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How do I check a farm in Brazil against indigenous lands?

Set up the indigenous lands check on an Order, run it on each farm in Brazil against FUNAI boundaries and read what it finds.

The indigenous lands check is a Brazil local law check that OriginsNext runs for each farm on an Order. It compares the farm with the indigenous land boundaries published by FUNAI (Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas, Brazil's National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples) and saves the result as Evidence for that farm. You set it up through an Order's compliance requirements, using the template Local law compliance (farm), and start it from the Order's Compliance tab. This article explains how to set up the check, start it and read the results.

Note: The indigenous lands check needs the farm's boundary, or for a farm of 4 ha or less, its point. It checks farms in Brazil.


What the indigenous lands check looks for

The indigenous lands check looks for indigenous lands in the FUNAI register that share land with the farm's boundary. Each land that shares land with the farm is listed once, as a finding or as information, whatever the land's stage:

Match

Where it is listed

An indigenous land that shares land with the farm

Findings

A small edge overlap: shared land along the farm's edge that is only a small share of the farm (see below)

Information

A small edge overlap is shared land along the farm's edge that is no more than 10% of a farm under 100 ha, 8% of a farm under 500 ha, 6% of a farm under 1,000 ha, 4% of a farm under 3,000 ha, or 2% of a larger farm. When the indigenous land lies inside the farm, or the farm lies inside the indigenous land, the match is always listed under Findings. Matches listed under Information are noted for your records and do not count as findings.

The land's stage is shown in words: Under study, Delimited, Declared, Homologated, Regularised, Being set aside as a reserve or Restricted use.

A farm recorded as 4 ha or less, with a latitude and longitude but no boundary, is checked at its point. An indigenous land that the point falls in is listed under Findings. The result notes "Checked at the farm's point (4 ha or less), not a boundary.", shows no shared land or share of the farm, and the map shows a Farm point pin. A farm with neither a boundary nor such a point cannot be checked until a boundary is added.


Set up the check on an Order

To set up the indigenous lands check, add a supporting requirement that uses the template Local law compliance (farm) to an Evidence Template used on Orders, then add that Evidence Template to the Order's compliance requirements:

  1. Go to Evidence Tracking > Templates and open the Evidence Template you use on the Order, or click + Add evidence template to create one.

  2. In the Supporting evidence requirements table, click Add requirement. The Add supporting evidence requirement window opens.

  3. Enter a Requirement name, for example Indigenous lands, and set Applied to to Location.

  4. In Supporting evidence requirement, choose Local law compliance (farm).

  5. Set Check against, for example to Ordered product locations, and in Location type choose the type you use for farms, for example Farm.

  6. Under Modules required for compliance, tick Indigenous lands. You can tick other checks on the same requirement too, for example Environmental embargoes.

  7. Click Add requirement, then save the Evidence Template.

  8. Open the Order, go to the Compliance tab and click Edit next to Order compliance requirements. In Evidence requirements, tick the Evidence Template and click Save.

For the other fields in the window, see How do I configure supporting requirements on an Evidence Template? For adding requirements to an Order, see How do I add compliance requirements to an Order?


Start the check

To start the indigenous lands check on an Order:

  1. Open the Order and go to the Compliance tab.

  2. Under Order compliance requirements, click the requirement. Its panel lists the Order's farms.

  3. Click Start Indigenous lands assessment. If the requirement has more than one check ticked, the button reads Start assessment. One check runs for each farm, and its result is saved as Evidence for that farm.

The panel then sums up the checks, for example "4 of 4 locations checked · 1 with findings", and each farm's row shows its result, for example Findings identified. A farm with any finding is shown in red, even if other checks on it passed. Click View on a row to open the farm's result.

A farm with no boundary and no point that can be checked shows Boundary required on its row, next to the result of any other checks that ran, for example Boundary required · No findings. The requirement stays unmet until a boundary is added.


Read the result

Each farm's result is Evidence numbered with the prefix LAW-. In the evidence details, the check has its own card, Indigenous lands. The card shows its outcome first, such as Findings identified with the number of findings, and starts closed: click Show details to open it and Hide details to close it.

The details show:

  • The register edition the check used, on a line that starts "Register: FUNAI", and the note "A result is a snapshot of the register edition shown. A newer edition does not change it; run the check again to use it."

  • Checked boundary: a map of the farm's boundary that was checked, with the shared land drawn on it as Shared land (finding) in red or Shared land (information) in amber, and Download boundary (GeoJSON). Under the map, a note reads "The satellite image is a composite of photos taken on different dates. It may not show the forest as it was on {date}."

  • Findings and Information: each matched indigenous land, titled by its name, with labelled fields such as Matched by (Farm boundary), Shared land, Share of farm, Kind (for example Small edge overlap), Stage and People.

A farm only shows the checks that ran there. A check that has not run at a farm yet says "This check has not run at this farm yet." If no copy of the register was available when the check ran, the result reads "Inconclusive: no copy of the register is available yet. Run the check again once it is."

Important: The indigenous lands check gives a screening result against the FUNAI register edition shown. A finding is a screening result, not a legal finding, and how you use it in your due diligence is your decision.

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