The case study focus on the community of Morro Babilônia, a small but traditional favelas in Rio de Janeiro, and how it has developed strategies and dynamics to respond to changes in its urban ecosystem. Located near one of the most coveted real state of the city, Copacabana, the community suffered from torrential rains and frequent landslides – which in 1994 caused the death of three residents. On that occasion, the community pressured the city hall to begin a reforestation project on the slopes of the hill to prevent erosion. The project changed the relationship of the community with its environment, and also remarkably changed the landscape from pasture areas to forested areas, with recovery of fauna and flora, in almost three decades. In particular, our study focuses on feelings of loss and damage due to climate issues. It also discusses the challenges of community building within a megacity with many critical issues, such as violence, gentrification and economic crisis.
Publications
Barbosa, N. (2019). Os jardins suspensos do Morro da Babilônia: os tipos de visibilidade de uma favela carioca pelos jornais (1900-1970). In: Jornada de Estudos Históricos Professor Manoel Salgado PPGHIS UFRJ, 14 ed., v. 5, 2019, Rio de Janeiro. Anais eletrônicos […] Rio de Janeiro,. p. 355-368
Sedrez, L. and Barbosa, N. (2019) Narrativas na Babilônia: Uma Experiência de História Oral e História Ambiental, Reflorestamento E Comunidade (1985-2015), In: Andrea Casa Nova Maia (Ed), História Oral E Direito À Cidade. Paisagens urbanas, narrativas e memória social.
Sedrez, L. and Biasillo, R. (2022). Rooting Out Injustices from the Top: The Multispecies Alliance in Morro da Babilônia, Rio de Janeiro. Social Text, 40 (1).
Sedrez, L. and Capile, B (2020) . Os Modernos Rios Cariocas. In: KURY, Lorelai; SEDREZ, Lise; CAPILE, Bruno; MOTTA, Marcelo (orgs). Rios do Rio. 1. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Andrea Jakobson Estúdio, 2020, p. 72-128.
List of experiences: TOTAL RESULTS 3
Os Jardins Suspensos do Morro da Babilônia
The Hanging Gardens of Morro da Babilônia
By Natasha Augusto Barbosa
Universidade Federal Do Rio De Janeiro
Laboratório História E Natureza Labhen Ufrj
English version (Portuguese below)
The Mutirão Reflorestamento project is an initiative of the city of Rio de Janeiro implemented in the late 1980s. This project is an offshoot of a previous project, Mutirão, which aimed to urbanize favelas with the help of the residents’ workforce. of the communities served. Reforestation becomes part of this main project with the purpose of recovering and maintaining the vegetation cover of the city’s slopes, contributing to the promotion of biodiversity, in addition to controlling the expansion of slums.
One of the favelas covered by the project was Morro da Babilônia, located in the Leme neighborhood, close to Copacabana, which during the 17th century housed fortifications to prevent invasions of the city. The intensification of the occupation of this region and the recognition of the hill as a favela dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, a period of great urban transformations in the city of Rio de Janeiro. During the process of occupation of the hill, the Atlantic forest gave way to the colony grass, and the instability of the soil, associated with heavy rains, caused the community to experience tragic episodes, with human and material losses, in this way, the relationship of the favela with a biophysical environment for a long time was crossed by fear.
In 1995 the reforestation project was installed in the favela of Morro da Babilônia. The basis of the reforestation project in slums is the cooperation of the residents of the areas served, both for the knowledge of the region, of the people, as well as for the subsequent support for the maintenance of the plantations. There were attempts at reforestation carried out by private companies, however, in slum areas it did not prove to be a viable option for decoupling from the space. Even so, this is an alternative for regions where reforestation cannot be implemented with local participation. The preparation of the soil and planting of tree seedlings carried out by the Mutirão Reflorestamento in Morro da Babilônia was completed in 2000, and then maintenance of the reforestation began.
The residents who participated in this work together with forestry engineers, agronomists and biologists from the city of Rio de Janeiro did not have employment relationships, and to remedy this instability the Municipal Environment Department (SMAC) and the Labor and Employment Department encouraged the creation of a reforestation cooperative, thus, the Cooperative of Workers in Reforestation and Provision of Services of Babilônia Ltda, COOPBABILÔNIA was born. From that moment on, reforestation was the responsibility of the cooperative, formed and managed by the residents of the favela, with technical support from SMAC and with private partnerships and incentives.
