a forced eviction by private militia.[15] 25. The Special Rapporteur urges the State, at federal, state and municipal levels, to take all measures necessary to ensure that legitimate forms of protest and social activism enjoy the protections afforded to them by international human rights standards. Furthermore, he recalls that restrictions on activities deemed illegal must be based on the rule of law and strictly proportionate to the public goal pursued.[16] IV. The obligation to protect the right to food 26. The obligation to protect the right to food requires each State to ensure that enterprises or individuals do not deprive individuals of their access to adequate food.[17] Measures conducive to this outcome include labour and environmental legislation, as well as the law on land ownership and use. 1. Labour relations 27. Labour regulation in Brazil — based on a national codification first carried out in the 1940s — has not changed significantly since 2002. However, monitoring activities by the federal labour inspectorate have increased and Brazil has taken a number of measures to repress slave-like labour conditions, particularly in rural areas. These efforts, as well as the tremendous sacrifice of individual inspectors, some of whom have been murdered in the exercise of their duties, are to be commended. Brazil must step up efforts to tackle this problem. In particular, the Special Rapporteur encourages Brazil to adopt the constitutional amendment that would allow expropriation without compensation of farmlands in which slave labour was found to occur. Slave-like labour is both a serious violation of a human right in its own right, and the most extreme violation of the right to a decent standard of living, including the right to adequate food, that is recognized in article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 28. One of the main tools that the Government has to protect the right to food of workers is its power to set the national minimum wages. Since 2002, minimum wages have been readjusted annually and these wage hikes have resulted in increased purchasing power in real terms. Accumulated inflation from 2002 to 2008 was of 64 per cent, while the minimum wage grew 158 per cent over the same period. The indirect effects also are noteworthy: pensioners, and particularly rural pensioners, have their income linked to the national minimum wage, the level of which also influences wages in the informal sector;[18] in addition, by consistently expanding the domestic consumer market, Brazil has developed greater resilience to externals shocks, such as the financial crisis of 2008. 2. Environmental regulation 29. The protection of the environment affects the right to food in different ways: it ensures the long-term sustainability of the agricultural sector; makes sure that food produced is appropriate for human consumption and healthy; and guarantees that biodiversity is preserved, ensuring that seeds, plant and animal species remain available for food production and renewal of natural resources. 30. In this respect, Brazil has taken a number of measures to ensure the compatibility of agricultural expansion with the protection of the environment. Depending on the biome, agricultural establishments must set aside an area (“legal reserve”) varying from 20 to 80 per cent of the farm’s surface for preservation purposes. Failure to register these areas and practising deforestation within them constitute punishable environmental crimes. Moreover, Brazil has recently concluded a national zoning for sugar-cane production which discourages its cultivation in over 81 per cent of agricultural land. At present, producers who do not respect the zoning would be sanctioned only by the denial of Government credit and other subsidies, but a bill has been presented to Congress that would effectively prohibit the cultivation of sugar canes in those areas. These initiatives have certainly reinforced the legal framework of environmental protection, but the crucial factor is the capacity of Brazil to monitor compliance with these regulations. Brazil should also step up its efforts to combat the excessive use of pesticides: the Brazilian Sanitary Vigilance Agency has found dangerous trace levels of pesticides in food, including substances prohibited by the agency. 3. Land ownership and use 31. In Brazil, the clarification of land registration in rural areas has long been an area of concern and, despite progress in the period under review, great challenges remain. Grilagem, already referred to above, concerns an estimated 100 million hectares in Brazil, or roughly 12 per cent of the national territory, according to a Government estimate.[19] In 2000, for instance, INCRA cancelled the registration of 1,899 large properties which claimed over 62 million hectares. Grilagem is particularly frequent in the Amazon region, since 45 per cent of its surface has not been officially titled, and low population density invites informal occupation. The current accelerated process of land regularization for the Amazon region, the “Terra Legal” Programme, aims at addressing this issue by guaranteeing title to lands of up to 1,500 ha for settlers who have occupied land peacefully since 2004, where there are no rival claims to ownership. Titling will be free for properties up to 100 ha; below market price for properties up to 400 ha; and at market price for properties up to 1,500 ha. This initiative has raised concerns among indigenous communities and civil society that prior claims by traditional communities will not be given sufficient consideration, increasing tensions and ultimately slowing the pace of demarcation of indigenous lands. Moreover, there are fears that large landowners will use intermediaries to legalize properties and then consolidate them within their own property through fictional acquisitions. V. The obligation to fulfil the right to food 32. The obligation to fulfilthe right to food includes an obligation forthe State to strengthen people’s access to and utilization of resources and means to ensure their livelihood, including food security.[20] Under article 2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Brazil must take steps, “to the maximum of its available resources”, towards the full realization