{"id":21108,"date":"2015-03-29T16:59:48","date_gmt":"2015-03-29T19:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=21108"},"modified":"2015-04-25T15:09:40","modified_gmt":"2015-04-25T18:09:40","slug":"hundred-year-old-community-of-vale-encantado-at-risk-of-removal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=21108","title":{"rendered":"Hundred-Year-Old Eco-Community of Vale Encantado at Risk of Removal"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the original in Portuguese by Lucas Gayoso, published in O Dia,\u00a0click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Vale Encantado is at risk of removal, due to legal action that has been going on for ten years.<\/h3>\n

RIO-In Alto da Boa Vista, in the heart of the\u00a0Tijuca Forest, sits\u00a0Vale Encantado<\/a> (“Enchanted Valley”). Despite the fairytale name, the community is not sleeping peacefully. The hundred-year-old favela is at risk of removal, due to a legal action that has been ongoing for ten years. While the community organizes sustainable projects<\/a>, residents are living through the drama of potentially losing their houses and, along with them, the history of the generations that grew up there.<\/p>\n

The two signposts at the entrance to the area show the space is home to more than one enchanted valley. The first sign points in the direction of a middle-class condominium which takes up a significant amount of space in the area. The second sign, with peeling paint, indicates Vale Encantado and the residents of the favela\u2019s forty-odd houses spread out in\u00a0the forest. This is where our reporting team is headed.<\/p>\n

The two neighborhoods\u2014the condominium and the favela\u2014share a coveted view of the beach of Barra da Tijuca. Pointing towards the horizon, community guide Ot\u00e1vio Barros<\/a>, 45, shows the way through the forest. \u201cThere are a lot more people living in the condominium and it\u2019s also in a bad state. But what\u2019s intriguing is that it\u2019s just our community that is being targeted,\u201d he says. \u201cThey cite the disorganized growth of the community as one of the reasons for eviction. But the community doesn\u2019t even have space to expand. I don\u2019t understand what\u2019s behind this,\u201d he questions.
\n<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fulfilling his role as guide, Ot\u00e1vio points out the different species of plants in the region. In some places, the seeds from the paineira <\/i>trees look like a layer of cotton on the ground. The fairytale scene contrasts strongly with the burnt-out broken van lying nearby. \u201cDrug traffickers in the hillside communities around here use this area to dump things. We\u2019ve asked the city cleaning company to come and clear the area but no one comes. I have to\u00a0explain this so those who come to visit don\u2019t get a bad impression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the legal process has been ongoing for ten years, Ot\u00e1vio maintains\u00a0that many of the long-time residents are suffering from the tension of potentially losing their homes. This is the case for Adenir dos Santos, 71, the Dona Deni. Sharing a small house with her daughter-in-law and granddaughter, she spends the day looking after the vegetable patch and sweeping flowers from the yard. \u201cThis is a good little place to live. We were born and raised here,\u201d she says. \u201cBut we\u2019ve been losing sleep for ten years. I had health problems before all this began, but now I only leave the house to go to the doctor. We\u2019ve lost our sense of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Ot\u00e1vio, the Vale Encantado Residents\u2019 Association was told that an environmental expert from the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office would come and visit the area<\/a> in the coming months, to see if the community was causing environmental damage to\u00a0the area. \u201cWe\u2019re distrustful. This is not a vote-winning place, like communities the size of Rocinha<\/a> are. We don\u2019t have a voice,\u201d he claims.<\/p>\n

The press office of the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office would not give any clarification on this matter. According to the Municipal\u00a0Housing Secretariat, there are no current housing projects planned for the area.<\/p>\n

\"Priscilla<\/a><\/p>\n

French NGO promotes projects and a festival<\/h3>\n

Since 2006, the Vale Encantado Cooperative [correction from original article]\u00a0has been running over 15 eco-projects<\/a> in\u00a0the community, including studying water resources, installing a biodigester<\/a>, working out a system for sustainably managing sewerage from the community and the nearby condos\u00a0(in collaboration with PUC, the Catholic University) and the creation of an organic community garden.<\/p>\n

In 2013, the French NGO Abaquar Paris promoted the Enchanted\u00a0Festival, a benefit for the community’s sustainability initiatives, with the participation of international artists and the Brazilian musician Criolo. The event was designed to raise awareness about the community, and included fashion and food inspired by the region. J\u00e9r\u00f4me Auriac, the director of the NGO, said that a new format for the festival is being developed and will be released soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbaquar\u2019s projects are designed to develop the Vale Encantado residents\u2019 (including children) capacity to develop projects which are both sustainable and income-producing,\u201d says J\u00e9r\u00f4me. \u201cThe city government\u2019s role is to make sure that favelas are real districts and neighborhoods of the city\u2014not to do the opposite and remove them.\u201d<\/p>\n

History<\/h3>\n

The Vale Encantado region began to be occupied during the Coffee Boom of the 19th Century, when plantation workers brought their families to live there.<\/p>\n

In the 1950s, mining for granite (abundant in the area) became a big trade. The quarry was closed in 1989, for ecological reasons, and many workers left\u00a0the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany women who relied on their husbands\u2019 work in the granite trade were left without income. The idea is to help them get involved in cooperative work, such as food preparation,\u201d says community leader Ot\u00e1vio.<\/p>\n

In search of alternatives<\/h3>\n

As well as Vale Encantado, 11 small communities in the forest area are under threat. They include: Jo\u00e3o Lagoa, Soberbo, Caminho Santo Andr\u00e9, A\u00e7ude, Redentor and Furnas 866. The communities are represented by the Alto da Boa Vista Citizens\u2019 Council, which is led by Ot\u00e1vio. \u201cWe got organized in order to improve our neighborhood. I believe that environmental tourism is a good option, in order to help these communities become sustainable,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

With proceeds from last year’s Festival\u00a0and support from an architecture project at PUC university, a headquarters for the Residents\u2019 Association is being built. Ot\u00e1vio runs a guided tour through the community<\/a> for anyone interested. After the tour visitors can enjoy a lunch prepared with fruits local to the region. The price of the visit is R$60 (US$18).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the original in Portuguese by Lucas Gayoso, published in O Dia,\u00a0click\u00a0here. Vale Encantado is at risk of removal, due to legal action that has been going on for ten years. RIO-In Alto da Boa […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":21109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1293,1271,329,452,1330],"tags":[490,950,11,471,489,514,21],"writer":[1588],"translator":[1401],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-favelaqualities","9":"category-solutions","10":"category-rio20","11":"category-translation","12":"tag-alto-da-boa-vista","13":"tag-biodigester","14":"tag-forced-evictions","15":"tag-sustainability","16":"tag-tijuca-forest","17":"tag-vale-encantado","18":"tag-west-zone","19":"writer-lucas-gayoso","20":"translator-sarah-jacobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21108"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=21108"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=21108"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=21108"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=21108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}