Mutirão Reflorestamento remains active, protecting and planting throughout the city of Rio de Janeiro. The project reconciled social and environmental initiatives, helped to strengthen and create a new vision of local identity, in the face of the complex interaction between favela and city.
Residents of the Morro da Babilônia favela are proud of the project, its success has become a tool for defending the plantations. They recognize the improvements in the environment, which has become safer in the face of the impacts of rains, reduced the occurrence of landslides, improved the microclimate, and gradually restores the Atlantic Forest ecosystem, but even with the success of the project and the resurgence of this forest urban, the opposition between favela and city does not end.
Reforestation in Morro da Babilônia is a successful model that can be improved and replicated according to other local needs and realities. The Reforestation Mutirão is a way of reflecting and acting on the urban space in dialogue with the environment, recognizing the positive interaction between communities and public authorities.
Mutirão Reflorestamento obtained national and international recognition, such as selection in the UN Megacities Project in 1990, composing the publication Environmental Innovation for Sustainable Mega-Cities: Sharing approaches that work, and the Projeto Modelo award by the Society for Ecological Restoration in 1999, among others. In more than thirty years of reforestation, the project was reproduced in 92 neighborhoods, more than 10 million seedlings were planted on hills and slopes in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Portuguese:
O projeto Mutirão Reflorestamento é uma iniciativa da prefeitura da cidade do Rio de Janeiro implementada no final da década de 1980. Este projeto é um desdobramento de um projeto anterior, o Mutirão, que objetivava a urbanização de favelas com auxílio da força de trabalho dos moradores das comunidades atendidas. O reflorestamento passa a integrar este projeto principal com o propósito de recuperação e manutenção da cobertura vegetal das encostas da cidade, contribuindo para promoção da biodiversidade, além de controlar a expansão das favelas.
Uma das favelas contempladas pelo projeto foi o Morro da Babilônia, localizado no bairro do Leme, próximo à Copacabana, e que durante o século XVII abrigou fortificações para impedir invasões à cidade. A intensificação da ocupação desta região e o reconhecimento do morro como uma favela, remonta ao início do século XX, período de grandes transformações urbanas na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Ao longo do processo de ocupação do morro a mata atlântica deu lugar ao capim-colonião, e a instabilidade do solo, associada as fortes chuvas, fizeram com que a comunidade vivesse episódios trágicos, com perdas humanas e materiais, desta forma, a relação da favela com meio biofísico durante muito tempo foi atravessada pelo medo.
Em 1995 o projeto de reflorestamento foi instalado na favela do Morro da Babilônia. A base do projeto de reflorestamento em favelas é a cooperação dos moradores das áreas atendidas, tanto pelo conhecimento da região, das pessoas, bem como, pelo posterior apoio a manutenção dos plantios. Houve tentativas de reflorestamento realizado por empresas privadas, porém, em áreas de favelas não se mostrou uma opção viável pela desvinculação com o espaço. Ainda sim, esta é uma alternativa para regiões onde o reflorestamento não pode ser implementado com participação local. O preparo do solo e plantio das mudas de árvores feitos pelo Mutirão Reflorestamento no Morro da Babilônia foi concluído no ano de 2000, e em seguida foi iniciada a manutenção do reflorestamento.
Os moradores que participaram deste trabalho em conjunto com engenheiros florestais, agrônomos e biólogos da prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro, não possuíam vínculos empregatícios, e para sanar esta instabilidade a Secretaria Municipal de Meio Ambiente (SMAC) e a Secretaria de Trabalho e Emprego, incentivaram a criação de uma cooperativa de reflorestamento, assim, nasceu a Cooperativa de Trabalhadores em Reflorestamento e Prestação de Serviços da Babilônia Ltda, COOPBABILÔNIA. A partir deste momento o reflorestamento estava a cargo da cooperativa, formada e gerida pelos moradores da favela, com apoio técnico da SMAC e, com parceria e incentivos privados.
O Mutirão Reflorestamento continua ativo, protegendo e realizando plantios por toda a cidade do Rio de Janeiro. O projeto conciliou iniciativa social e ambiental, colaborou para o fortalecimento e uma nova visão da identidade local, frente a complexa interação entre favela e cidade.
