Maria Alejandra Escovar and Alba Ruiz

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Key Words: urban development, environmental injustice, infrastructure, ecosystem restoration

 

Introduction

This case study will use the framework of political ecology to analyse how and why the urban development project of constructing a highway between two coastal cities in Colombia led to the production of certain environmental injustices.

 

The Political Ecology Framework

Swyngedouw, Kaïka and Castro’s (2002) understanding of socio-physical spaces and interactions as being politically charged will be useful in assessing the case-study. We will also use Dobson’s (2003) work to relate the concept of environmental (in)justice to the ensuing distribution of socio-environmental resources and burdens as a result of infrastructure construction projects, such as the one we will analyse here. Finally, Beckerman’s (2006) work reminds us to consider long term impacts of an intervention of this magnitude and how it might affect future generations to whom we have a moral obligation: ensuring socio-environmental conditions necessary to guarantee their capacity to carry out their own projects. With this in mind, we will identify some of the “winners” and “losers” of the analysed project, assessing across different scales what kind of benefits and burdens were produced and how they were distributed.

 

The urban development project: The Swamp and the Highway

The Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta (CGSM) is a fragile coastal ecosystem around a swamp, constituted mostly of mangrove forests, located in the north of Colombia. This estuarine system is the largest of its kind in the Caribbean area. Coastal lagoons, creeks and mangrove swamps cover approximately 1280 km² in the area (Aguilera, 2011). Four fishing towns on the northern coast of the system and three stilt house villages in the two larger water bodies comprise an approximate total population of 20 000 people of which 3200 are fishermen.

Since 1956, anthropogenic alterations began to alter the hydrological regime of this estuarine ecosystem, primarily because of the construction of a highway along Isla de Salamanca but also because of the development of roads, dikes and berms along the eastern bank of the Magdalena River. The construction of the highway along Isla de Salamanca was a government initiative that was on-going between 1956 and 1960. It intended to consolidate the national market by linking Colombia’s regions with highways connecting the main cities. (Aguilera, 2011; MinAmbiente, 2007). The civil works interrupted all but one of the natural connections between the sea and the local ecosystem as well as most of the ground water flow due to soil sedimentation.

These anthropogenic activities resulted in numerous environmental burdens such as the reduction of mangrove swamps by 65% between 1956 and 1995 due to an increase in the soil’s salinity; degraded water quality and the reduction in fishing production from 27,000 ton/year (1967) to 1,785 ton/year (1987) as well as a reduction in diversity (Aguilera, 2011). Furthermore, the depletion of the estuarine ecosystem led to the decline of the quality of life for human populations in the area. The socio-economic conditions of local communities have been characterized by extreme poverty and governmental insufficiency in the fulfilment of basic needs and services such as drinking water, sanitation, health and education.

 

The Socio-environmental Injustices

We analysed this case from the point of view of its economic, physical and social dimensions in order to define to what extend the construction of the highway was a success and what kind of socio-environmental injustices had emerged. The analysis is done on different scales, from a “national market” outlook to focusing on local swamp communities.

Economic dimension

In 1958, the Colombian central government chose Barranquilla (one of the closest cities to the Ciénaga) as the first industrial free-trade zone, since the recently-built road connected the city to several coastal urban centres. Furthermore, Barranquilla’s port was connected to the central area of the country, where many of the traded products were being produced. The economic growth associated with the increased activities of the Caribbean ports and international trade attracted regional migration and the city’s population rose to more than 3 million inhabitants by 2010. However, the fishing sector productivity was being negatively affected because of the fast depletion of fish and seafood population even though a majority of the inhabitants of the area had depended economically on the activity to make a living. The crisis for fishermen caused a social crisis, which reproduced existing poverty conditions.

Physical dimension

The barrier preventing water exchanges between the swamp and the sea caused a rise in the salinity of the water and a decrease in the biodiversity of the ecosystem (mangroves, crustaceans, fishes, reptiles, birds). Therefore, the development project caused losses of fauna and flora in the swamp and caused system imbalances and increased fragility of this already complex and sensitive ecosystem.

Social dimension

The physical aspects of the project had social impacts, as many local inhabitants depended on fishing as part of their livelihood. The reduction in the buying and selling of fishing products by swamp communities near the Ciénaga reduced their expected level of income. This situation reproduced conditions of poverty and caused the displacement of families to urban centres to work in the tourism sector.  Moreover, there were some changes in these communities’ social organisation. The change in expectations of access to resources and the weak restructuration of social groups based on uncertainty caused the rupture of social networks.

