Conflicts After the Tragedy in the Mountains of the State of Rio de Janeiro in 2011: The Relationship Between Residents of Córrego d’Antas and the Zoning of Evacuation Areas for an Adaptation to Climate Change

Abstract

The Zoning of Evacuation Areas, carried out by Rio de Janeiro’s State Environment Institute (INEA) after the 2011 tragedy in the state mountains, has been causing conflict. This paper evaluates such zoning and whether the constructions that mandatorily had to be unoccupied were, in fact, unoccupied. The constructions that had to be unoccupied were listed based on images from 2011. Using images from 2014, the unoccupied constructions were quantified and located. Field work was carried out to check whether the owners of the remaining constructions had remained there. The zoning did not consider the dwellers’ knowledge and demands. The methods used by INEA were not made public, making it impossible to evaluate whether it was adequate to the process of removing the dwellers. Therefore, there were many conflicts. Even today, part of the constructions in high-risk areas have not yet been unoccupied. The continuation of this project will evaluate whether these constructions are really in risk areas in order to instrumentalize the community in discussing it.