eden-magazine-issue-26-summer-2015

Enterprising communitiesRob LoweWalk ten minutes from São Conrado beach, one of Rio’smost desirable neighbourhoods, and you’ll find yourselfin Rochina, Brazil’s biggest favela. No-one is sure exactlyhow many people live in Rochina – estimates suggestthat between 150,000 to 200,000 people are packedinto the favela’s hilly 780 square metres.It’s estimated that almost a third ofRio’s population lives in favelas likeRochina.Although favelas have areputation for violent crime, it’slargely undeserved; you’re morelikely to be murdered outside of afavela than within it. Situated on ahillside overlooking the sea, Rochinahas some of best the views in thewhole city, so tour guides are notunusual, but Favelas Adventuresare different. Keen to improve thereputation of their ‘city within a city’,the inhabitants of Rochina have setup their own tour company, to showthe world what their community isreally like. Designed, organised andrun by local people who were bornand still live in the neighbourhood,the tours use that local knowledgeto go deep into the favela to placesother guides don’t know. The tripsusually include a chance to talk tolocals and get a feel for the area – theyare described as ‘visits’ not tours byFavelas Adventures. The profits fromthe visits go back into the communityand the long-term aim is to build acommunity centre for the arts in thefavela. Favelas Adventures are creatinga community enterprise out of thevery streets they live in – and they’renot alone. Across the UK communitiesare rising to the challenges of theeconomy and local governmentcuts to create neighbourhoods thatare socially, environmentally andeconomically sustainable.‘We make our own future’ readsa mural on a wall in Stokes Croft,Bristol. In April 2011, that future wasenvisaged as one in which a wellknownnational supermarket chaindid not exist – a raid on a squat turnedinto a riot that saw 52 people arrestedand the supermarket ransacked.It might seem like an odd placeto want to establish a ‘culturalquarter’ but that’s exactly what ChrisChalkley had in mind when he setup the People’s Republic of StokesCroft (PRSC). A social enterprise, itsambition is to see the area take controlof its own identity. Already home to anumber of Banksy graffiti, in recentyears the neighbourhood has become ahuge open-air gallery for local talent,turning abandoned shops and unlovedwalls into vast canvases. PRSC want toView over Rochina Favela. Photo: Alicia Nijdam-Jones (cc)24