ​​CARs analyzed in the other states is equivalent to 11,7 million ha.

CAR Cancellations

Among the CARs analyzed, 9.535 were cancelled, equivalent to a total area of ​​32,6 million ha.

The state that had the highest number of CARs canceled is São Paulo, with 2.126, followed by: Paraná (1.441) and Mato Grosso (1.271). The rest had less than a thousand cancellations.

In area, São Paulo is also the state that is ahead, with 12,8 million ha of CARs cancelled, followed by: Mato Grosso (6,4 million ha), Amazonas (5,5 million ha), Pará (3,2 million ha) and Acre (1,1mi ha). The remaining states with cancellations below 1 million ha.

CAR pending

The total number of pending CARs is 137.821, with a total area of ​​70,5 million ha.

The first state in terms of number of pending CARs is well ahead of the second. They are: Pará (94.078) and Goiás (24.573), followed by Rondônia (5.539), Mato Grosso (2.820) and Amazonas (2.236). The others had less than 1.500 pending issues each.

In terms of area, Pará is also the state with the largest backlog, 35,1 million ha, followed by Amazonas (9,9 million ha), Mato Grosso (6,7 million ha), Goiás (5,8 million ha) and Maranhão (5,0. 2mi ha). All other states have backlogs below XNUMX million ha.

The statistics above include both stages of the analysis, as no segregated data was provided. In consultations with the Brazilian Forest Service, it became clear that the majority of analyzes come from automatic crossings, with human technical analysis being very incipient – ​​the responsibility of the states.

In the validation process, the Brazilian Forest Service assumed tolerance percentages for overlaps of a maximum of 10%, varying by category: between properties, with Indigenous Lands and Conservation Units.

When the CAR becomes pending, the producer receives a notification and has the opportunity to rectify or add documentation that proves the declared information. If notification is not complied with, registration is subject to cancellation. The act of canceling is the responsibility of the state.

In order to provide speed, states must consider the relevance of establishing partnerships, public or private, to complement analyses, assist with training, establish communication with owners and possessors, obtain complementary databases, etc.

Another relevant aspect, with the aim of providing greater accuracy to the analysis process, is the need for consistent bases of geospatial information on the states to be available, including: clear boundaries between the different biomes; Well-defined borders between municipalities; High precision drainage network base (hydrography) that properly fits the images used; State land network improved through communication with state and federal government land bodies – reducing doubts regarding overlap between properties; Base of Ecological Economic Zoning – ZEE of the state; Obtaining complementary databases and taking care of their quality and scale; Annual categorization of images, identifying deforested or restored polygons within properties and possessions; Clear definition of consolidated areas; Inaccurate geospatial bases will require greater effort from technicians and may result in inconsistencies in the analysis phase, as well as legal insecurities when validating the CAR. Many states are promoting customizations in the analysis module, which helps in identifying irregularities.

An essential element is the standardization of analysis items and concepts, so that there is no difference in interpretation by analysts. States must also define the set of irregularities that are most important in the analysis, taking into account the different regional profiles, which will allow the prioritization of more serious cases.

If there is a need for a field inspection, the standardization of on-site checking procedures will bring speed and greater clarity to the producer and technician regarding the criteria that will define whether or not the CAR is validated.

But why could the states' slowness in analyzing the CAR be an obstacle to implementing the Forest Code?

The submission and analysis of the CAR are just the first steps towards environmental regularization. Without the analysis, there will be some uncertainty in the next step, which is the definition of Environmental Regularization Plans.

Much of the responsibility for delays in CAR analysis falls on the states, which are responsible both for analyzing the registry within their borders and for regulating the mechanisms that enable the implementation of Environmental Regularization Plans.

The slowness compromises the results achieved by Brazil. The solution lies in the states politically prioritizing the CAR validation agendas and implementing the Environmental Regularization Plans, mobilizing teams and guaranteeing the necessary infrastructure to speed up the work.

It is necessary to bear in mind the risk of sending negative messages of neglect and lack of effectiveness of the Forest Code to the international market, especially to countries that are destinations for commodity exports – fundamental to Brazil's trade balance and economy.

The delay may also harm the international campaign regarding the different aspects of Brazilian legislation, with emphasis on the Forest Code.

In this context, the Brazil Climate, Forests and Agriculture Coalition requests that the federal government and, mainly, the states spare no effort in the analysis and validation of CARs and guarantee the implementation of Environmental Regularization Plans.

It is necessary to immediately establish a task force in the states, either using the public structure or through public-private partnerships, to speed up the process. And it is expected that targets in terms of the number of CARs analyzed will be established by the states.

As a way of collaborating, the Brazil Coalition and its members make themselves available to the federal government and the states to discuss and format a plan to accelerate the implementation of the Forest Code and its mechanisms.

The Forest Code Working Group, created within the scope of the Coalition, is dedicated to a set of priorities and will spare no effort to create the necessary environment to enable the complete implementation of the mechanisms provided for in the law. At the current moment in the country, it becomes even more relevant to prove vanguardism in the protection and recovery of our ecosystems and in the fight against deforestation and climate change.

WWF Brasil, Cargill and Sociedade Rural Brasileira are members of the Brazil Climate, Forests and Agriculture Coalition. The authors coordinate the Coalition's Forest Code Working Group.