Sustainability needs flourishing democracy

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As democracy arrives, sustainability programmes grow in Rio’s slums

By Carolina Mazzi

To work without air conditioning in the peak of summer is madness for most cariocas. Rio’s summer temperatures easily reach 45 degrees, though it often feels like more than 50. Tourists bravely walk around, enthralled by the beauty of the Cidade Maravilhosa, while locals lock themselves in cold rooms, away from the sunlight.

Working the landThis is not the case for Cinthia Luna and ten other female residents of the slum Fogueteiro, a favela, near the city’s busy commercial centre. Wielding hoes and shovels, they attend early morning botany lessons almost every day to learn how to care for gardens that sit on the top of a hill. Like in most of Rio’s favelas, the views are spectacular. Even Christ the Redeemer seems to be looking in as the women work in their small plot of land. But they don’t even look up. They are focused on choosing seeds and fertilizers and on checking how much the vegetables, fruits and other seedlings planted a few months earlier have grown.

Soon enough they will be feeding their families with the fruits and vegetables they have grown with their own hands. And whatever is not eaten will be sold in local markets.

Seedlings for changeSome of these growing seedlings are used exclusively for local reforestation. “We’ll plant trees to reforest the community, but also to provide shade and to beautify the streets,” says Cinthia, president of the residents’ association and the garden’s main keeper.

The project, ‘Hortas Cariocas’, is a partnership between the state of Rio de Janeiro’s environment authority, (Secretaria Estadual do Meio Ambiente) and ISER, a faith-based NGO that has worked in slums for over 40 years. The goal is to give opportunities and training to favela residents, while raising their environmental awareness. The initiative has reached four communities so far and, according to the superintendent, Ingrid Gerolimich, it will continue to expand.

“The goal is to empower local residents with environmental knowledge and specific training so they have a better relation with their community and can create new ways of income for their families”, says Ingrid. The initiative is just one of many sustainability programmes promoted and supported in favelas.

Programmes such as this one only began in 2008, when a pioneer security project, UPP, or Pacifying Police Unit, reached the slums. It restored peace to neighbourhoods that once lived under repression and violence by heavily armed gangs and drug dealers. These criminals decided (and still do, in some places) which public services could work in ‘their’ favela. Shootings and threats were common. For many years, violence delayed the arrival of basic services, like sanitation, water and electricity.

“We can’t talk about equality and democracy when some parts of the population don’t have basic public services. They begin life with lesser opportunities than someone living in a different part of the city. Even if health and education were similar, they would be hampered by the lack of infrastructure”, says Sonia Fleury, a political scientist, specialising in democracy in favelas.

After peace was restored in the favelas, public services began to arrive. Soon after, programmes about sustainability, like “Hortas Cariocas,” also started to climb up Rio’s hills. “It has changed my life. I always loved plants, but now I can understand them, look after them. I have skills now, a formal training. It has also changed the way I view politics. I’m more aware of my rights now”, says Viviane, one of the participants at Fogueteiro.

Democracy helps programmes expand their reach

The view from Regina Tchelly’s room is breathtaking: mountains, blue water and plenty of nature. A resident of Babilonia, a well-known favela in Rio, she lives in one of the most beautiful places in the world, right by the seacoast, near Copacabana and Ipanema. But like the women working in the gardens at Fogueteiro, Regina barely looks out the window. During a hot Sunday morning, she is teaching cariocas and foreigners how to reuse food that would otherwise go to waste.

Banana peel sweeties“I never liked to see food wasted. It annoyed me. So, I started inventing recipes with food that would normally go to waste like the peels of bananas, watermelons and pumpkins. I created juices, sauces and sweets,” she explains in the middle of a busy class.

Regina, a former maid, started the project. It now receives government support and has inspired another programme called ‘Favela Orgânica’.

“What she does is fantastic. We will take her knowledge to other slums all over the city”, says Ingrid.

“The biggest benefit of UPP is the increase of communication among favelas and the expansion of projects, especially the ones focused on sustainability,” says Flora Daemon, an agent at Territórios da Paz, another programme that aims to improve the still troubled relationship between the government and favela residents.

“UPP is not the solution for everything. A lot of great things already existed and worked before their arrival. What they do bring is the idea of sharing these with other places, which is a big benefit for all,” she adds.

Problems

Still, old problems remain. It is very common in these communities to find open sewers and to have continued problems with electricity. Repression, violence and corrupt behaviour by UPP agents are recurring complaints. It seems that progress is being made, but too slowly.

“We won’t have sustainability while contradictions like open sewers remain”, says a local resident.

Sonia Fleury is convinced that changes are needed, and fast. “We can’t just replace repression by the drug dealers with repression by police forces. Most times, they arrive at these favelas and set up their projects without even asking the locals. Democracy has definitely arrived at some levels. But it needs to be expanded and improved”.

Fogueitero

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