 

Conclusion

Returning now to Beckerman’s (2006) concept of intergenerational justice, we realise the full impact of the road 60 years after it was built- many issues related to its construction are still far from being solved. This shows how engineering approaches that do not take into account socio-environmental factors have long-term impacts.  The importance of assessing these impacts in development projects prior to its implementation cannot be underestimated. Even though the Ciénaga was declared as a protected area and despite the creation of the National Institute of Renewable Natural Resources and Environment in 1968, the restoration of the ecosystem has had several technical and political obstacles and local communities have been excluded from decision-making processes. The analysis of socio-environmental injustices and the application of Dobson’s (2003) framework in our case-study clearly demonstrate that the development of robust infrastructure may result in the uneven distribution of environmental burdens and may put local communities in a situation of increased vulnerability. Moreover, this situation reinforces Swyngedouw, Kaïka and Castro’s (2002) argument that large infrastructure development processes should recognise actors on multiple scales and that interactions between humans and nature are necessarily politically charged.

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CITE THIS ARTICLE

Escovar, M. and Ruiz, A. (2014). Urban development project and environmental injustice: A case study of Barranquilla (Ciénaga Highway, Colombia) | UCL Encyclopaedia of Political Ecology. [online] Available at: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/esd/urban-development-project-and-environmental-injustice-a-case-study-of-barranquilla-cienaga-highway-colombia/

 
Bibliography:

Aguilera, M., (ed.), (2011), La economía de las ciénagas del Caribe colombiano, (Bogota: Banco de la República).

Beckerman, W., (2006), ‘The impossibility of a theory of intergenerational justice’ in Tremme, J., C., (ed.), Handbook of Intergenerational Justice, pp. 53–71.

Dobson, A., (2003), ‘Social justice and environmental sustainability : ne’er the twain shall meet?’ In  Agyeman, J., Bullard, R., D., and Evans, B., (eds.), Just Sustainabilities: development in an unequal world, (London: Earthscan), pp. 83–95.

MinAmbiente, (2007), Plan de Manejo: Santuario de flora y fauna de la Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta. Bogota, Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial.

Swyngedouw, E., Kaïka, M., and Castro, E., (2002), ‘Urban Water: A Political-Ecology Perspective’, Built Environment, 28 (2), pp.124–137.

 

Loan Diep and Iris Kühnlein

 

Key words: New governing techniques, innovative management, integrated waste and flood management, participatory governance

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Introduction

In order to explore new governing techniques that can foster sustainable development in urban contexts, the case of Curitiba – a city located in the South of Brazil (Figure 1) – is analysed in this paper. In recent decades, the city has become a reference for innovative urban planning in terms of social, environmental and economic considerations at the level of management. Particularly during Jaime Lerner’s administration, the city was governed in a way that perceived it as an organism, implying its components were connected to a whole. Framing the city in such a way has resulted in integrated waste and flood management techniques, which are briefly discussed below.

Two political ecology frameworks will be used to assess the success and shortcomings of Curitiba’s governance techniques for sustainable development. The first is inspired from Dryzek’s (2013) understanding of diverse environmental discourses and what each can do for the achievement of sustainability. The second is a contribution of Swyngedouw, who brings attention to the social outcomes of interventions to the physical and biological environment. He argues these are never neutral as they always result in both positive and negative outcomes for different social groups (Swyngedouw et al., 2002).

Curitiba’s Waste Management

In 2010, the city of Curitiba obtained the “Globe Award of Sustainable City” award (Anibal, 2010). It became famous for its numerous sustainability-related projects, many of which were led by Jaime Lerner and the Urban Planning and Research Institute (IPPUC). Lerner, along with the IPPUC team, became internationally renowned for their creative and holistic way of planning and managing Curitiba.  For example, the idea of “urban acupuncture” was promoted, a planning approach that merges urban design with the Chinese knowledge system built around the practice of acupuncture. Together, this planning method conceives cities as single organisms and encourages small-scale interventions in crucial points that, together, can lead to a positive spill over effect that benefits the city as a whole entity (Macedo, 2004).

Expressions of this integrated way of seeing and managing Curitiba are found in the city’s waste management projects. “Garbage is not Garbage”, was an initiative to engage society in recycling projects, through campaigns in schools and neighbourhoods to promote garbage separation. The goal was to involve children as well as raising awareness among their parents. In the recycling plants, people with social integration issues were employed, providing opportunities for those who needed them most (Keuhn, 2007). Hence a single initiative tackled different issues at once: improvement of recycling processes, environmental education and employment of certain social groups.

