Policy coherence for a sustainable land use governance: The effectiveness and implementation of land use policies in Brazil and the role of the Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR)

Abstract

Achieving sustainable land-use governance in tropical commodity-producing countries requires coherent policy frameworks capable of balancing agricultural production, forest conservation, climate mitigation, and rural development. In Brazil, the implementation of the European Union Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR) introduces new opportunities and challenges by linking market access to legality, traceability, and deforestation-free production. This study evaluates the coherence of Brazil's land-use governance framework and examines how the EUDR may influence the effectiveness and implementation of existing policy instruments. A mixed-methods approach combined a systematic review of more than 100 national laws, decrees, plans, and private initiatives with policy network analysis, and 45 semi-structured interviews involving representatives from government, academia, civil society, producer organizations, financial institutions, and the private sector. Operational policy instruments were grouped into 11 categories, and stakeholders assessed their effectiveness, implementation status, and the expected implications of the EUDR. Results show that Brazil has a diversified institutional framework for sustainable land-use governance, but important implementation gaps persist. While national policies emphasize conservation, climate, and forest production, stakeholders perceive conventional agriculture as the dominant force shaping current land use. Land registration, monitoring, private land regularization, public forest governance, and measures to combat illegality emerged as the most central and effective policy instruments, although their implementation remains constrained by institutional fragmentation and limited enforcement capacity. Due diligence and traceability instruments are already well integrated into the governance framework, highlighting strong complementarities with EUDR requirements. Although it's direct contribution to reducing deforestation is expected to be limited, stakeholders predominantly perceive the EUDR as an important catalyst for improving policy coherence and reinforcing Brazil's existing governance architecture toward more sustainable and deforestation-free supply chains.