Cactus, succulents, aloes and hibiscus share space on the slab and make the place a small green oasis amidst the gray that dominates the neighboring buildings. But the plants don’t just occupy the slab. Downstairs, they’re in shoes, helmets, and even inside an old tube television.
This is the home of Luis Cassiano Silva, 52, who created the Teto Verde Favela project nine years ago in the Parque Arará community, in Rio de Janeiro.
The environmental activist says that the idea of ​​creating a green roof came about to combat the heat in the region, where thermometers usually exceed 40°C in summer. “The brick holds the heat and my house doesn’t get cold until 3 am. It’s unbearable.”
The solution was so successful that, according to Luis, it manages to reduce the temperature of the house by up to 15°C and also restores green to the community, surrounded by the red of the bricks and the gray of the asbestos.
“Red is a color that inspires explosion, tension. Gray is melancholy, sadness. The favela has a lot of that. It’s explosion, tension and sadness too. Green is missing, a color that brings inspiration and tranquility.”
The lack of green areas is not an isolated problem. According to the Municipal Environment Department, the north zone — the area of ​​which the favela is a part — is the region of the city with the greatest deficit of trees, next to the west zone.
The ministry says that poorer neighborhoods have fewer trees, while the most risky have greater tree cover.
According to geographer Diosmar Filho, inequality in green coverage is one of the aspects of environmental racism. The concept refers to the exposure of people to unhealthy environments and with little infrastructure based on elements such as ethnicity and skin color.
According to the researcher, the phenomenon can be observed in peripheral areas. “Environmental racism establishes who has access to rights or not in urban space. That’s when we get to favela residents, who don’t have a set of rights”, says he, who is a doctoral student at UFF (Universidade Federal Fluminense).
The expert says that favelas are made up mainly of black people, a group that historically needed to seek solutions to face racism. “These networks exist because there is a dimension called quilombo within cities, and favelas carry a historical memory of black populations.”
Luis believes that his green roof is a way of fighting environmental racism. “My mission is here. I want to look and see this all green here,” he says, pointing to the neighboring rooftops.
In a statement, City Hall says that it planted 212,000 trees in the city between 2013 and 2019. In addition, it says it created the “Trees of Tomorrow” program to produce up to 10,000 seedlings a year.
In Morro da Babilônia, south of Rio, Carlos Antônio Pereira, 59, has been leading efforts to reforest an area of ​​180 hectares for two decades. The region encompasses at least four favelas, in addition to Babilônia: Chapéu Mangueira, São João, Morro dos Cabritos and Tabajaras.
It is an Atlantic Forest region that has lost its native vegetation over the years and, according to Pereira, was taken over by colony grass, an invasive species.
The task force to reforest was created in 1995 through a partnership with the city hall. Pereira says that the municipal administration provided the seedlings, while the residents were responsible for planting.
In 2000, he and 22 other residents created the cooperative Coopbabilônia. The idea was to continue reforestation, but also to promote ecotourism in the region. The project has the support of the city hall and Shopping Rio Sul.
“We treat each seedling as if it were our own child. Take it to the crib, feel it with your hand and accompany it.” The offspring became numerous over time.
According to him, around 400,000 seedlings were planted, a process that changed the landscape of the region. Images show that, in the 1980s, the vegetation on some hills was low and opaque.
Currently, the same areas are covered by abundant vegetation that, according to Pereira, brought back native animals that had disappeared, such as parrots and jacupembas.
“This is an example that communities produce good things,” says he, who is president of the Babilônia residents’ association. “When we are out there in the fields, planting the seedlings, we also contribute to combating climate change.”
Another favela that is reaping the benefits of environmental preservation is the Vale Encantado community. Located in Alto da Boa Vista, north of Rio, the locality has about one hundred residents and suffered from open sewage, which generated the proliferation of mosquitoes, contamination of rivers and even cases of diarrhea.
That scenario changed this month, when an ecological biosystem to treat the favela’s sewage began to work.
Pipes carry sewage from houses to a dome, in which bacteria promote the degradation of organic matter. In a second step, the sewage is deposited in a tank, where plants filter the nutrients that still remain.
The expectation is that 5 to 7.5 million liters of sewage are treated per year, according to environmental health engineer Leonardo Adler, responsible for the project.
“A project of this magnitude needs to start from the community, and not come from the outside to the inside. Sometimes, they are ready-made projects that don’t work for our reality”, says Otávio Barros, president of the residents’ association and construction works master. The system was set up by seven residents and is already bearing good fruit.
The streams are cleaner, the bad smell of sewage has disappeared and the presence of mosquitoes has decreased. “Nature is grateful. Besides, when we meet a resident, we see his joy in having the sewage treated”, says Otávio.
