The Brazilian land reform is a possible strategy to reduce poverty and increase social equality, but it depends on efficient public policies capable of making the peasants self-sustainable. With the goal of presenting the main socio-economic challenges of 33 rural settlements of former landless peasants in Rio Grande do Norte State (Northeastern Brazil), we evaluated socio, economic and environmental aspects of 631 families from these settlements and 16 "Restoration Plan for Degraded Areas" (PRAD), prepared between 2007 and 2010. The emancipation of a settlement, measured through income generation, schooling level, and changes in people's environmental habits, was not related to the age of the settlement. Also, the income of a settlement is hardly dependent on agriculture, being mostly affected by distance from urban centers, number of retired people in the household and participation in social programs. Low schooling level and aging of the settlement are determinant factors in the increase of deforestation of Legal Reserves and Areas of Permanent Protection. These data suggest than land reform is still deficient in the Brazilian northeast; it does not prioritize the socio-economic independence of the settlements and ignore their environmental situation.
public policies; land reform; forest law; socioecological indicators
