History of the struggle of the people of the urban forest

Since collective memory in Brazil has been neglected, it is important to know the course that has brought together the efforts of many citizens to protect an important world natural heritage. Know the history of protecting São Paulo’s Green Belt.

1980s (86 to 89) – The movement led by the Community Council of the Administrative Region of Santana –Tucuruvi, is organized and, by blocking international funding, resists the construction of the Urban Perimeter Road (VPM), which was the brainchild of the Jânio Quadros Government and that would have had a severe impact on the Horto  Florestal and Serra da Cantareira.

From 1990 to 1995;  The popular campaign against the VPM developed in two directions: on one side funds were blocked at source and on the other a broad national and international mobilization petitioned UNESCO to create the RBCVCSP. Over a two-year period 150,000 signatures were collected for the creation of the Reserve and paralysation of the VPM.  The campaign was very successful and international diplomacy by the MaB UNESCO happened in June 1994, lidered by Vera Lúcia, when the Biosphere Reserve of the City of São Paulo Green Belt, including the Horto Florestal and the Serra da Cantareira, was created.

From 1995 to 2004: The VPM Project was scrapped and the BELTWAY Project launched – the Government’s official propaganda appropriated the environmentalist discourse and sold the Beltway as a clean construction job that would solve traffic and pollution problems in the densely urbanized center. The western stretch was handed over on October 11, 2002. From 2002 the community and approximately 40 NGOs called upon the Public Prosecutor to suspend public hearings. In 2004, residents of the Serra da Cantareira and surrounding areas organized a demonstration, for which some  4000 people turned out. Many articulations and the unfavorable opinion of the Biosphere Reserve prevented the construction of the northern stretch, considered the most important for São Paulo from the environmental point of view.

2005 to 2009: Public civil enquiries denounce irregularities and project corruption continues being investigated. Construction of the Beltway, which has already cost public coffers more than R$ 10 billion since 1998, has been the object of various accusations of overbilling since 2001. The Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Republic and the Federal Police have requested details of supposed losses to public coffers caused by the contactor, which are calculated at R$ 39.6 million.

2010: The southern stretch was handed over on 1April 1, 2010,  and the northern stretch is the fourth and last stage of the work. The option that passes through the buffer zone of the Serra [hills] is announced as being preferred by DERSA to ‘close’ the ring. Projections of the route proposed for the northern stretch of the Beltway, both along the Preferred Intermediary Alternative as well as the Inner Alternative, coincide with the buffer zones or even with areas properly called Conservation Units (CUs) or other legitimately protected areas.

Faced with the imminent threat of the northern section of the beltway cutting through 44 km of the buffer zone of the Serra da Cantareira (the preferred route announced by DERSA [Highway development Company] in October 2010), thousands of citizens will carry out a peaceful demonstration of citizenship as protest against the project for the northern stretch of the beltway. This will be the third major demonstration in the 20-year history of the S.O.S. Cantareira Movement.

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