An invalid CPF (Brazilian Individual Taxpayer Registry) was used to register 113 farms in the state of Pará. Ten of these properties even managed to gain access to rural credit programs in the Amazon – government-backed loans granted at subsidized interest rates to finance cattle ranching and agricultural activities. 

The data comes from the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), an official government system that compiles information about rural properties and is designed to monitor deforestation across Brazil. A report published by O Globo in April revealed that the insertion of fraudulent and inconsistent information into the CAR is a strategy used to circumvent oversight and prevent the identification of the real perpetrators and beneficiaries of illegal deforestation.

Por: Eduardo Gonçalves (O Globo)

Registered as covering an area equivalent to 126 soccer fields, Fazenda BV, in upstate Pará, received R$4.6 million in rural credit to invest in cattle ranching. To obtain the subsidized government loan, it used CAR data certifying the property’s regularity. But the coordinates in the system show an impossible location for livestock: in the middle of the Araguaia River, near the town of Palestina do Pará, about 670 kilometers from Belém. Moreover, the document listed does not exist in the Federal Revenue Service database. The same number, attributed to an alleged agricultural technician, was used to register another 112 properties in the region.

As O?Globo revealed, manipulation of the CAR – through insertion of false or inconsistent data – is one of the Amazon landowners’ strategies to bypass oversight and regularize deforested areas. The use of fake CPFs (Brazilian Individual Taxpayer Registry) and even shifting the property’s registration into rivers, miles from its real location, is among the methods employed by fraudsters.

Created in 2014 to verify whether property owners comply with the Forest Code – prohibiting illegal deforestation and requiring preservation of native vegetation – the CAR currently has some 7.8?million registered properties. Registration is mandatory and self?declared: property owners define their own boundaries, identify springs, native forest, and areas to be protected, among other details.

This registry functions like an identification card for rural land, necessary to access credit, environmental licenses, and, for rural producers, it is required to sell agricultural products. The problem is that most self?declarations are not verified by authorities at the pace entries are made, creating opportunities for fraud.

The Pará state government – responsible for inspecting CAR entries – said it canceled the registration of Fazenda BV and about 100 other properties linked to the fake CPF after being notified by O?Globo. According to a Ministry of Environment regulation, registrations can be invalidated when they contain “totally or partially false, misleading or omitted” information. “A new system, to be launched in the second half of the year, will automatically cross?reference data, preventing this type of fraud even before registration,” said Pará’s State Environment Secretariat.

The Amazon Bank, which granted the R$4.6 million rural credit, stated that Fazenda BV’s CAR entry was in good standing when the loan was authorized in 2021. “The cancellations [of the CAR entries] occurred afterward and don’t affect the legality of the loans, which were fully compliant with the Rural Credit Manual,” the bank said in a note to O?Globo. The manual prohibits lending on registrations that are “canceled or suspended”.

“The loan was granted based on georeferenced analysis, ensuring that financed areas were within the registered perimeter, as required by the MCR,” the bank added.

The ability to alter property registrations after loans are granted is possible because, in addition to being self-reported, the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) allows owners to edit their entries. This means that a property can later be “moved” to areas where it would never face deforestation embargoes – such as on top of rivers and lakes – or have its registration details changed entirely.

Oversight to verify whether property owners’ entries in the CAR are accurate is the responsibility of state governments. But this validation process has moved at a glacial pace. To date, it has been completed for only a tiny fraction of properties – about 3 percent of those in the system. In practice, the landowner’s word stands.

In the case of Fazenda BV, the property was not the only one registered with a CPF deemed invalid by the Federal Revenue Service. An investigation by O Globo identified 112 rural properties associated with the same numerical sequence, attributed to an agricultural technician. The analysis was carried out by the newspaper in partnership with scientists Yan Werneck and Antônio Barroso (Federal University of Juiz de Fora), Iago Simões (Federal University of Minas Gerais), and Pedro Lopes (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte), all members of the quantitative ecology training program at Instituto Serrapilheira.

The CPF listed in the CAR records is tied to the same agricultural technician, who also presents a fake professional license number. The reporter tried to contact him but received no response.

Beyond Fazenda BV, nine other properties accessed rural credit totaling R$3.5 million – seven of them also registered on top of Pará’s rivers.

The Federal Public Ministry is now investigating manipulation of CAR data to secure access to loans funded with public money.

“We are investigating allegations that the CAR is being used to conceal areas with deforestation and to secure financing under extremely favorable conditions. This is deeply concerning because it’s as if the government is acting against itself,” said Gilberto Naves Filho, a federal prosecutor in Pará who is following up on Greenpeace reports alleging that rural credit may have funded projects where deforestation and burning took place.