Parallel to this, the “Green Exchange Programme” and “Buying of Garbage Programme” constituted two novel projects. The “Green Exchange Programme” was conceived as an idea of reaching informal settlement areas where poverty was the severest, and where trucks from the “Garbage that is not Garbage” could not collect rubbish due to the narrowness of the streets. The programme invited inhabitants to collect recyclable garbage from their area. In return of every four kilos of garbage, they would receive one kilo of fresh fruits and vegetables from local farmers. Similarly, in the “Buying of Garbage Programme”, ‘garbage collectors’ were provided with big trolleys in order to collect recyclable garbage in the city. For every ten kilos collected, they would get one kilo of fruits and vegetables, vouchers for supermarket groceries or bus journeys in return (Keuhn, 2007). These two initiatives also tackled problems of poverty, waste and food insecurity with single interventions that led to a positive spill over effect.

Curitiba’s Flood Management

Lerner and the IPPUC’s approaches in flood management were also part of innovative governance contributing to the city. Curitiba has one of the longest rainfall periods in Brazil, and its main river basin is located in a large plain that is extremely prone to flooding (Warren, 2013). Despite the major issues of flood risks preventing the development of the area, urbanisation has taken place at a considerably high pace. According to Tucci (2004), this has increased the risk of flooding six-fold in the basin of Curitiba Metropolitan Area.

While common practice in flood management includes the drainage of wetlands, the construction of large defence structures or technologically sophisticated solutions, Lerner’s administration adopted alternative approaches (McKibben, 2005). The municipality chose to undertake principles of resource conservation and simple urban designs. The integrated planning scheme included sub-projects that were designed and implemented together (Tucci, 2002):

–          The digging of a channel aiming at increasing river flow capacity

–          The development of parks acting as buffers to absorb precipitation runoff

–          The construction of small dams across the rivers of Curitiba

–          The creation of ponds to facilitate drainage control

Because there has not been any major flood damage since the elaboration of the projects, Curitiba’s flood management strategy has been considered a major success. It also transformed a large urban area into a green landscape. The projects made room for public participation whereby the local population worked together with architects to elaborate the plans (Tucci, 2004). Low-income residents were employed for the maintenance of the parks over the short and long term. A majority of the urban poor was involved in the construction part of the project in order to enhance technocratic capacity-building (Weston, 2012). Furthermore, the plans were tailored to include the role of sheep to trim the extensive grass of newly created parks, which required the creation of urban shepherd jobs (Keuhn, 2007). Lerner and the IPPUC’s environmental policies therefore demonstrated all-inclusive and sustainable considerations.

 

Theoretical Analysis Using Two Political Ecology Frameworks
The various integrated planning interventions in specific areas of Curitiba have led to multiple beneficial effects for the development of the city as a whole. The municipal government made explicit efforts to ensure the cohesion between flood control, waste management and also transport by involving the population and giving strong consideration to environmental conservation as key features of the strategy.

The characteristics of the policies described above can be assessed using Dryzek’s work on environmental governance. Dryzek points out the importance of considering different discourses of environmental management, and values the role of each of them for policy-making that aims to achieve sustainable development (Dryzek, 2013). These discourses include:

–          Administrative rationalism (i.e. decisions should be made by experts)

–          Democratic pragmatism (i.e. decisions should be democratic)

–        Market rationalism (i.e. governance should be left to the market, though it is not developed here)

Under Lerner’s government, main decisions in flood management were made by engineers and architects (Tucci, 2004). In fact, Lerner is an architect and urban planner himself (Mikesh, 2009). This expert-led governance demonstrated its benefits as the impact of floods was reduced. Curitiba’s flood management also demonstrated characteristics of democratic governance through the involvement of low-income residents within the projects, from their elaboration, design, implementation, and to their maintenance in the long-term. Moreover, democratic waste management was recognised by enhancing local participation, public interest and the promotion of environmental citizenship.

Drawing from these observations, decision-making in Curitiba seems to have been successful in terms of social justice and environmental sustainability. Governance has been predominantly orientated towards administrative rationalism and democratic pragmatism, a collaboration that has been celebrated by theorists and practitioners throughout the world. However, the use of additional political ecology theories can also bring out some important flaws related to these policies.

