Immobilized land market caused by lack of secure property rights: case of the cerrado Piauiense

This article shows the case of the cerrado region where because of a lack of clear property rights the land market is completely immobilized.

 

It started with the land occupation of Piauí's cerrado region and the creation of its land market in the seventies by the State Development Agency (CONDEPI), which sold with symbolic prices very large properties for cattle and fruit production. The small landowners that occupied previously the region based on common rights were sometimes dispossessed.

 

At the end of the 90`s the use of the cerrado for the production of grains (specially rice and soya beans) created a very intensive move of large enterprises to the region, that registered its rights at the notaries overlapping the common rights, increasing the conflicts.

 

The state created the Agrarian court to solve this problem, but it was only able to block the titles of these areas that were overlapping the area's small landowners.

 

So to conclude despite the regulation, the land governance has always been fragile, making land useful for speculative purposes rather than social one, thus being privately held.