COTA DE RESERVA AMBIENTAL: MELHOR OPÇÃO PARA COMPENSAR RESERVA LEGAL?

This policy brief by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) and PUC-Rio analyzes the Environmental Reserve Quote (Cota de Reserva Ambiental - CRA) as a mechanism for compensating Legal Reserve deficits in rural properties under Brazil's Forest Code (Law 12.651/2012). The document evaluates the CRA against other compensation alternatives, identifies institutional and legal barriers to its implementation, and provides recommendations for federal regulation to ensure market security and lower transaction costs.

• The Environmental Reserve Quote (CRA) is considered the most advantageous of the four legal alternatives for compensating Legal Reserve deficits because it is less bureaucratic, does not require the purchase or maintenance of another property's vegetation, and does not necessarily require technical or legal assistance.
• A significant barrier to CRA issuance is the requirement that the native vegetation must already be under a form of legal protection, such as an Environmental Servitude, a Private Natural Heritage Reserve (RPPN), or a Legal Reserve exceeding the minimum legal percentage.
• There is legal uncertainty regarding the issuance of CRAs on small rural holdings and family rural possessions, as the Forest Code contains contradictory rules. This specifically impacts agrarian reform settlements where most settlers lack land titles.
• Transaction costs may be negatively impacted by the requirement to register CRAs in commodity exchanges or financial asset settlement systems, as well as the need for recording transfers and cancellations in property deeds (matrículas).
• The legal possibility for an issuing owner to cancel a CRA if they decide to stop preserving the native vegetation creates high market risk and legal insecurity for buyers and investors.
• The effectiveness of the CRA market depends not only on federal regulation but also on state-level Environmental Regularization Programs (PRA), as states can impose more restrictive rules for compensation, such as requiring that the compensation occur within the same state.
• To ensure market security, the authors recommend that federal regulation mandate the repurchase of the title by the issuing owner if they no longer wish to maintain the conserved area, or implement an equivalent alternative such as environmental insurance.

APA

Chiavari, J., & Leme, C. (2017). COTA DE RESERVA AMBIENTAL: MELHOR OPÇÃO PARA COMPENSAR RESERVA LEGAL? Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Cota-de-Reserva-Ambiental-Melhor-Opcao-para-Compensar-Reserva-Legal.pdf

Chicago

Chiavari, Joana, and Cristina Leme. COTA DE RESERVA AMBIENTAL: MELHOR OPÇÃO PARA COMPENSAR RESERVA LEGAL? Climate Policy Initiative, 2017. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Cota-de-Reserva-Ambiental-Melhor-Opcao-para-Compensar-Reserva-Legal.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Chiavari |first1=Joana |last2=Leme |first2=Cristina |title=COTA DE RESERVA AMBIENTAL: MELHOR OPÇÃO PARA COMPENSAR RESERVA LEGAL? |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=July 2017 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Cota-de-Reserva-Ambiental-Melhor-Opcao-para-Compensar-Reserva-Legal.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{chiavari2017cota, author = {Chiavari, Joana and Leme, Cristina}, title = {{COTA DE RESERVA AMBIENTAL: MELHOR OPÇÃO PARA COMPENSAR RESERVA LEGAL?}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2017}, month = jul, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Cota-de-Reserva-Ambiental-Melhor-Opcao-para-Compensar-Reserva-Legal.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }