{"id":66633,"date":"2021-06-01T21:02:55","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T00:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=66633"},"modified":"2023-05-23T09:23:39","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T12:23:39","slug":"environmentalists-denounce-gutting-of-rio-de-janeiros-community-gardens-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=66633","title":{"rendered":"Environmentalists Denounce Gutting of Rio de Janeiro Community Gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Cuts in technical support, delayed stipends, and lack of supplies: these are some of the complaints made by workers of the Hortas Cariocas<\/a> program, a community gardening program coordinated by Rio de Janeiro\u2019s Municipal Environmental Secretariat (SMAC<\/a>). Problems started in February of this year and have caused the loss of thousands of seedlings. The alleged dismantling of the program was the target of a complaint<\/a> made by the environmental NGO Baia Viva<\/a> (Living Bay) to the federal and state Public Prosecutor\u2019s offices. The complaint highlights the importance of the Hortas Cariocas program as a public policy that addresses food insecurity in the city, especially given the increasing rate of hunger among the poorest<\/a> due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Created in 2006, the program uses idle land in favelas and schoolyards to plant leafy greens and vegetables, using local workers for cultivation. At the moment, 49 gardens are active, of which 25 are located in schoolyards. A portion of the food produced is distributed at no cost to vulnerable families. Despite international recognition<\/a> as an impactful socio-environmental policy that generates employment and guarantees food security, the program has been suffering cuts that are affecting its ability to function.<\/p>\n

In the Dirce Teixeira Garden, located in Canal do Anil<\/a>, in Rio\u2019s West Zone<\/a>, 80,000 seedlings were lost between February and May. This garden, whose main function is the cultivation of seedlings for the program’s 48 other gardens, has had no technical team for three months. According to Cl\u00e1udia Fraga, who is responsible for the garden, two agricultural engineers had been supporting land management and transportation of the seedlings. However, after their contracts were up in February, the gardens were left unattended.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t transport the seedlings to the other gardens without engineers. Over 80,000 seedlings died; we had to feed them to the animals,\u201d says Fraga, who has been working for Hortas Cariocas for five years. The seedlings, which are not suitable for human consumption, became food for chickens and turtles, as shown in the photos included in Baia Viva’s complaint to the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office. Besides logistical support, the technical team plays a fundamental role in the functioning of the gardens. According to Fraga, the engineers were responsible \u201cfor pest control, nursery supplies, and instructing the gardeners in plant cultivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The impacts are also seen in the tilapia cultivation pilot project<\/a>, which functions in the Dirce Teixeira Garden. Fish cultivation, started at the beginning of last year, is a novel activity whose objective was to strengthen food security in favelas during the pandemic. However, without the technical team, losses from the project started to multiply. \u201cWe lost over 200 fish due to lack of technical support. I feed them and clean the filters, but without instructions there’s not much we can do,\u201d says Fraga.<\/p>\n

In one community garden alone, in Campo Grande<\/a>, also in the West Zone, around 60,000 seedlings have been lost. Although this garden does germinate seeds, it is mainly focused on growing vegetables. Approximately 500 units used to be donated by the project every month. In the last few months, without the necessary technical support, the gardeners have seen production drop. Besides the difficulty in receiving the seedlings for cultivation, keeping the soil fertile and pest-free has also been difficult. \u201cThe weather has changed; it\u2019s now autumn and lots of pests have started to appear on our plants. We don\u2019t use any type of pesticide, we make everything organic; the agronomists showed us how to make pepper and onion sprays, which drive away pests without contaminating the vegetables,\u201d explains a garden worker, who prefers to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The contractual impasse for hiring technical support has gutted the community garden in the favela of S\u00e3o Carlos<\/a>, in Est\u00e1cio<\/a>, Central Rio, according to one of its workers. \u201cThe soil isn\u2019t healthy, and we don\u2019t know what it needs. And we also haven\u2019t received any seedlings. The garden isn\u2019t producing anything, and the residents say they have never seen it so bare,\u201d says the gardener, who also prefers not to be identified.<\/p>\n

The service contract for the three agronomists, a few of the technicians, and the vehicles to transport supplies such as fertilizer and seedlings, expired in February and was not renewed. Asked to comment, the Municipal Environmental Secretariat did not mention technical support, but issued a statement saying that the expected budget for the program this year is R$1.68 million (US$324,000), \u201cwhich represents 60.8% more than was invested in 2020.\u201d However, according to the complaint filed by Baia Viva, the budget plan only includes funding for staff stipends and \u201cdoes not include the technical, logistical, and administrative support so vital for the maintenance of the program\u2019s activities.\u201d Baia Viva emphasized that the period of this support, between 2018 and February 2021, coincided with the strong growth in the number of productive gardens as well as the various awards that prove the program\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

Last year, Hortas Cariocas was included in the list of actions classified as essential<\/a> to reach the UN<\/a>‘s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)<\/a>. Since then, the project has been included in the organization\u2019s agenda, aiming to incentivize sustainable development programs in various countries. In the preceding year (2019), Hortas Cariocas received further international recognition: an honorable mention<\/a> in the category of Food Production (Urban Food Systems) at the Milan Pact conference, held in France.<\/p>\n

