{"id":37026,"date":"2017-06-27T14:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T17:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=37026"},"modified":"2017-07-02T14:33:47","modified_gmt":"2017-07-02T17:33:47","slug":"horto-on-the-map-of-conflicts-involving-environmental-injustice-and-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=37026","title":{"rendered":"Brazil’s National Health Institute Maps Environmental Injustice, and Puts Horto on the Map"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Horto<\/a> is a lush favela community in the South Zone<\/a> of Rio de Janeiro that has existed for over 200 years<\/a>. The community, which was founded by former Botanical Gardens workers who were given permission to build homes on the land, including slaves in the Botanical Gardens\u2019\u00a0early years, has been under threat of eviction since the 1960s<\/a>. In 2013, and last week\u00a0posted on the community’s new website<\/a>, Horto was included\u00a0on the Brazilian Conflict Map of Health and Environmental Injustice<\/a>\u00a0put together by the National Public Health School<\/a> (ENSP) of Brazil’s national health institute, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz<\/a>), in partnership with the NGO FASE<\/a> and with technical support from the\u00a0Health Science Information and Technology Institute<\/a>\u00a0(ICICT). The team at ENSP\/Fiocruz worked with the Brazilian Environmental Justice Network<\/a> (RBJA), building on previous environmental justice maps such as the\u00a0Map of Environmental Conflicts in the State of Rio de Janeiro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The map was originally launched in March 2010, with 297 cases reported, and new conflicts were added until reaching 571 in August 2016. It\u00a0includes filters for location, population affected, and cause of conflict, as well as a search bar. \u201cOur objective isn\u2019t reduced to listing territories where risk and environmental impacts affect different populations, but to make public the voices that struggle for environmental justice of populations who are frequently discriminated against and made invisible by institutions and by the media,\u201d writes the team. Each point on the map not only contains key facts about the conflict, but\u00a0also includes a \u201csynthesis\u201d or summary of events with a long historical perspective, timeline and references. The team created a\u00a0map that is not\u00a0\u201cclosed,\u201d that can \u201cbe the starting point\u00a0for new reports, for the monitoring of public policies, and still, of the challenge for the state to, in its diverse levels, respond to the needs of the citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rio<\/a>
\nThe creators of the map highlight the scales of potential solutions–that these problems must be addressed and solved on short, medium, and long-term time scales, and that institutions and economic\u00a0systems may also need to be modified to respect the land rights and health of the affected populations.<\/p>\n

The initial goal was to map around 15 major environmental conflicts in every Brazilian state. The team was interested in mapping the regional spread of certain types of environmental conflict throughout Brazil, which they chose to evaluate by \u201ctype of population affected or location of conflict\u201d (indigenous peoples, workers, quilombolas<\/em>, etc.), type of harm to health or environment (malnutrition, water contamination, etc.), context for conflict, and availability of previous research or information about the conflict. After data for each case were\u00a0collected, the mapping team verified their information with activists or researchers working closely with the cause.<\/p>\n

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

After analyzing results in the table (above), researchers found that the North and Northeast made up of 50% of cases, while S\u00e3o Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Amazonas, and Bahia were also high ranking due to their high levels of industrialization and urban density, and subsequent pollution. These states are also known to have many activist movements. The team notes that the North, Northeast, and Central-West are experiencing new industries, bringing with them corporate agriculture and infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

Initial geographic data also highlighted\u00a0different scales of the conflict: they noted that in certain states, such as Acre and Amap\u00e1, environmental conflicts involve nearly all of the state\u2019s municipalities, while in states like S\u00e3o Paulo, much fewer were involved. Most of the environmental injustice and health cases are\u00a0rural, which could result from the extraction of resources and exploitation of land. However, it is predicted that cases from urban conditions–garbage disposal, sanitation, etc. will\u00a0rise in the next few years.<\/p>\n

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

The map contains a detailed history of land use in the Horto region<\/a> beginning in the colonial era. The bicentennial community is home to 589 families and is in danger of eviction by Rio’s Botanical Gardens<\/a>.\u00a0The summary explains that in 1811, the park leadership built housing for workers of the Gardens\u00a0and Tijuca National Park<\/a> on site. Since then, the community has grown, and in 1950, workers were given official permission to build\u00a0homes closer to the Gardens. In the 1980s Horto began to face the first threats of eviction as Brazilian media corporation\u00a0Globo<\/a> and\u00a0mansions arrived in the area.<\/p>\n

In the 2000s, the redevelopment of the Solar da Imperatriz<\/a> destroyed historical sites related to slavery. And in 2005, police violently intervened in Horto, resulting in the death of one resident and the injury of others. In 2010, Horto appeared on a\u00a0list of communities\u00a0slated for\u00a0removal before 2012, predicated on\u00a0some homes’ location in an area of environmental risk or environmental protection. That\u00a0same year, the Horto Museum<\/a>\u00a0was recognized as a \u201cpoint of memory\u201d among Brazilian museums. In a second dossier in 2013, residents of Horto claimed their a\u00a0to their traditional housing, and argued that their community is of historical value to the city of Rio de Janeiro. The summary follows<\/a> with a variety of references for information about Horto.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nOther cases in the City of Rio de Janeiro highlighted on the environmental injustice map include the Pedra do Sal Quilombo<\/a>, which is\u00a0fighting to \u201cguarantee their space\u201d in the rapidly changing Port Zone<\/a>, and the\u00a0Manoel Congo<\/a>\u00a0occupation which is developing restoration projects.<\/p>\n

The map also contains a space for viewers to suggest new conflicts to be mapped, with the intention\u00a0that the map will continue to grow as a\u00a0space for awareness-raising and voice for these conflicts. However, recently the project’s funds were cut. Originally funded by the national Health Ministry through Fiocruz, the new federal administration<\/a> cut resources so the project is paralyzed while its organizers seek out alternative funds that will allow them to maintain and expand on the map that has proved such an important tool for the communities facing conflict.<\/p>\n

Article updated at 1:23pm on July 2, 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Horto is a lush favela community in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro that has existed for over 200 years. The community, which was founded by former Botanical Gardens workers […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":37065,"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":[1293,1854,1288,1282,329,452,1329],"tags":[2436,2329,107,884,282,26,254,1346,1403,156,471],"writer":[2419],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-housingwatch","9":"category-highlight","10":"category-research-analysis","11":"category-solutions","12":"category-rio20","13":"category-by-international-observers","14":"tag-environmental-justice","15":"tag-fiocruz","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-horto","18":"tag-housing","19":"tag-housing-rights","20":"tag-mapping","21":"tag-museu-do-horto","22":"tag-solution","23":"tag-south-zone","24":"tag-sustainability","25":"writer-raine-robichaud"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37026","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\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37026"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=37026"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=37026"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=37026"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=37026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}