INICIATIVE: THE FUNDIARY FORUM OF CHIEFS JUDGES OF MATOPIBA

Hilo de Almeida Sousa1

Marcelo Carvalho Silva2
Lisbete Maria Cezar Santos3
Salomão Resedá4
João Rigo Guimarães5

ABSTRACT

The Fundiary Forum of chiefs judges of MATOPIBA is an initiative that aims to unite
the judiciary institutions of the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia with the
main objective of promoting legal certainty in the brazilian cerrado region. This forum
is a joint and permanent agenda for dialogue and technical cooperation, aiming to
improve the land policy, in special the land regularization in the states involved, and
also seeking the integrated participation between civil society and government
institutions.

SUMMARY

1 Introduction; 2 What is MATOPIBA?; 3 Objectives and Institutionalization of The

Fundiary Forum Of Chiefs Judges of MATOPIBA; 4 Conclusion; 5 References.

1 INTRODUCTION
Integration and cooperation between organizations is critical to the success of
any business organization. It could not be any different when it comes to public
institutions.
The administrative division of the three powers was first established and
documented in Charles Montesquieu's work, “The Spirit of the Laws”, in 1748. In Brazil,
this model of state administration was adopted even before the Republic and in the
Federal Constitution it remains clear the indispensability of integration strengthens the
powers.
Thus, to solve the social and economic problems of any of the regions of the
Brazilian State, with the institutional integration of all actors involved, such problems
can be addressed more quickly and efficiently.

1
Piauí court of justice
2
Maranhão court of justice
3
Bahia court of justice
4
Bahia court of justice
5
Tocantins court of justice
2 WHAT IS MATOPIBA?
MATOPIBA is an acronym of the initials of the states of Maranhão, Tocantins,
Piauí and Bahia, which represents the region that comprises the Cerrado biome of
these states and it is considered the last Brazilian agricultural frontier today, accounting
for much of the production of the country of grain and fiber.

The “last agricultural frontier” of the country. Home to thousands of indigenous

people, quilombolas, family farmers and populations who maintain a
traditional way of life, such as coconut breakers, generators, ebb and grazing
communities. An offshoot of the international economic crisis. A portion of the
Brazilian cerrado where deforestation is growing at a rapid pace. And at the
same time, a region so important to the national water balance that it received
the nickname 'cradle of waters'. A giant of 73 million hectares that still remains
invisible and unknown to most Brazilians. MATOPIBA is all this and a little
more (MATHIAS, 2018, p.1).

In 2013, Embrapa's Strategic Intelligence Group (GITE), Brazilian Agricultural

Research Corporation, began the formal delimitation work of MATOPIBA, which is now
considered a geo-economic region. The area brings together 337 municipalities and
represents a total of about 73 million hectares. There are approximately 324,000
agricultural establishments in the area, 46 conservation units, 35 indigenous lands and
781 agrarian reform settlements, according to information from EMBRAPA (2017).
The delimitation of the territory was made official by Decree No. 8447/2015,
signed by the then President of Brazil, Ms. Dilma Rousseff, at the time she created the
MATOPIBA Regional Development Agency by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock
and Supply in the four states that are part of the region.
The MATOPIBA region not only has common natural characteristics, even
though it comprises four states, they have similar social problems, especially with
regard to land distribution. Social inequality, low human development index and lack
of land regularization are some of the issues that hinder the region's economic and
social development (ACTION AID, 2017).
In Brazil, the right to property is substantiated through a purchase title,
registered in a real estate registry and from there gives the owner a real right that
imposes on anyone the right to refrain from acts that may limit the exercise of control
over that property.
 But property in our country should not be limited to a role. Since the constitution
of 1934, the Brazilian state has defined that property should respect its social function,
which means that it must attend to private interests, but also to the public interest.

The social function is integrated, therefore, to the minimum content of the right
of property, and within this content is the power of the owner to use, enjoy and
dispose of the property, rights that may be subject to limitations that address
the interests of public or private order (ALBUQUERQUE, 2002, p. 52).

