PUBLIC FLOREST LEGISLATION: THE CURRENT SCENARIO FOR LAND REGULARIZATION

Abstract

Given the constitutional recognition of the environment as an essential right, guaranteed to every human being, Brazilian legislation contains a series of rules that regulate and protect Brazilian forests. These areas are directly related to the land regularization of rural properties, an essential measure for recognizing private landowners and allowing them to obtain the environmental licensing required for agricultural production. In 2023, Decree 11.688/2023 amended Decree 10.592/2020 by establishing a restrictive list of uses for public forest areas and not providing for their land regularization. Subsequently, the law was amended again to allow the regulation of areas overlapping with Type B public forests; however, these new provisions altered the rules for land use by rural producers. In this context, this research analyzes the legislation and conflicts of use related to the overlap of public forests with rural properties. The bibliographic and exploratory research is based on normative and doctrinal collections with the aim of highlighting the current scenario and rules for land regularization of areas understood as public forests (PFB) and the impact of the legislative change for those who allocate land to productive activity.