Political ecologists such as Swyngedouw state that changes in the bio-physical fabric inevitably have both positive and negative impacts for different social groups (Swyngedouw Kaïka and Casto, 2002). From this point of view, the marginalisation of particular social groups can be explored and understood (Robbins, 2012). Whilst some local communities have participated in the flood management process of Curitiba, a part of the population initially living in the area was evicted for the construction of the flood management sub-projects (Tucci, 2002). Furthermore, one of the purposes of the channel was to create a physical barrier to prevent the expansion of settlements into the parks (ICLEI, 2002). This was mostly because of the recreational facilities and aquatic sports lanes in the parks that increased market value and land prices, which restricted access to a certain elite. The socially inclusive aspect of the projects can therefore be questioned.

In addition, political ecologists such as Krause (2012) would argue that non-human actors have been ignored in many crucial aspects. For example, the ecological impacts of dams and changes in the river flow with the construction of the channel are believed to be unsustainable in the long term. The “rights of nature” should thus have been considered for more environmentally sustainable policies (Nash, 1989). Further collaboration and knowledge-sharing with ecologists might have led to a stronger consideration of long-term ecological impacts of Lerner’s flood management approach, an element that is somehow missing from Swyngedouw’s arguments (Page, 2003). Similarly, the engagement of other actors such as environmental groups – which are relatively absent from Dryzek’s discussions in The Politics of the Earth – might have led to different environmental actions. For example, deep ecologists would arguably advocate for an abandon of the floodplain and a full restoration of its ecosystems. However, this would have compromised the municipality’s integrated urban management and excluded the area from the rest of the city.

Conclusion

Despite some of the critiques related to the waste and flood management in Curitiba, integrated environmental planning approaches undertaken by the local government have been portrayed as models of sustainability around the world (McKibben, 2005). The urban management innovations introduced by Lerner and the IPPUC result from a certain perception of the cities as a single entity composed of interconnected parts. Such concept has enabled the development of policies that satisfy both social and environmental considerations. Furthermore, Curitiba’s governance approach promoted shared responsibility, involving citizens in the environmental management of the city. The application of these governance strategies have continued to expand and today and Curitiba certainly still distinguishes itself from other cities of the Global South in terms of sustainable development.

 

CITE THIS ARTICLE

Diep, L. and Kühnlein, I. (2014). Sustainable Development and New Techniques of Governance: The Case of Curitiba from a Political Ecology Perspective | UCL Encyclopaedia of Political Ecology. [online] Available at: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/esd/sustainable-development-and-new-techniques-of-governance-the-case-of-curitiba-from-a-political-ecology-perspective/

 

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Dryzek, J., (2013), The Politics of the Earth, (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

ICLEI (2012), ‘Curitiba: orienting urban planning to sustainability’, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, [Online], Available at: http://www.iclei.org.br/polics/CD/P2_4_Estudos%20de%20Caso/1_Planejamento%20Urbano/ PDF106_EC77_Curitiba_ing.PDF. [Accessed: 16th January 2014].

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Macedo, J. (2004), ‘Curitiba’, Cities, 21 (6), pp. 537-549.

McKibben, B., (2005), ‘Curitiba: a global model for development’, Common Dreams, [Online], Available at: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1108-33.htm. [Accessed: 17th November 2013].

Mikesh, N., (2009), ‘Curitiba, Brazil’, ICLEI, [Online], Available at: http://depts.washington.edu/open2100/Resources/1_OpenSpaceSystems/Open_Space_Systems/ Curitiba%20Case%20Study.pdf. [Accessed: 1st November 2013]

Nash, R.F., (1989), The Rights of Nature: a History of Environmental Ethics, (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press).

Page, B. (2003) ‘The political ecology of Prunus africana in Cameroon’, Area, 35 (4), pp. 357-370.

Robbins, P., (2012), Political Ecology: a Critical Introduction, (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell).

Swyngedouw, E., Kaika, M., Castro, E., (2002) ‘Urban water: a political-ecology perspective’, Built Environment, 28 (2), pp. 124-137.

Tucci, C. E. M., (2002), ‘Flood control and urban drainage management in Brazil’, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, [Online], Available at: http://www.rhama.net/download/artigos/artigo16.pdf. [Accessed: 16th November 2013].

Tucci, C. E. M., (2004), ‘Brazil: flood management in Curitiba Metropolitan Area’, WMO: GWP Associated Programme on Flood Management, Available at: http://www.apfm.info/publications/casestudies/cs_brazil_full.pdf. [Accessed: 16th November 2013].

Warren (2013) ‘Flood Management in Curitiba Metropolitan Area, Brazil’, Institute for International Urban Development, [Online], Available at: http://i2ud.org/2013/08/flood-management-in-curitiba-metoropolitan-area-brazil/. [Accessed: 10th November 2013].

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