The current Constitution did not fail to reiterate such conception, because in
its art. 170, item III adds that “The purpose of the Economic Order is to assure
everyone a dignified existence in accordance with the dictates of social justice,
observing the following principles: (...) III - the social function of property” (BRASIL,
1988, p. 132).
However, despite the legal predictions cited, land inequality in Brazil is the
subject of a high rate of conflict, mainly due to a disorderly and unequal land distribution
that began at the time of colonization.
Once these premises are established, one can understand why the institutions
of the Judiciary Power of the MATOPIBA States had to play an atypical role. Instead
of waiting for the beginning of the conflict and the subsequent filing of a lawsuit, the
chiefs of the judges of these states created a discussion forum with the primary
purpose of finding preventive solutions to these conflicts.

3 OBJECIVES AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE FUNDIARY FORUM OF

CHIEFS JUDGES OF MATOPIBA

The Fundiary Forum of Chiefs Judges of MATOPIBA was created in December

2018 with the signing of the Teresina Charter. The Forum's three main objectives are:
reaffirming responsible land governance policies, overcoming land conflicts and
promoting justice, access to land and legal certainty.
Following the creation of the forum, based on the "Voluntary Guidelines for
Responsible Governance of the Land, Fisheries and Forest Resources" approved by
the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), representatives of the
General Courts of Justice pledged to set up Land Regularization Centers to combat
the falsification of public documents from land registry offices, to combat land grabbing,
to promote legal certainty by observing the social function of property, and to recognize
the legitimate rights of rural producers, family farmers, urban squatters, indigenous
peoples, quilombolas and other traditional communities, respecting the competences
and autonomy of each federative entity.
Since its inception, two Forums have already been held, one in the city of
Salvador/BA and the other in the city of São Luís/MA, to which the Chiefs Judges of
MATOPIBA presented and shared the initiatives of their states to comply with what
was defined in the Teresina Charter. In addition, the forums were attended by other
institutions related to land and jurisdictional issues such as the National Institute of
Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) and the National Justice Council (CNJ), as well as representatives
of civil society, land institutes of each state, and representatives of land registry offices.
In addition to discussions for land policies to be improved, modernized and
valued, the Forums seek to establish solid partnerships with stakeholders interested in
building a fully functioning environment of the Democratic Rule of Law in the four states
that make up MATOPIBA.
The establishment of a joint and permanent agenda for dialogue and technical
cooperation is fundamental to improve and parameterize the legal framework
governing the land issue in the states that make up MATOPIBA, streamlining the
process of land regularization processes, reducing divergences and incongruities and
making clearer rules for the whole of society.
In Brazil, undefined and overlapping property titles are still common,
sometimes there are even conflicts of interest between the Union, States,
Municipalities and individuals, which brings enormous legal uncertainty that keeps
investors away and stagnates the region's growth.
For the Chiefs Judges of MATOPIBA it is through the integration between the
institutions that Brazil's centenary problem of land conflicts can be solved, giving
society a fertile environment for agricultural expansion with the consequent
development of the economy, but without losing sight of the development of basic
social policies of education, health, safety, leisure and culture.

4 CONCLUSION
Thus, promoting the continuous dialogue between the institutions of these
States through the Fundiary Forum of Chiefs Judges of MATOPIBA, gave the region
the unprecedented cooperation between the judiciary, executive and legislative power
in search of a common goal, namely, the identification and overcoming of the problems
that affect land policy, as well as the social and economic development of the region.

5 REFERENCES

ALBUQUERQUE, Ana Rita Vieira. Social Function of Possession. Rio de Janeiro:

Lumen Juries, 2002.

BRAZIL. Federal Constitution. Available at:

http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/constituicao.htm. Access on:
14/09/2019.

MATHIAS, Maira. MATOPIBA at the Border between Life and Capital. Fiocruz,
2018. Available at: http://www.epsjv.fiocruz.br/noticias/reportagem/matopiba-na-
boundira-entre-a-vida-e-o-capital. Accessed on 01/10/2019.

EMBRAPA. Delimitation and territorial characterization of Matopiba. 2017.

Available at: https://www.embrapa.br/gite/projects/matopiba/ matopiba.html.
Accessed on 01/10/2019.

ACTION AID. Impacts of agribusiness expansion in Matopiba - Communities and

environment. Rio de Janeiro, 2017.