Investigações para a produção emancipatória de um parque urbano

Abstract

This work discusses the socionatural production of the city of Belo Horizonte in order to indicate new perspectives for the inclusion of the population in the process of environmental recovery of the city. The main resource of this discussion is the experience of Pocim Vivo, a group which works in Aglomerado da Serra, a large favela located in the center-south region of Belo Horizonte. The group investigates self-managing strategies for the consolidation of a community urban park. The experience occurred in one of the reminiscent areas of the Program Vila Viva, executed by URBEL, in Aglomerado da Serra. The area was, as many others were, the stage of a very violent process of evictions and fragmentation of the territory, under the excuse of the environmental recovery of the watercourses and springs. To enhance the analysis, it is necessary to comprehend the institutional procedures which led to this process, from a historical perspective of the municipal policies regarding precarious settlements such as the favelas. In this context, Pocim Vivo group performed, in the years 2016 and 2017, series of activities in search of the involvement of the community and the transformation of the reality they live in. The group operates with the legitimation of the municipality, under a covenant named Adopt the greenery. The goal of this instrument is the partnership between the government and the society in order to undertake environmental improvements in public green areas. It is important to deepen into the possibilities promoted by such nstrument, as well as the aspects which prevent it from being an effective tool of shared management, promoting real autonomy gains to the population. It is possible, then, to delineate proposals for the continuity and the evolution of the instrument towards its democratization, turning it into a concrete tool of involvement of the population in an effective and lasting recovery of the urban environment. Thus, the main goal of this work is to point out new means not only for the work of Pocim Vivo, but for multiplying practices that merge population and nature in a democratic, inclusive and emancipatory way.