The investigation into properties registered with the same CPF also identified two farms demarcated within the Triunfo do Xingu Environmental Protection Area – a zone where occupation is only allowed under exceptional conditions focused on sustainable use of natural resources. The conservation unit was the most deforested area in Brazil last year, losing 6,413 hectares of native vegetation – three times the size of Fernando de Noronha Island – according to MapBiomas.

Created under the Forest Code in 2012, the CAR is considered by experts to be an innovative policy aimed at providing an X-ray of rural properties in Brazil, especially in the Amazon, where there has historically been a data vacuum. Yet according to Paulo Moutinho, co-founder of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), the lack of oversight has “opened a flank” for fraudulent use of the registry.

“When the CAR was implemented, it made sense for it to be self-declared to speed up the flow of data into government databases, and that did happen,” Moutinho said. “But the second phase – validation and georeferencing – has fallen far short of expectations.”

The Ministry of Management and Innovation (MGI), which now oversees the CAR, stated that it is “in the process of identifying invalid CPFs” and is “studying regulatory measures together with the states to clean up the legacy database.”

(This article is the result of a public call for reports on biodiversity and environmental services in the Amazon, a collaborative effort between journalists and scientists organized by Instituto Serrapilheira and the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism – CLIP.)

Fake Documents Used to Register Over 100 Farms in Pará, Brazil, Securing Millions in Subsidized Rural Credit

A cattle farm called Fazenda BV was demarcated in the middle of the Araguaia River, near the city of Palestina (PA), on the border between the states of Pará and Tocantins. The property was registered under the name of an agricultural technician and a landowner, both listed with CPFs (Brazilian Individual Taxpayer Registry) that do not appear in the Federal Revenue Service database – in other words, likely fake identities. The information – just as implausible in the real world as the image of cattle grazing over water – was accepted into the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), an official government system.

What’s more, the property’s registration – which remained marked as “active” until early May – was used to secure rural credit: loans granted at subsidized interest rates with public funds to finance farming and livestock activities. The CAR entry in question was tied to a R$4.6 million loan granted by Banco da Amazônia at a 5.6 percent annual interest rate, according to the MapBiomas Rural Credit Monitor – a platform managed by NGOs, universities, and startups that track activities in the Amazon. The financial operation was approved on October 21, 2021, and remains active until November 11, 2029 – a total term of 96 months. 

The CAR is both mandatory and self-reported – meaning that property owners themselves declare their farm boundaries, the presence of springs, native forest, and protected areas, for example. Once a CAR number is in hand, owners gain access to rural credit, environmental licenses, and the ability to legally sell their commodities, such as cattle or crops. These benefits apply both to registrations pending verification and to those that have already been validated.The problem is that these self-declarations are not checked by the authorities at the same pace at which they enter the system, creating loopholes for fraud.

After being alerted by O Globo to the inconsistencies, the government of Pará – responsible for CAR verification – canceled the property’s registration “due to a series of irregularities committed by the registrant.” The decision was based on a regulation from the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) (https://www.car.gov.br/leis/IN_CAR.pdf), which stipulates that CAR registrations can be invalidated when found to contain “totally or partially false, misleading, or omitted information.”

In response to inquiries, Banco da Amazônia explained that, at the time the financing contract was signed, the CAR had “no legal or regulatory impediment” and that the property’s initially declared boundaries were on solid ground. In addition to being self-declared, the CAR can be edited by the property owner – allowing them to relocate their farm to areas where they would never face deforestation embargoes, including on top of rivers and lakes.

The Rural Credit Manual (MCR) prohibits granting loans for registrations that are “canceled or suspended.” But the bank argued that “the cancellations occurred after the fact and do not affect the legality of the operations, which strictly followed the MCR,” it said in a statement to O Globo. The institution also emphasized that it complies “rigorously with the legal requirements of the manual as well as the current legal and socio-environmental framework.”

Fazenda BV was not the only property registered under this phantom CPF. Another 112 farms, all registered by the same agricultural technician – who also had a fake professional license number – were identified in a survey conducted by O Globo in partnership with scientists Yan Werneck and Antônio Barroso (Federal University of Juiz de Fora), Iago Simões (Federal University of Minas Gerais), and Pedro Lopes (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte), part of the quantitative ecology training program at Instituto Serrapilheira.

This report is part of a special collaboration between journalists and scientists focused on biodiversity and environmental services in the Amazon, organized by Instituto Serrapilheira and the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP).

In addition to the case already mentioned, nine other properties obtained rural credit financing totaling R$3.5 million – seven of them also demarcated on top of rivers in Pará, just like Fazenda BV.

A map showing the locations of the ten farms registered under the same CPF is currently being prepared by the newspaper’s graphics team.

