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The FOREST Team - Poverty, access to housing and conservation of peri-urban forests: the cases of Sao Paulo and Mumbai
F. Landy (coordinator for India), N. Aparecida de Mello (coordinator for Brazil), E. Bon, S. Chandrashekhar, B.Correia, A. Lucchiari, U. Ramanathan, W. Ribeiro, H. Théry, M.H. Zérah
Two megacities of almost the same size, Sao Paulo and Mumbai, which are the economic capitals of two emerging countries whose growth rate is higher in their peripheral areas than in the centre.
Urban poverty preventing access to housing (cf. SLUM Team)
As a result of this crisis, there is pressure on peripheral spaces, especially by the poorer sections. Hence there are severe constraints on peri-urban forests.
This raises the question of the conservation of “natural” resources and the maintenance of “green areas” in a context of great poverty and difficulty of access to housing.
Two peri-urban forests
Mata Atlântica, a biosphere reserve and source of water for Sao Paulo
The Mata Atlântica Reserve in Brazil has been reduced to 7% of its original size and is totally fragmented. Several metropolitan areas and Sao Paulo, in particular, are dependent on the conservation of this biotic area for their water supply and the protection of their climate. But promoters of clandestine housing settlements sell cheap plots to low-income groups promising them that they will be regularised in the future (...)
Approaches
The Sanjay Gandhi Park is evidently much smaller in size than the Mata Atlantica Reserve: it presents nonetheless the same problems as the latter, but on a smaller scale; although the scales may be different, the processes and reasons are quite comparable, if not similar. We will simultaneously adopt two approaches, but avoid considering them as antagonistic.
The social approach
Can the concerns of the “green” civil society, which stems from the middle and often upper classes, be compatible (...)
