Illegality concerning land ownership has been one component of socio-spatial segregation in rural or urban areas. The urban informality has historical explanations in Brazil, mainly associated with land access. In the Brazilian Amazon, around 20% of the municipalities had laws on land regularization and about 14% have a plan or program of land regularization. The city of Ponta de Pedras, located on the island of Marajo, state of Para, is an example of this situation, which is also observed in other small towns in the Amazon River estuary. In the local registry office, 621 urban properties were registered from 1899 to 2011, and Department of Municipal Finance has registered 1.888 properties for collecting taxes. A discussion that needs to move forward in relation to land tenure in the cities of the Amazon Region refers to the notion of urban and what perception the population and local government have about the appropriation of this space. This is an im portant discussion to subsidize the development of regional policies that enable regional development with quality of life.
Illegal city; Legal city; Land tenure; Small towns; Amazon Region