Brazil: ‘We’re Here Fighting for Our Agriculture’: Urban Farmers in Rio de Janeiro’s Vargens Region Resist Real Estate Speculation and Floods
All these foods are grown and sold by small-scale farmers with allotments and farms in an area known as the Vargens Region in Rio de Janeiro’s West Zone.
By Felipe Migliani
RioOnWatch
August 10, 2023
Excerpt:
The Vargens Region is part of Rio de Janeiro City Planning Area 4 (AP4), made up of 19 neighborhoods in the city’s West Zone. AP4’s population grew from 909,955 in 2010 to an estimated 1,011,946 in 2015. The area started growing in the 1960s with the start of the Guanabara State urbanization plan in what was then the capital of Brazil. Commissioned to architect Lúcio Costa, the project involved the planned settlement of the AP4 region.
The idea was to balance built up areas with green areas and integrate the city’s North, South, and West Zones based on an expansive metropolitan perspective. According to the article Recent urban dynamics in the city of Rio de Janeiro: considerations based on data analysis of the IBGE census and municipal urban licensing by architect and urban planner Henrique Barandier, AP4 has experienced the largest population and housing increase in the city in recent decades. The population of AP4 grew 47.69% from 1980 to 1991, 29.59% from 1991 to 2000, and 33.33% from 2000 to 2010.
