Madeira Adapts Legal Regime of Land Structuring to Insular Reality

The Regional Government Council approved the proposal for a Regional Legislative Decree that establishes the Legal Regime of Land Structuring and the Unit of Culture in the Autonomous Region of Madeira. This measure aims to adapt Law No. 111/2015, of August 27, which approves the Legal Regime of Land Structuring (RJEF), with the amendments introduced by Law No. 89/2019, of September 3, to the specificities of the Region.

The decision arises from the need to adjust national legislation to Madeira's land structure, which presents unique characteristics. The steep orography, the organization of the agricultural landscape into terraces, the historical network of levadas, the prevalence of micro-parcels resulting from multi-generational succession fragmentation, and the persistence of legal situations arising from the old Colony Regime, configure an insular land reality structurally distinct from that found in the continental territory.

The frequent coexistence between agricultural and residential uses in mixed properties, urban pressure in peri-urban rural areas, and the high incidence of undivided inheritances and outdated cadastral situations, introduce legal and administrative specificities that require normative solutions appropriate to the organization of regional services, the Regional Cadastral Information System, and the territorial management instruments in force in the Region.

The direct and full application of the RJEF to the territory of the Autonomous Region of Madeira proved insufficient to ensure, proportionally and effectively, the objectives of land rationalization, agricultural sustainability, legal certainty, and territorial coherence. With this adaptation, the Regional Government intends to create a legal framework that responds more effectively to the challenges and particularities of rural property in Madeira.

The proposal will now be submitted for approval by the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of Madeira.