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

Hortas Cariocas produces around 80 tons of food annually, according to data from SMAC. Besides the production of organic food<\/a>, the project also generates employment and income in the favelas. The gardeners\u2019 stipends range between R$500 (US$96) to R$630 (US$121) per month. To increase the workers\u2019 benefits, part of the gardens’ production is donated to them and the rest is sold by the workers themselves. The problems reported are being felt both at the dinner table and in the pocketbooks of the families involved. According to the gardeners heard for this article, the stipends paid by city government were delayed starting in February of this year: \u201cThey are a month behind with April\u2019s payment. We were paid in March but not in April, and now it’s May,\u201d explains the Campo Grande garden worker.<\/p>\n

Complaints Suggest Weakening of the Collective Reforestation Action<\/h3>\n

Some of the complaints made about Hortas Cariocas are also reflected in another important municipal environmental project, the Collective Reforestation Action. In March of this year, Baia Viva lodged a complaint<\/a> to the federal and state Public Prosecutor\u2019s offices about budget cuts and mass firings of program workers. The complaint emphasizes that the Reforestation Action had grown to 1000 participants, divided into teams of 15 people each, but that these levels were falling with each successive management team. At the start of 2021, there was a new staff reduction, which until then had numbered only 453 workers. According to Baia Viva, \u201cif this mistaken decision stands, we will end up with the smallest number of reforestation personnel in decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Collective Reforestation Action program was established in the late 1980s<\/a> during a time when Rio often suffered from mudslides in periods of strong rain, causing great socio-environmental impact to its hillsides and deaths in its favelas. The Reforestation Action was a pioneering initiative that hired local workers for environmental projects. The program has planted more than ten million seedlings along 3,400 hectares of hillsides and slopes in 92 of the city’s neighborhoods. The project \u201cshows that it is possible to align reforestation with income generation for the poorest,\u201d says Baia Viva.<\/p>\n

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

A worker who spoke with this reporter, and who asked not to be identified, says that payments of the program workers\u2019 stipends have been late since February. In March, payments were reduced, and \u201cthey fired a lot of workers and reduced stipends by R$100 (US$19) for the workers and R$470 (US$91) for the supervisors.\u201d The stipend paid to reforestation workers is less than a minimum wage.<\/p>\n

The budget reduction also affected the functioning of other projects that comprise the Collective Reforestation Action program, like the mobile environmental education actions and the planting itself, as the worker explains: \u201cThe Action no longer has a trucking contract for transporting the seedlings; the engineers themselves have resorted to taking them in pickup trucks, if they have one. Without transportation, how can they take the seedlings to the reforestation areas for planting?\u201d they ask.<\/p>\n

Asked to comment on the complaints regarding the Hortas Cariocas and Collective Reforestation Action programs, the Municipal Environmental Secretariat reinforced the importance of the programs to the current administration\u2019s environmental policy. In a statement, they wrote, “the Hortas Cariocas program is consolidated. The current city administration plans to invest R$1.68 million (US$324,000) in 2021, which represents 50.8% more than was invested in 2020. The budget transfers in the first quarter surpassed those of the same period last year. There is a clear directive to take natural resources to the areas that need them the most.\u201d Regarding the Collective Reforestation Action, SMAC said that \u201cthe technical team of forest engineers in the Municipal Environmental Secretariat has a plan that assures the Secretariat\u2019s action in the nearly 4000 hectares of reclaimed area in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Support\u00a0<\/b>RioOnWatch<\/i><\/b>\u2019s tireless, critical and cutting-edge hyperlocal journalism, online community organizing meetings, and direct support to favelas\u00a0<\/b>by clicking here.<\/a><\/b><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Cuts in technical support, delayed stipends, and lack of supplies: these are some of the complaints made by workers of the Hortas Cariocas program, a community gardening program coordinated by Rio […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":66634,"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":[335,329,452,336],"tags":[244,521,269,2405,756,272,474,2487,2168,291,182,1298,241,301,199,1408,1403,268,471,2185,21],"writer":[3137],"translator":[3361],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-66633","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-policies","8":"category-solutions","9":"category-rio20","10":"category-violations","11":"tag-agroecology","12":"tag-campo-grande","13":"tag-canal-do-anil","14":"tag-community-garden","15":"tag-community-organizing","16":"tag-mayor-eduardo-paes","17":"tag-environment","18":"tag-environment-secretariat","19":"tag-estacio","20":"tag-food","21":"tag-government-neglect","22":"tag-green-space","23":"tag-organic","24":"tag-public-policy","25":"tag-reforestation","26":"tag-sao-carlos","27":"tag-solution","28":"tag-state-violence","29":"tag-sustainability","30":"tag-united-nations","31":"tag-west-zone","32":"writer-jaqueline-suarez","33":"translator-fred-hanson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66633","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\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/66634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66633"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=66633"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=66633"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=66633"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=66633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}