Sustainable Development

In the early morning, you can walk along the beach in Rio.  Some of us have made the trip down Vinicisus Ave, the street that leads from our hotel to Ipanema Beach.  We walk north to Copacabana Beach and watch the sunrise over the bay.   From the same point where you watch the sunrise you can turn toward the city of Rio and see fashionable high-rises sitting next to hastily constructed favelas which climb up into the hills.

This contrast between planned and unplanned construction is challenging Rio to determine if this is a sustainable way to build a city.    Our first lecturer today, Jonathon Spier, PhD helped us examine this question.   Dr Spier had recently attended the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development.   We had studied this conference before coming to Rio.  According to the UN Website about Rio+20, sustainable development “emphasizes a holistic, equitable and far-sighted approach to decision-making at all levels.” (Retrieved on July 3, 2012 from http://www.uncsd2012.org/index.php?menu=62)

Dr Spier provided us with a way of understanding favelas using the context of sustainable development.  He gave a brief history of favelas pointing out that favelas started over 100 years ago, when people came to Rio looking for work.  The number of workers was so great there was a severe housing shortage.   Rather than living several hours away, these workers chose to occupy land and build their own homes.  Over time, these individual homes grew into communities of people and were called favelas.

By and large, the government of Brazil left the favelas to their own devices.  Residents would illegally tap into water and power and build their own multistory dwellings.  Favelas are often built without roads or other open public areas.  Crime has always been present in the favelas.  However, when drug trafficking started to increase, there was a dramatic upsurge in violence.  Dr Spiers presentation showed that the development of favelas was not sustainable.  Design and construction were not far sighted, holistic or equitable.

Recently, the state of Rio has been using Pacifying Policy Units (UPP) to reclaim the favelas and reintegrate them into the community.   UPP's consist of heavily armed and specially trained police who occupy a favela and create a sense of order.  In doing this, the state can also reclaim its role as the provider of services such as electricity, water and sewage.  Dr. Spier said that from his understanding, this program has been very effective and that favelas have access to library, internet, public spaces and other services which had not been available before.  

According to Dr Spier, this process of pacification increases participation in the economy and therefore the favelas and those who live in them have a greater chance for sustainable development.

I was curious about the effectiveness of the UPP's and have read more articles on the policy. One article entitled “Improving Security in Poor Areas” by Nicolas Bautès and Rafael Soares Gonçalves (who is a professor at our host university PUC Rio) pointed out that residents of favelas do report a sense of increased security after being pacified.  Land values increased after pacification raising rents and increasing evictions.  This happened in particular in those areas close to future international sporting events that will be in Rio in the next five years.  This shows that UPPs do promote sustainable development but also create situations where decision-making is not fair and equitable and does not meet the definition of sustainability.

The UPP policies show that implementing sustainable development is a complex and difficult process.