Brasília, 6/30/2004(Agência Brasil) - According to the Federal Police superintendent in the state of Pará, ads have been appearing on the internet offering public land for US$16 (R$50) to US$48 (R$150) a hectare. Some of the ads are in Portuguese, and some are in English, trying to tempt foreign buyers. Public land in Brazil cannot be sold until after it has been transferred out of government ownership. That is certainly not the situation of the public land being offered on the internet.

A local prosecutor, Felicio Pontes Junior, says that attempts are being made to discover the origin of the internet ads. "We still do not know what country the ads are coming from. We are in touch with the Federal Police and Interpol, however one problem with these cases is that some countries do not require advertisers to register or identify themselves and there is little we can do," says Pontes Junior.

Another related problem is that land registration offices have issued a flood of deeds as a scramble occurs to legalize land ownership in the Amazon. For the land registration offices that means profits, for the government losses.

In an attempt to control the situation, the Land Reform and Settlement Institute (Incra) is beginning to use satellite photos. "We used to inspect by sample areas. Now we will have photos of the whole country and will be able to inspect each and every property. This system will be fully operational only in nine years, but our priority is the Amazon and we are starting there now," explains the Incra president, Rolf Hackbart.

With regard to public land in the Amazon, caveat emptor is indeed the word (words): buying such land knowingly is a crime, punishable by a jail sentence of 1 to 5 years in prison.

(Translator: Allen Bennett)