Urbanization-Conservation Conflict in Lima, Peru's Lomas Ecosystem

Luisa Venegoni Justice for Invaders? Urbanization-Conservation Conflict in Lima, Peru’s Lomas Ecosystem Abstract: Housing scarcity and urban growth in Lima, Peru over the past 70 years have resulted in the expansion of informal housing settlements into several sensitive ecological zones known as the lomas. In response, environmentalists have formed conservation organizations dedicated to protecting the ecosystem. While many of these groups’ strategies involve education and ecotourism, their members also loudly denounce the presence of informal settlers—or “invaders”—who are often some of the city’s poorest and most marginalized populations. Environmental degradation in the lomas ecosystem has come to be framed as a problem caused by the poor and solved by removing the poor. This anti-invader rhetoric results in the vilification of informal settlers. This paper asks how this vilification shapes the environmental protection movement in the lomas, and asks how conservationists can protect the ecosystem while simultaneously promoting justice for these populations. I argue that environmental organizations’ scapegoating of informal settlers results in ineffective strategy, and that shifting emphasis away from anti-invasion rhetoric and toward pro-poor rhetoric highlighting solutions to housing scarcity would allow these groups to simultaneously protect the ecosystem and the housing rights of the poor. I study these organizations’ strategies and rhetoric through a review of their Facebook activity and draw from literature on environmental ethics and housing policy. My research presents insight into inconsistencies and contradictions between traditional environmentalism and environmental justice, and considers the value of synergistic activism strategies. INTRODUCTION Is environmental conservation always compatible with human justice? For environmental philosopher Peter Wenz, there are no inherent conflicts between traditional environmentalism and environmental justice.1 Environmentalism, he writes, never, or extremely rarely, harms the poor. In a sensitive ecosystem in the foothills of Lima’s periphery, however, Wenz’s claim is called into question. Impoverished homeless migrants seeking a place to settle in the outskirts of the city are establishing informal settlements in a sensitive and fragile ecosystem known as the lomas. Conservationists are calling for their eviction. In a city with a housing deficit of 1.8 million homes, these populations have nowhere to go. Where is the justice for the poor in this environmental movement? Environmental organizations dedicated to fiercely protecting the lomas have emerged over the past decade, all denouncing the progression of informal settlements, or “invasions.” Despite their actions, informal settlement continues to threaten the ecosystem through habitat destruction, pollution, and the introduction of invasive species. In response to continued invasions, environmental groups have taken to pointing fingers and shaking fists at government bodies, land traffickers, and the informal settlers—the “invaders”— themselves. The aim of this paper is to evaluate how the vilification of informal settlers shapes the environmental movement in the lomas, and to ask how conservationists’ goals can be achieved in a way that does not compromise, but rather, promotes, justice for the poor. I argue that environmental organizations’ presentation of informal settlers as environmental delinquents results in ineffective strategy, and that shifting emphasis away from anti-invasion rhetoric and toward pro-poor rhetoric that 1 Peter Wenz, “Does Environmentalism Promote Injustice for the Poor?,” in Environmental Justice and Environmentalism: The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2007). highlights solutions to housing scarcity would allow these groups to simultaneously protect the ecosystem and the housing rights of the poor. My approach to this study is two pronged. Firstly, I show how environmental organizations are approaching the problem and utilizing strategies in a way that presents conservation as incompatible with protections for marginalized populations. I study how the problem is framed and perceived by drawing from Facebook posts run by organizations or lomas activists, focusing primarily on 1) commentary related to how government entities are responding to informal settlement in the lomas and 2) the language used to vilify informal settlers. The pages of study include environmental groups: Proyecto Lomas, Lomas de Mangomarca Comité Ecoturistico, Lomas del Paraíso-VMT2, and Circuito Ecoturístico de Lomas de Amancaes, and pages designed to bring activists and organizers together: Red de Lomas del Perú, Red de Lomeros de Lima, and Lomas de Lima, Lomas de todos! I also include posts from some activists’ personal pages. From my analysis of these sources, I illustrate how the current framing of the problem contributes to the employment of ineffective strategies that ignore the needs of the informal populations and fail to address the problem holistically. The second part of my approach involves solution generation. Here, I explain why and how current policies and approaches fail to protect the lomas, drawing from literature addressing the linkages between environment and poverty. Then, I then present a case for a reemphasis of conservation efforts towards addressing the housing scarcity in Lima, drawing on the city’s history of housing policy directed at low-income sectors. I show that this course of action reflects a more holistic and multidimensional approach to the problem and would allow groups to 2 This page represents the group Orientadores Ecoturísticos de Las Lomas del Paraíso synergistically achieve their goal of protecting the lomas while still emphasizing justice for the poor. No scholarship exists on the environmental protection movement itself in the lomas. Existing research on the ecosystem generally presents a biological approach or explores the physical effects of urbanization or tourism on the ecosystem. At a time when sustainable development and environmental justice are hot topics in Latin America, the present study will provide insight into how best to manage clashes between informal urbanization and wilderness conservation. Further, many researchers, NGOs, and organizations like the World Bank are working on solutions to urban challenges. While my research focuses specifically on the lomas ecosystem, my work can be applied to other situations of urbanization-conservation conflict to develop best practice solutions. Section I Understanding Urbanization and the Lomas Ecosystem In order to understand the issue of informal settlement in the lomas ecosystem, it is necessary to provide context for the urbanization situation in Lima. One-third of the city’s population lives in communities that originated as, or are still considered, informal settlements.3 These areas were established as poor migrant populations “invaded” unclaimed land and constructed their own homes without purchasing official land titles or following regulations. Between the 1950s and 1980s, Lima’s population growth rate skyrocketed as populations moved towards the city seeking security and economic opportunities. Acknowledging the lack of 3 Sara Bearzatto, “Cultivating the Edge: The Current Process of Expansion of the Marginal Barrios of Lima: A Sustainable Vision for José Carlos Mariátegui in San Juan de Lurigancho” (Catholic University of Leuven, 2014). housing in the city, the government did not oppose the construction of informal settlements, and actually made moves to formalize many neighborhoods. These areas that originated as informal settlements now make up what is known as the “cones” of Lima North, Lima East, and Lima South. A large majority of the city’s poorest populations reside in these peripheral cones. While the city’s growth rate has slowed since the 1990s, land invasions are still occurring in the peripheries of the city’s cones. Due to the lack of available flat land, these newer settlements have formed in the Andean foothills that surround Lima. These areas’ inhabitants often lack access to basic services such as water and trash pickup, and are isolated from economic centers. Further, self-constructed informal homes on these steep surfaces are precarious for both humans and the environment. While invaders’ land occupations are illegal in the state’s eyes, the underground sale of fake land titles often moves settlers to believe they are the true owners of their plot. Informal settlers generally do not see themselves as acting in a criminal manner. Land invasion is a tactic used by poor, powerless, and homeless populations.4 This practice continues in peripheral Lima because large numbers of Peruvians lack the resources to find shelter safely and legally. Further, informal settlers are often taken advantage of by land-trafficking mobsters. Traffickers divide up invaded land and sell fake land titles to unsuspecting needy settlers for a few hundred soles. The fact that these populations are often led to believe they have permission to occupy the land presents the question of whether these populations should really be viewed as “invaders” or just victims. 4 Olusola Olufemi, “Socio-Political Imperatives of Land Invasion and Eviction: Revisiting the Bredell Case, Johannesburg, South Africa” (Adequate and Affordable Housing for All, Toronto, Canada, 2004). In the peripheries of several districts located in the “cones” of the city, informal settlement

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