The Rio state government will build concrete walls around some of the city’s biggest slums (pictured on the hillside above) in an attempt to halt deforestation of the surrounding jungle, officials said.
Seven miles of walls, reaching a height of three metres (10ft) will be built around sections of at least 11 slums this year, Icaro Moreno, the president of the state’s public works department, said.
The project will cost $17m (£12m).
Standing in the Dona Marta slum, in the shadow of Rio’s famous Christ statue, Moreno pointed out a section of the first wall under construction. Work began a few weeks ago.
“Each year that passes, we’re losing more of the Atlantic rainforest,” he said. “Now we’re setting limits on where these communities can expand.”
In December, Brazil‘s National Institute for Space Research, which monitors forest destruction, reported that, between 2005 and 2008, the deforestation of Rio’s urban rainforest doubled compared with the previous three years.
About 205 hectares (506 acres) were destroyed in that time, with officials blaming most of the destruction on the expansion of slums as more newcomers arrived from Brazil’s interior.
Moreno said that around 600 houses in the 11 slums would have to be destroyed to make way for the walls. People living in the homes wiould be provided with new housing, he added.
Some rights groups suggested the walls are being constructed to segregate the slums from the richer areas of Rio, Many slums‚ called favelas‚ are built on the steep mountains that dot Rio’s landscape and look down on wealthy beachfront areas.
However, Moreno rejected the criticism, saying the only objective was to protect the rainforest.
In Dona Marta, Maria da Graçca Martins da Silva, who has spent most of her 62 years living in the slum, said: “We don’t feel imprisoned. But I wonder about one thing – is this wall going to curtail our freedom? I hope not.”
* Written by the AP and shared with EcoWorldly as part of the Guardian Environment Network.
Image credit: exfordy via Flickr, under a Creative Commons license.
I saw this story a few days ago and it absolutely floored me.
Knocking down houses and walling in an impoverished people?! Granted, we should be good stewards of land…but this is over the top and seriously crosses the line. What about the *people* in this situation…anyone?
Will the wall cost more that the social reforms that would eliminate the grinding poverty in the region that is causing the slum?
This seems like another case of Brazil addressing symptoms while leaving the underlying issues to fester.
A fenced-in slum is a ghetto – it will get (more) crowded, crime and violence will increase. They’re trading forestry problems for crime-wave problems.
Asking if the wall will cost more than social reforms is a good question, but it Rio, like anywhere else, poor people move to the cities, hoping to find a job.
Knowing this; creating jobs could seem like a better solution, but jobs are not a solution if the potential workers don’t have an education, the skills needed to do the job.
Crime is often a easier way to money than years of studying in a university.
If the rainforest are to be protected it has to be done now. Waiting for everyone to have a good education will take too long.