Os moradores da favela do Morro da Babilônia têm orgulho do projeto, o seu sucesso se tornou ferramenta para defesa dos plantios. Eles reconhecem as melhorias no ambiente, que se tornou mais seguro diante aos impactos das chuvas, minorou a ocorrência de deslizamentos, propiciou a melhora do microclima, e gradualmente recompõe o ecossistema da mata atlântica, mas mesmo com o êxito do projeto e ressurgimento desta floresta urbana, a oposição favela e cidade não se encerra.
O reflorestamento no Morro da Babilônia é um modelo exitoso que pode ser aprimorado e replicado de acordo com outras necessidades e realidades locais. O Mutirão Reflorestamento é uma forma de refletir e agir sobre o espaço urbano em diálogo com o ambiente, reconhecendo a positiva interação entre comunidades e o poder público.
O Mutirão Reflorestamento obteve reconhecimento nacional e internacional, como a seleção no Projeto Megacidades da ONU em 1990, compondo a publicação Environmental Innovation for Sustainable Mega-Cities: Sharing approaches that work, e o prêmio Projeto Modelo pelo Society for Ecological Restoration em 1999, dentre outros. Em mais de trinta anos de reflorestamento o projeto foi reproduzido em 92 bairros, mais de 10 milhões de mudas foram plantadas em morros e encostas da cidade do Rio de Janeiro.
Sources
Sedrez, Lise; Barbosa, Natasha Augusto. Narrativas na Babilônia: Uma experiência de história oral e história ambiental, reflorestamento e comunidade (1985-2015). In: MAIA, Andréa Casa Nova. (org.). História Oral e Direito à cidade: Paisagens urbanas, narrativas e memória social. São Paulo: Letra e Voz, 2019. p. 79-99.
Barbosa, Natasha Augusto. Os jardins suspensos do Morro da Babilônia: o mutirão reflorestamento na perspectiva da história ambiental urbana (1985-2015)130 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em História) – Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de História, Programa de Pós-Graduação em História Social, 2020.
Mutirão de Reflorestamento celebra 33 anos com mais de dez milhões de mudas plantadas em morros e encostas. Prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro, 20 de junho de 2021. Disponível em:< https://prefeitura.rio/meio-ambiente/mutirao-de-reflorestamento-celebra-33-anos-com-mais-de-dez-milhoes-de-mudas-plantadas-em-morros-e-encostas/>. Acesso em: 20 de agosto de 2021.
Secretaria Municipal de Meio Ambiente. Refloresta Rio: Programa de Reflorestamento do Município do Rio de Janeiro. Disponível em: <https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/7afa6040cd4e46b48720e280b7238434>. Acesso em: 20 de agosto de 2021.
“For a food without poison”: COONATURA and the agroecological movement in Rio de Janeiro
The COONATURA (Cooperativa de Produtores e Consumidores de Ideias, Alimentos e Soluções Naturais – Cooperative of Producers and Consumers of Ideas, Food and Natural Solutions) is a cooperative of natural food producers and consumers that originated in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The initiative began in 1979, through a proposal written in a letter to the readers of ‘Jornal do Brasil’ written by the couple Joaquim Moura and Ligia Lara, entitled “Food withou Poison”. Those interested should get in touch with the couple who would articulate the next steps. Hundreds of people who lived in the city of Rio de Janeiro responded to the letter and, thus, a meeting was scheduled at Lage’s Park in the city.
A group of people who shared the same ideas got together and debated about food and production alternatives, promoting, a few months later, the creation of the Cooperative of Producers and Consumers of Ideas, Food and Natural Solutions – Coonatura.
It can be understood that the beneficiaries of this initial movement were the members and supporters of the group that was formed to create and maintain the Coonatura. These corresponded to people who sought to feed themselves without pesticides, who sought to plant and feed on natural agriculture, and also people who provided land and spaces for planting and who benefited from receiving products free of pesticides produced by the cooperative. Over time, this configuration changed and other promoters and beneficiaries joined this network, such as schools, nursing homes, hospitals and producers in one of the rural areas of Petrópolis/RJ, where Coonatura leased land for organic agricultural production.
The Coonatura initially worked in urban areas, implementing gardens in schools, orphanages, nursing homes and other arable areas, the first garden being carried out at the Santa Monica boarding school. The cooperative promoted other ecological activities such as lectures, cultural events with an environmental content and protests, such as cycling from Rio de Janeiro to Angra dos Reis against the installation of nuclear power plants in Brazil, being the bicycle chosen to demonstrate human energy and to be example of a solution for pollutants emitted by cars. In agriculture, in addition to installing urban gardens, Coonatura also launched itself in the rural area of Petrópolis and, with the example of organic production and production flow in the city, encouraged neighboring producers – who adopted the chemical use of conventional agriculture – to make the agroecological transition in their crops and to sell their products without poison directly to consumers in the city, at Coonatura’s headquarters. In this way, producers would preserve their health and the environment, which they were exposed to strong chemical products, would promote their autonomy and would have economic and social benefits. Today, agroecology is the scientific basis for environmental and socioeconomic transformations, social movement and agricultural practice in promoting food sovereignty.
In addition to Coonatura, during this period the Alternative Technologies Project – PTA was created, which later became AS-PTA (Advice and Service in Alternative Technology Projects), still active today and contributing to environmental transformations, whether in the field of agriculture or other technologies. AS-PTA is associated with the work of the Brazilian Association of Agroecology and the National Articulation of Agroecology.
Agricultural transformation directly impacts the climate issue and society’s environmental awareness, as it values a non-poisonous agriculture that promotes social, economic and environmental well-being. It is understood that awareness of the impact of food and agricultural production, consequently, generates an interest in environmental causes and the impact of human actions on nature over time and how this affects human health.
Coonatura’s actions, whether through agroecological production or environmental protests, such as pedaling, contributed to an example of transformation in the mentality of those who had access to its food-free movement and its manifestations in defense of environmental changes. The Coonatura movement was involved with other groups that sought to implement alternative technologies such as solar heaters, fruit dryers using solar energy, mini-hydroelectric power plants, among others. The intention of the cooperative was to set an example that we could live well without negatively impacting the
environment we are part of.
The main values of Coonatura and, later, of the PTA were centered on the agricultural field, however, their actions also extended to other environmental issues, as mentioned above.
Coonatura’s initial agroecological movement created connections with other groups and founded, in 1994, the first fair of organic products in Rio de Janeiro, located in a central region, in the district of Glória. In 2010 the fair became part of the city’s of Organic Fairs Circuit. Another major transformative effect was that, when Coonatura started producing organics on a leased site in the district of Brejal, rural Petrópolis, it encouraged neighboring farmers to carry out an agroecological transition, in which producers started to plant without pesticides and sell their productions together with the cooperative. Currently, the region has become a reference in the production of agroecological and organic food, which has contributed to Petrópolis consolidating itself as the state capital of organic food (State Law nº 8118), which is certainly related to Coonatura’s activities.
Among the actors involved are agronomists, ecologists, students, teachers and many other people from different professions. The actors and their backgrounds are still being researched, but we can say, in advance, that the main actors are part of what we understand as the middle class.
In relation to Coonatura, it is possible to critically point out that the cooperative’s articulation could have been consolidated in a broader way, joining other cooperatives and groups from its own or from other states. However, this view is still too premature to affirm, therefore a deeper investigation is needed, which will be carried out in the course of the research.
The work of the agroecological movement in Rio de Janeiro can, and should, be applicable in other situations. Agro-ecological production can be carried out on small plots of land, in urban or rural areas, on vacant plots of land throughout the cities, and it provides transformations in the political, ecological, technical-productive, sociocultural and economic dimensions. It is possible to form groups and cooperatives for agroecological work in search of food sovereignty and environmental change.
The agroecological movement in the early years provided changes by offering the population access to pesticide-free food in the city of Rio de Janeiro. In addition, it influenced and contributed to the agroecological transition of producers in the rural area of Petrópolis, initiating the changes that, a few years later, made the city the Official Capital of Organics.
Hortas Cariocas – Urban Green Gardens in Rio de Janeiro food, income, and dignity
The Hortas Cariocas Program is a project of the City of Rio de Janeiro in partnership with dozens of local leaders from the city’s favelas, for the realization of community urban gardens. According to the 2010 census, more than 1.3 million people live in favelas in the municipality or 22% of the total population (6.2 million). Favelas are residential communities in which many are in a situation of socio-environmental vulnerability due to landslides, food, and financial insecurity, low self-esteem, situations of risk of urban social violence, etc.
