TIAA and Harvard farmland buys in Brazil breached foreign-purchase limits, Incra said
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
- The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
US pension fund TIAA and Harvard University bought about 750,000 hectares of Brazilian farmland from 2008, through Brazilian companies and offshore structures. Brazil's land agency Incra said TIAA's post-2010 purchases of over 150,000 hectares broke the foreign-purchase law.
- TIAA (through Nuveen) — acquired Brazilian farmland from 2008, part of about 750,000 hectares held with Harvard GRAIN / Rede Social / AATR
- Harvard University — acquired the 107,000-hectare Campo Largo property, whose registration a Bahia court halted in October 2020 GRAIN / Rede Social / AATR
- Brazilian limit on foreign land ownership (Law 5,709 of 1971) — Incra said TIAA's post-2010 purchases of over 150,000 hectares breached it GRAIN / Rede Social / AATR
What happened
TIAA, the US teachers' pension fund acting through Nuveen, and Harvard University together bought about 750,000 hectares of Brazilian farmland from 2008 to 2020 (GRAIN, Rede Social and AATR, 2020).
Incra, the federal land agency, wrote in 2019 that TIAA's purchases after 2010 of more than 150,000 hectares breached the foreign-purchase law and that the titles should be cancelled.
A court in Bahia halted the registration of Harvard's 107,000-hectare Campo Largo property on 6 October 2020 (GRAIN, Rede Social and AATR, 2020).
The foreign-purchase limit comes from Law 5,709 of 1971, and the purchases were made through Brazilian companies and offshore structures.
In court and with insurers
Lawsuits and rulings
- 2020-10-06Outcome not on recordCampo Largo property registrationCourt in Bahia, Brazil · Civil · Not stated in the sources reviewed → Not stated in the sources reviewed
Court halted registration of Harvard's 107,000-hectare Campo Largo property; the final outcome is not stated in the sources reviewed. GRAIN / Rede Social / AATR
Insurers
What we don't know
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Court
- Unclear Campo Largo property registration: outcome not on record.
Record
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: bill PL 2963/2019, passed by the Senate in 2020, would repeal the 1971 law, allow foreign purchases of up to 25 percent of a municipality's area, and validate past purchases by foreign-controlled Brazilian companies; it awaits the Chamber of Deputies (Rádio Senado, 16 December 2020).
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: deforestation of over 125,000 hectares on TIAA and Harvard land by 2019, with Harvard 53,117 hectares and Nuveen (TIAA) 72,753 hectares (Chain Reaction Research, 2019).
- None on record What the sources do not say: whether the Incra finding led to cancellation of any titles, or the status of the Campo Largo case after October 2020.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Press and investigations
- Rádio Senado: foreigners could buy Brazilian rural landRádio Senado · 2020-12-16
Communities and civil society
- GRAIN, Rede Social and AATR: TIAA and Harvard Brazilian farm deals (farmlandgrab.org)GRAIN / Rede Social / AATR · 2020
- Chain Reaction Research, 2019 (TIAA and Harvard land)Chain Reaction Research · 2019
Connected cases
- Harvard halts planned SCoPEx geoengineering balloon test in Sweden Sweden · 2021–2024
- Harvard University (Research institution) — here: endowment that acquired Brazilian farmland, including the Campo Largo property; there: owner of the planned SCoPEx experiment