Registration Inside a Protected Area

 The investigation also identified two farms demarcated with the same invalid CPF located inside the Triunfo do Xingu Environmental Protection Area (APA), where occupation is allowed only under exceptional circumstances and must be geared toward the sustainable use of natural resources. According to a report by MapBiomas, this conservation unit was the most deforested protected area in Brazil last year, with a loss of 6,413 hectares of native vegetation – an area three times the size of Fernando de Noronha Island.

Situated between the cities of Altamira and São Félix do Xingu, in Pará, Triunfo do Xingu was created in 2006 and has long suffered from the advance of land grabbers, illegal miners, and loggers. The region is known for its high concentration of mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) – a highly valuable commercial timber species now threatened with extinction. The two CAR registrations in question were canceled after O Globo contacted Pará’s State Environmental Secretariat.

Created in 2006, Triunfo do Xingu consists mainly of moist Amazonian tropical forest and shelters several endangered species, including jaguars and Amazonian manatees.

The investigation also revealed that Altamira and São Félix are the two municipalities in Pará with the highest number of rural properties overlapping Indigenous territories – which is prohibited – and conservation units, where occupation is allowed only in exceptional cases, and only for sustainable use of the area’s natural resources.

When contacted, the Pará State Environmental Secretariat (Semas) informed O Globo that it canceled all registrations linked to the fake CPF and announced that, starting in the second half of the year, a new system will be implemented to “prevent this type of fraud.”

“In the case of the non-existent CPF, Semas identified the flaw and canceled not only the registration attributed to the applicant but also 99 others linked to the same CPF,” the Secretariat said in a statement. It added: “A new system, to be launched in the second semester, will automatically cross-check data, preventing this type of fraud before the registration is finalized.”

At the federal level, the Ministry of Management and Innovation (MGI), which oversees the CAR, stated that it is “in the process of identifying invalid CPFs” and is “studying regulatory measures, together with the states, to clean up the legacy database.” The ministry also confirmed that the CPF associated with the registrant was flagged as “invalid” in the government’s system.

Manipulation of CAR information to access publicly funded loans has been under investigation by the Federal Public Ministry since 2023.

“We are investigating reports of the CAR being used to hide areas with deforestation and to secure loans on extremely favorable terms. This is highly concerning, because it’s like the government working against itself,” said federal prosecutor Gilberto Naves Filho, who is leading the inquiry in Pará. The investigation follows allegations from Greenpeace that rural credit may have funded projects where illegal deforestation and fires occurred.

A report by O Globo published in April exposed various schemes involving manipulation of the CAR to dodge environmental enforcement, including so-called “farm buildings,” in which multiple properties are registered at the same location to obscure true ownership, and “flying farms,” where property boundaries are edited to hide deforested areas.

In addition to the use of the invalid CPF, the investigation also uncovered the case of a farm in Altamira (PA) registered in the name of an unsuspecting third party—without their knowledge or consent—a fraud later recognized by the courts in late 2018. Working in partnership with Ibama, the Federal Public Ministry detected 103 hectares (equivalent to 144 soccer fields) of illegal deforestation on the property and filed a lawsuit against the supposed landowner, who was blindsided by the judicial notification. “I’ve never set foot in Pará. I’ve never been involved in agribusiness. It was a shock. I found out that it all started because someone opened a fraudulent CAR in my name,” said the 41-year-old lawyer, a resident of São Luís (Maranhão), speaking on condition of anonymity. The court ultimately acknowledged the fraud and dismissed the case. The real owner and beneficiary of the deforestation were never identified – a failure of the CAR in fulfilling one of its primary roles as an instrument for “monitoring and controlling” deforestation, as defined in legislation.

An Innovative Policy

Created under Brazil’s Forest Code in 2012, the CAR is viewed by specialists as an innovative policy designed to provide an X-ray of rural landholdings across the country – especially in the Amazon, where reliable land data has always been scarce. The first phase, which focused on “populating” the CAR database, exceeded expectations for both federal and state governments, with more than 7.8 million properties registered. But the second phase – verification – has advanced at a much slower pace.

“This opened a flank for fraudulent use of the CAR because we now have a proliferation of registrations that haven’t been validated,” said Paulo Moutinho, a PhD in ecology and co-founder of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM). “When the system was first created, it made sense for it to be self-declaratory in order to speed up data entry for the government databases – which it did. But the second phase, the one for validation and georeferencing, didn’t progress as it should have.” That verification step is precisely what could have prevented the registration of clearly false information, such as farms located on top of rivers. Where the CAR shows the most inconsistencies, authorities lack control over environmental crimes.

This story is the result of a collaboration between Latin American journalists and scientists, fostered by Instituto Serrapilheira of Brazil and the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP), exploring together how damage to the Amazon’s biodiversity disrupts the various environmental services it provides to the continent.