Most of the deforestation in the Amazon happens in areas without cadaster, where the land owners are unknown. Evidence to corroborate this was found by the state of Mato Grosso environment authority (SEMA), by comparing satellite images with the Recorder of Deeds rural property data bank.
Of the total deforested area between june 2004 and june 2005, 71% are not in the SEMA licensing system. “Only 11% were authorized based on evidence. Most are, therefore, illegal”, sais SEMA Executive Assistant Andre Longhi.
Enforcement actions are not suffucient to identity the perpetrators, who, many times, are never found or claim that bought the property after the cutting of the trees.
Land chaos
The land chaos is the main problem in the Amazon. It is paramount to integrate the data bases on existing rural land deeds in order to establish the owner of each portion.
Mato Grosso is the leading the state in the deforestation of the Amazon. Contradictorily, it is the state with the best land satellite monitoring in the region, which is actually being reproduced in other states.
According to remote sensing expert Carlos Souza Júnior from the Imazon (Human and Environment Institute of the Amazon), the remote sensing of the Amazon is no longer the problem. “Land ownership is a major bottleneck. We need an integrated land deed database”.