Where Does Brazil Stand and Where is it Heading in the Implementation of the Forest Code: Opportunities for the New Lula Administration

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative/Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (CPI/PUC-Rio) evaluates the 10-year implementation status of Brazil's Forest Code (Law no. 12,651 of 2012). It identifies the analysis of Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) data as the primary bottleneck and provides a seven-point priority agenda for the Lula administration to accelerate environmental regularization and the implementation of Environmental Compliance Programs (PRA).

• The analysis of data reported in the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) is the primary bottleneck in implementing the Forest Code, with only approximately 12% of all registrations nationwide having undergone either team-led or dynamic analysis as of 2022.
• Implementation progress varies significantly by state: Acre, Bahia, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará, and Rondônia have completed all implementation stages, while Pernambuco, Piauí, and Roraima have stagnated, only completing the initial CAR registration stage.
• Dynamic analysis tools have high potential for scaling CAR processing, as demonstrated by São Paulo, which analyzed 89% of its registration base (approximately 362,000 records) in less than a year using a customized system.
• The transition of the National Rural Environmental Registry System (SICAR) to a cloud environment under the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) in April 2022 caused significant instability, synchronization issues, and delays in updating state databases.
• Environmental regularization through the Environmental Compliance Program (PRA) remains a distant goal; the program is only fully operational in Acre, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, and Pará. In these states, the percentage of analyzed properties with liabilities that actually sign terms of commitment (TC) is very low, ranging from 2.8% in Rondônia to 43% in Acre.
• The CAR is frequently used illegally for land grabbing, leading to thousands of registrations overlapping with federal public lands, including Indigenous Lands and Conservation Units. Some states, such as Pará, have cancelled or suspended over 4,000 such registrations.
• Financial incentives are being introduced to encourage compliance, such as CMN Resolution no. 5,021/2022, which increases credit limits by 10% for producers whose CAR registrations are analyzed and found to be compliant or undergoing regularization.

APA

Climate Policy Initiative (2023). Where Does Brazil Stand and Where is it Heading in the Implementation of the Forest Code: Opportunities for the New Lula Administration. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/where-does-brazil-stand-and-where-is-it-heading-in-the-implementation-of-the-forest-code-opportunities-for-the-new-lula-administration/

Chicago

Climate Policy Initiative. Where Does Brazil Stand and Where is it Heading in the Implementation of the Forest Code: Opportunities for the New Lula Administration. 2023. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/where-does-brazil-stand-and-where-is-it-heading-in-the-implementation-of-the-forest-code-opportunities-for-the-new-lula-administration/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Policy Initiative |title=Where Does Brazil Stand and Where is it Heading in the Implementation of the Forest Code: Opportunities for the New Lula Administration |date=15 March 2023 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/where-does-brazil-stand-and-where-is-it-heading-in-the-implementation-of-the-forest-code-opportunities-for-the-new-lula-administration/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climatepolicyinitiative2023where, author = {{Climate Policy Initiative}}, title = {{Where Does Brazil Stand and Where is it Heading in the Implementation of the Forest Code: Opportunities for the New Lula Administration}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2023}, month = mar, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/where-does-brazil-stand-and-where-is-it-heading-in-the-implementation-of-the-forest-code-opportunities-for-the-new-lula-administration/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }