Resisting Environmental Injustice in Metro Rio de Janeiro

SCOTT WILLIAM HOEFLE

PPGG - IGEO - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ
scotthoefle@acd.ufrj.com

Biocentric Parks with only “Eco-tourism”?…

Pedra Branca State Park – western Rio

Research funded by CNPq (Brazil).

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21st Century Critical Political Ecology, Environmental History and Historical Geography

• full conservation without people = biocentric environmental ethics

• only good of the ecosystem
• tribal peoples & poor peasants removed
become impoverished conservation refugees
expelled to rural & urban slums
• cleanse poor from landscape
eco-tourism promoted 2
urban elites consume “Nature”
 Sustainable Use Conservation Units mainly in Remote Areas

1 2021
Amazon Tapajós National Forest
laboratory vs. riverine peasants
socio-ecological
conservation/
development

2021 2
Paraguay riverine peasants
vs. Private Nature Reserves
Rest of Brazil
Pantanal bio-centric
3 2022 conservation
Small farmers vs. National &
State Parks in the Atlantic Forest

Source: IBAMA-MMA(2004).
Park Extractivist Reserve
Full Conservation Amerindian Lands
National Forest Private Reserve
CASES Tapajós riverine peasants River
Paraguay riverine peasants
Small farmers metro Rio de Janeiro 3
 WWF (2000) Misreading the Landscapes?

Biocentric linear view of pristine Brazilian biomes

%%
100
Amazon Forest cattle ranching
90
80
70
60
soy
50
40
Cerrado Savanna
?
30
20 conservation laws =
Atlantic Forest ? nature enclosures
10
0
1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 1990 2020

Original figure WWF (2000), source of recent data: Araujo et al. (2008), IBGE (2022),
Miranda et al. (2019), SOSMA (2019), WWF (2021),

4
 ATLANTIC FOREST: (Still) Brazil’s Most Threatened Biome?
Atlantic Forest in 1500 and in 1990

NGO SOS Mata Atlântica

• created 1986
• alliance of concerned scientists, journalists,
liberal professionals urbanites with country 2nd homes

• pressure for new nature reserves and expansion of old ones

ecological corridor in windward Coastal Mountains

• lobbies 1999 Forest Code mandates 20% legal reserve on farms

SNUC National System of Conservation Units

• lobbies for 2007 law prohibits cutting primary & secondary

Atlantic forest
regeneration trumps 1999 law permitting historical fallowing
Coastal Mountains near metro areas
loss of 2/3 productive land
biocentric nature enclosures

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Source: Dean (1994, 349).
 Urban Exploitation of Rural in Brazil
Greater São Paulo

Source: GoogleEarthPro (2018).

Air pollution, acid rain, sewage, garbage

resolved in “cheaper” rural areas

• environmental functions in the COUNTRYSIDE NOT CITY (cf. Kelly-Reif & Wing, 2016, JRS).
• more Atlantic Forest to solve urban air & water pollution authorizes continued pollution in CITIES
65 million vehicles = 171 million tons CO2
= need 11 times more preserved area of Atlantic Forest (Moreira, 2011) 6
 Nature Enclosures & Forced Afforestation in mountainous ATLANTIC FOREST
1) Large- & medium-scale productivist farming in valley bottoms: 20% or less forest if compensate elsewhere
2) Small-scale productivist & post-productivist farming on lower slopes: 20% - 40% forest
3) Park expansion & ban cutting secondary forest on upper slopes: >40% forest
“All you need to do is to start the expropriation judicial process and farmers cannot sell their land or have
water and electricity accounts”
ICMBio Official advising lower staff on forcing people out of new conservation areas without compensation

Make farming unviable then Seize regenerated forest

Half of farmer’s land lost to Itatiaia National
>2007 cutting, burning & rotating prohibited Park Expansion 1982 never compensated

Land lost

Source: Resende municipality (2010).

 Cross Section of Multifunctional Space in Rural-Urban Transition to Metro Rio de Janeiro

1 Biocentric conservation
ecological corridor

2
3

Forest

1 cases
Source: Hoefle (2022).
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 CASE 1
Vegetable Farmers Resist Expansion of Serra dos Órgãos National Park
Petrópolis Highlands of Coastal Mountains – limits of outer Rio de Janeiro metro influence
Expansion Serra dos Órgãos Nat Park in 2008 Territorial compromise legal reserve ceded to Park

Hydroponics in green houses

area expanded

• small plots high-payoff vegetables & fruit for metro Rio market rocket
• intensive conventional & alternative hydroponics in green houses
• compromise farmers cede 20% mandatory forest reserve
• local people work as nature guides and in small eco-lodge pittance
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 CASE 2

Nature Enclosures on Windward Enscarpment and Upper Slopes of Coastal Mountains

Cachoeiras de Macacu – outer Rio de Janeiro metro area

Interviewed Small Farmers in transition from plain to piedmont to mountains

regenerated forest LAND USE Upper Middle

(% of farm) Slopes Slopes
Crops 21.8 25.7
Pasture 11.5 13.9
No or Short Fallow 1.7 22.6
(up to 1 year)
Old Fallow 13.0 0.7
(5-11 years)
Regenerated Forest 25.1 65% 20.2 38%
(20-60 years)
Primary Forest 26.9 16.9
Total 100.0 100.0
cropping in bottom lands of mid-valley
but weekend houses & money laundering encroaching
Source: Field research (2011).

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 Greater Rio de Janeiro Core
largest robust anthropogenic urban forests in the world
• latter 19th Century slaves reforest degraded coffee fields & charcoal extraction
sinister past of providing water for growing city (ICMBio, 2018; Oliveira et al., 2018)
• politically numerous squatters advance on forest
• escape trails for fleeing drug syndicate members
• thieves mug eco-tourists HARDLY Natural-country IDEAL!

Mendanha
Municipal
Natural Park
>1993

Guanabara Bay

Pedra Branca
State Park
>1974 RIGHT TO CITY
Tijuca shanties advance against City
National Park Natural Park & toward Tijuca NP
>1861/1961

Atlantic Ocean

Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas 11

Source: GoogleEarthPro (2018).
 CASE 3

Western Rio de Janerio – ex-Sertão Carioca Green Belt

Built-up Area Advances against Farming Areas
pressured peri-urban farmers encircled urban farmers

1986 Mendanha
2018
A Mendanha
A
A
A
Santa Cruz
Rio da Prata Rio da Prata
A A
D
Mato Alto Pedra Branca
D D D
Sepetiba A D
D A A Jacarepaguá
A
D Ilha D D
Grotões
C

Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Ocean

Source: Bicalho (1992). Source: GoogleEarthPro.

adaptation degeneration conversion

1986 2018 12
 (Ex-peri)urban Farmers - tiny minority of voters
SANDWICHED BETWEEN CITY & NATURE RESERVES 1
Campo Grande Borough

The View from the Rio Farmers Union Office Farming resists up the Valley

Pedra Branca
Pedra Branca State Park
State Park

Pedra Branca
State Park

Source: Field research (2017). Fonte: GoogleEarthPro (2018)..

Ex-farm land Ex-farm land

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 Making Life Difficult for Farmers
in the Pedra Branca State Park

• prior resident farmers cannot repair roads, only use donkeys

• no new electricity, only if already have before 1973
• staff: “We are lucky that the children do not want to stay” (sic)
• trails built for urban eco-tourists, can use motorcycle, hold motor cross events
• exception: repair road to police official’s weekend house; “If it depended only on us [farmers], never”

Source: Bernandes (1962). INEA (2013).

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 Socio-ecological Strategies for Resisting Biocentric Conservation in Brazil

4 strategies for remaining in place: sustainable conservation or ethnic territory

1) resist removal: sabotage territorial restrictions & civil disobedience carry on as usual (Petro.)

2) change default biocentric mentality of officials to socio-ecological land use (rare)

3) promote combination sustainable activities: agroecology, agroforestry, forest gardens,
community-based timber & non-timber forestry and rural & eco-tourism, etc. (only when forced)

4) solicit ethnic territories under social ministries not biocentric environmental ministries
• most common strategy in non-Amazonian Brazil where biocentric mentality predominates
• Indigenous lands and Afro-Brazilian territories
• resist removal #1 and sustainable activities like #3
• Supreme Court case in course: SC nature reserve versus indigenous lands
• alt-right anti-environmentalist & anti-ethnic identity president (2018-2022)
freeze new lands & territories
decree rolling back: only those before 1988 Constitution also in Supreme Court

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 Historic Hybrid Afro-indigenous-European Population
SANDWICHED BETWEEN CITY & NATURE RESERVES 2
Vargem Grande & Campo Grande Boroughs

4 Afro territories in Pedra Branca State Park & Mendanha Natural Municipal Park
• in place for centuries + runaway slave refuge end of Abolition movement 1880s
• important heritage sites
• different stages of recognition by Afro-Brazilian Palmares Foundation
• then recognition by Federal Rural Land Office INCRA despite location in city
• mainly residence and work in non-rural sectors
• land grabbing by large real estate firm: deforestation, destruction of historic buildings

State Park
State Park
State Park

Source: Field research (2022).

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Built for Olympics! Entrance with IPHAN Heritage Sign 17th Century Church
From Biocentric Social Exclusion to Socio-ecological Conservation with Inclusive Development

forest regeneration on slopes

forest regeneration on slopes

organics in bottomlands
Source: Field research (2008).

Petrópolis Municipality (just beyond limit of outer metro area) 17

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Bernandes, N. 1962. Notas sobre a ocupação humana da montanha no estado de Guanabara. In AGBRJ (ed.), Aspectos da Geografia Carioca, pp. 188-210. Rio de Janeiro:
CNG/IBGE.

Bicalho, A.M. 1992. Agricultura e ambiente no município do Rio de Janeiro. In, Abreu, M.A. (ed.), Natureza e Sociedade no Rio de Janeiro, pp. 285-316. Rio de Janeiro: Prefeitura
da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro.

Galvão, M.C. 1962. Aspectos da geografia agrária do sertão carioca. In AGBRJ (ed.), Aspectos da Geografia Carioca, pp. 3-17. Rio de Janeiro: CNG/IBGE.

Musumeci, L. 1987. Pequena Produção e Modernização da Agricultura: O Caso dos Hortigranjeiros no Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro: IPEA.

Oliveira, R.R., Fraga, J. S. & Berck, D.E. 2011. Uma floresta de vestígios: metabolismo social e a atividade de carvoeiros nos séculos XIX e XX no Rio de Janeiro, RJ.
INTERthesis, 8, 286-315.

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