A group of residents of the Vila São Francisco neighborhood, a region with high-end mansions and condominiums in Osasco, in Greater São Paulo, came together to stop the suppression of a set of almost two hundred trees in one of the few green areas maintained in the city. , on private property.
The cuts had been authorized by the city and were being carried out by the construction company Ekko last week.
After pressure from the neighborhood and meetings with the company, the Public Ministry recommended the suspension of the cuts to analyze whether there is any irregularity or any conflict with public interest.
Thirty trees were cut down in the meantime — authorization was given in February. The area has more than 380,000 m² and includes several lots, including the land of a golf course bought by the São Francisco Golf Club, created in the 1930s by the Matarazzo family.
The authorization for the removal of trees only refers to the area of the Golf Club São Francisco, which is privately owned and where there is a project to build a sales stand.
Sought, the Ekko Group informed that the actions of cuts related to the construction of the sales stand of the Reserva Golf development took place in accordance with the license granted by the city hall, under approval of Organs responsible bodies, following the current legislation.
Neighborhood residents, however, want to challenge the very content of the permit.
“Our main consideration is that the forest is a public good, not just a private one, and the social function of this property is environmental protection. Starting the enterprise in the woods instead of starting in the grass seems to us to be an abuse of the property right to be analyzed by the authorities”, says lawyer Lavinia Junqueira, a resident of the region and one of the representatives of the movement that organized itself against deforestation.
According to the Osasco City Hall, the construction company Ekko entered the authorization processes for the construction of the projects and later requested the removal of the necessary trees. Residents also demand approval from Cetesb (Companhia Ambiental do Estado de São Paulo), an agency that monitors, among other data, air quality.
In the forest massif, according to a count by the Municipality of Osasco itself, there are 769 trees, 457 of which are native, 269 are exotic and 43 are dead. Of these, the suppression of 60 native trees, 126 exotic trees and 7 dead trees was authorized.
For the total of these 193 trees that could be removed, environmental compensation was established with the planting of 2,722 seedlings in the same perimeter.
“We emphasize that in this area, the possibility of using the land is 15% of the land for construction”, says the City Hall of Osasco, through its press office. “For the construction, priority was given to using the edges of the area, where the existing trees are mostly eucalyptus and pine”.
In addition to the golf course, the planned perimeter of the condominium includes a school, a restaurant and a hotel. It is an area that contrasts with the poorer parts of the neighborhood, remnants of favelas that, with the arrival of infrastructure, were removed from the region. Favelas were removed in that region in actions promoted by the State, before the first large condominiums appeared, just over a decade ago.
With a problem similar to other municipalities in the Greater ABC region, Osasco currently has 2.6 m² of green area per inhabitant, against the 12 m² per inhabitant recommended for cities by the WHO (World Health Organization).
Anyone who moves less than a kilometer away from the green area of those lands can notice that the city is gaining arid contours and that the large condominiums benefit from a quality of life that poorer neighbors do not have.
As it is a dispute over a green area on land that is private, the case is similar to that of the creation of the Augusta park, opened in the capital of São Paulo last year, after a decade of conflicts.
According to the São Paulo Public Ministry, the agency’s interference responded to a request from residents, and Ekko agreed to reduce the cuts to 70 units, ceasing the process “until the classification of the species present at the site is presented.”
The Public Prosecutor’s Office also informed that a civil inquiry is being carried out by the Public Prosecutor’s Office to monitor and supervise the work of the Golf Club São Francisco.
The construction company Ekko had already been the subject of protests by residents of Osasco on previous occasions, in the last five years. There were complaints about the construction of a condominium called The House and buildings that sold the privilege of overlooking the woods of the golf club, now threatened.
Among the complaints, it was pointed out that the construction company had left, in The House condominium, only one meter of sidewalk on one of the roads that border the condominium land.
Before the 30 trees were felled earlier this year, the number of records of tree suppression in that neighborhood by the Osasco City Hall was one (in 2017), two (2018), eight (2019), three (2020) and four (in 2021). Thus, the sum of the five years represents 45% of what was already felled at the beginning of this year.
“Always considering the premise of dialogue with the local community, the construction company Ekko Group emphasizes that, even having authorization to cut 193 trees, it reduced this amount to a total of 70 units. New actions will only take place after signing a Term of Adjustment of Conduct with the City Hall and the Public Prosecutor’s Office and will be monitored by local authorities”, says the company’s note.
Regarding the complaints regarding The House development, Ekko Group says it is “a completely regular construction, with a project approved by Organs competent bodies”.
