Green My Favela and Extract

Symposium:


Session Title:
  • Latin American Forum #2

Presentation Title:
  • Green My Favela and Extract

Presenter(s):


Venue(s):


Abstract:

  • Panel: Latin American Forum #2

    Extract explores the mineral extraction economy on Navajo Nation and the surrounding tribal lands of the Southwestern United States.  The research was conducted with the assistance of the Navajo Abandoned Mine Lands Reclamation project, and specifically looks at land use impact from the coal and uranium industries.   Extract reveals a regional portrait of our continued rationalization for the systematic poisoning of land, territories, and people, motivated by decades of disenfranchisement and greed and rendered invisible by our systems of power. Regions studied include McKinley coal Mine, San Juan and the Four corners coal plants, abandoned uranium mines in Monument Valley Utrah and Arizona, the Grants Mineral Belt, and the Shiprock disposal cell. learekow.com/extract

    Located in the dense urban slums of Rio de Janeiro, Green My Favela (GMF) works with favela residents to reclaim chronically degraded land and to create productive, sustainable green space. We work through collaborations with individuals, NGOs, and schools, and partner with the public sector and cultural innovators to remediate neglected and abused land; to cultivate food security; to create environmentally responsible and desirable public space; to problem solve for some of the favela’s critical needs; and to skill share with a wide range of participants. This paper discusses how we link creative action to processes that integrate with policy decisions; to form alternative economic models; to physically improve the quality of land and mitigate erosion; to build new organizational networks; and to improve public space. This paper will also discuss how GMF brings new perspectives and proof-of-concept to many fields, including urban planning, social innovation design, environmental law and ethics, cultural and environmental geography, landscape architecture, and more. We also discuss how, through integrated citizen action, GMF provides fresh social and economic templates that can be used to inform practical models that merge innovative public mobilization with top-down policy through cultivating more environmentally responsible land use. In a world where one out of six people currently live in slum conditions, and with an estimated one of three people expected to be living this way by 2050, there is a critical need to build collaborations with the informal sectors of society to improve social space; to build alternative, sustainable economic opportunities; to improve air and soil quality; and to preserve and create green space. greenmyfavela.org

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