In seeking to associate income generation and healthy food production, local community leaders (residents’ association presidents, school principals, etc.) contact the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Environment Secretariat to join the program. With adherence, the government guarantees financial aid for more than 200 local gardeners, in addition to tools, uniforms, individual protective equipment, seeds and seedlings, organic fertilizers, and the technical knowledge of agronomists. With labor and local knowledge, community work generates food and income. Of the total agricultural production (82 tonnes in 2020), half is destined for commercialization at subsidized prices, and the other half is dedicated to donations to the community itself – for daycare centers, nursing homes, shelters, orphanages, families in
situations of food vulnerability indicated by the residents’ association. Only in the community garden of Manguinhos, the largest community garden in Latin America, thousands are benefited.
In addition to generating income and food, another great advantage of the program is the interaction with the land. The creator and executor of the project, Julio Cesar Barros, comments that many go to the gardens to do “mental hygiene”, to clear the bush and interact with the land. According to him, “the carioca lost his rural reference, and we needed to restore in the children. [Nowadays] half of the gardens are in schools ”. There, hundreds of children take practical classes in the garden, in addition to curriculum classes such as math and even history. And of course, they eat vegetables without pesticides that they themselves planted, cared for, and watched grow. Although daily work is not mandatory, children love it. When they get home, these children encourage their parents to eat better, to have a healthier relationship with the land, and to rescue the rural reference for them. The production complements school meals, part of which is donated to the neediest families. Teachers are also benefited because in the gardens they have medicinal herbs such as chamomile and lemon balm that they “need to be able to hold their nerves”, jokes Julio Cesar.
The success of Hortas Cariocas is when the community garden asks for its emancipation from the program itself. Although they lose financial aid, they have the freedom to trade all their production and not just half. Generating income and producing food locally is an efficient way to generate a local economy, reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, encourage healthy eating, and other results directly linked to mitigating climate change.
The spaces occupied by the community gardens were marked by strong socioenvironmental vulnerability, especially in old dumps (areas of irregular garbage disposal) and landslide areas. With the occupation, residents now have access to these green areas and the dignity of being able to work for their own livelihood. It is in this way that the Hortas Cariocas Program structures its main objectives: to popularize the consumption of organic food, to prevent the occupation of vulnerable areas such as the ones above, to generate local income in the communities served, to stimulate agroecological agriculture in the city, to disseminate healthy eating habits and rural education in schools, reduce food security.
The project’s history goes back to a landslide event after heavy rain in 2006, where many were displaced. Instead of following the constant confrontation between public authorities and residents about the use of these risk areas, the Municipal Secretariat for the Environment bet on the project formulated by its agronomist Julio Cesar Barros. Thus, the first vegetable garden emerged in the same year, a collective social area of the community, where people support and protect. In 2021, there are already 49 vegetable gardens around the city, some of which have already been emancipated and commercialize all their production. Along with Julio Cesar, a huge contingent of association presidents, school directors, gardeners, supervisors, and many other partners work directly in the production of vegetables.
A mark of success is the emancipation of the vegetable garden, as said before. And a sad mark is leaving a garden for lack of results, whether due to lack of adherence or other reasons, the fact is interpreted as a reflection of the fact that you invested wrongly. Internally, as a program of the municipal government of a large city, such as Rio de Janeiro, Hortas Cariocas experienced some adversities. With the entry and exit of mayors in municipal administrations, things can get complicated. However, the biggest complications are now with the delay in renewing support contracts, an unprecedented crisis. The support of agronomists, cars, trucks, administrative assistants are essential for the program to work, data generation, seedling flows, assistance to gardeners, and the implementation of innovations such as a drip system that saves water resources and an aquaponics system combining fish and vegetable gardens with a capacity of 2 tons of tilapia in the first year.
The initiative is easily replicable in other cities around the world. The main criterion is to already have a local initiative, a mobilized group where the need to build a community garden in the community is already discussed. The partnership with the city hall or other public or private institution is carried out with financial assistance for those involved, technical training for planting and management of gardens, provision of equipment and material, etc. The social return is immeasurable.