{"id":81561,"date":"2025-08-31T17:40:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T20:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=81561"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:02:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T17:02:45","slug":"brazils-community-land-trust-movement-celebrates-seven-years-supporting-working-class-communities-in-rio-de-janeiro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=81561","title":{"rendered":"Brazil’s Favela Community Land Trust Project Celebrates Seven Years Building a Movement Across Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"In<\/a>
In a public hearing at the Rio de Janeiro City Council in 2023, residents of favelas and urban occupations support the promotion of CLTs in the city\u2019s Master Plan. Photo: CatComm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/strong><\/i><\/em><\/i><\/em><\/a><\/h4>\n

The Community Land Trust is a model of collective land tenure that combines individual freedom with collective strength by separating land and home ownership. Originating in the United States in the 1960s<\/a> within the civil rights movement, the model aims to ensure land tenure security and promote local and community development led by residents themselves. In celebration of Brazil\u2019s National Housing Day and the seven-year anniversary of the Favela Community Land Trust Project<\/a>* in August, RioOnWatch highlighted this initiative which, alongside local communities, has been changing housing rights paradigms in Brazil\u2019s favelas and peripheral areas<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Although it first emerged in rural areas, the Community Land Trust model found the right conditions to prosper in cities starting in the 1980s. The number of CLTs in the United States quickly rose during the 1990s, followed by the model’s expansion into Europe and the Global South in the early 2000s. Today, there are over 500 CLTs worldwide<\/a>, across more than ten countries. The model\u2019s success in meeting its goals secured its inclusion in the New Urban Agenda<\/a>\u2014an international pact signed in 2016 by United Nations member states, aimed at implementing urban policies that guarantee the right to the city for all.<\/p>\n

\"Today,<\/a>
Today, there are over 500 CLTs worldwide, spread across over ten countries. Photo: International Center for Community Land Trusts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the first time in history, a group of consolidated urban informal settlements created a CLT in 2004, inaugurating a new paradigm of practice<\/a> for the model. This took place through the Fideicomiso de la Tierra Ca\u00f1o Mart\u00edn Pe\u00f1a<\/a>, created by seven informal settlements along the Mart\u00edn Pe\u00f1a canal<\/a> in San Juan, Puerto Rico<\/a>. The success of this pioneering experience inspired reflection on the model in Brazil, leading to the launch of the Favela CLT Project in 2018, developed through exchanges between technical allies and favela residents from both countries to consider the model\u2019s challenges and possibilities.<\/p>\n

Beyond the pioneering spirit of the seven Puerto Rican communities<\/a>, reflection on CLTs in Brazil was also fueled by the wave of forced evictions<\/a> between 2010 and 2016 brought on by Rio de Janeiro\u2019s preparations to host the World Cup and Olympics. Numerous favelas were affected, including Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a>, where residents had held state government-issued land concession titles. The powerlessness to resist public authorities during this period, even despite land rights, underscored the need for new strategies in the fight for permanence and housing in favelas and other urban settlements.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>
In 2019, community leaders and technical allies from 16 countries visited the Fideicomiso de la Tierra Ca\u00f1o Mart\u00edn Pe\u00f1a, a widely successful CLT experience in informal settlements. Photo: CatComm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aligned with the normative understanding already present in favelas\u2014that each resident owns their home and that the community is to be managed collectively, especially given the absence of public investment\u2014the CLT model emerged in Rio\u2019s favelas as a highly promising path. The possibility of formalizing existing social arrangements and pacts, while ensuring residents\u2019 permanence<\/a> and empowering them\u2014through community organizing\u2014to realize local development led by residents themselves, began to gain ground through the Favela CLT Project.<\/p>\n

Starting in November 2018, the Favela CLT Project got off the ground in Brazil, structured around three areas of practical action: community mobilization, dissemination of the model and advocacy<\/a>. Since then, the Favela CLT Project’s impacts and achievements have included:<\/p>\n