Land tenure regimes in Brazil and the social and environmental purpose of rural land possession: land tenure regularization of riverside communities in the Amazon floodplain

Throughout various legal regimes for land tenure adopted in Brazilian history, riverside communities have established specific forms of territorialization and ancestral ties in the margins of Amazonian rivers but have historically lived in sociopolitical invisibility. Due to colonization conditions and land appropriation practices found in Brazil, those communities have made use of the institute of possession as the only option for access to land. As legislation evolved and the struggles of these populations continued, the need arose to promote a form of land tenure regularization that encompassed the caboclo way of life. Thus, this paper aims to contribute to the debate on the agrarian issue in Brazil based upon a literature review on the matter and an analysis of the legal framework involved. To this end, it focuses on the Concessão de Direito Real de Uso (“Concession of Real Right of Use”) as one of the instruments that allows the State to ensure the social function of public properties and guarantee legal certainty for rural land possession by Amazon floodplain populations