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 is a direct threat to the lomas ecosystem.5 While land invasions in these areas has been

illegal since Municipal Ordinance n 1084 in 2007 prohibited settlement in protected areas,

government entities have failed to enforce the law.6 This situation presents an unmistakable

example of urban growth falling into conflict with environmental protection—a problem that

deserves focused attention, as this type of conflict will undoubtedly impact every region of the

globe as humans continue to urbanize rapidly.

Figure 1: Informal settlement in the Lomas de Amancaes (Winter)

                                                                                                               5 It bares mention that informal settlement in the lomas is directly damaging to the settlers’ health outcomes, as well as the ecosystem. The wet conditions in the ecosystem have been shown to contribute to respiratory illnesses like asthma. 6 Martín Huamaní and María López, “Variación de las lomas del distrito de Villa María Del Triunfo por la expansión urbana y minera” (Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2016).

Explaining why the lomas ecosystem warrants protection in the first place requires a

description of its ecological and social value. The lomas cover 70,000 hectares total, and are only

present along the coast of Peru and Northern Chile.7 The greenery blooms only in the winter

months and plays a vital role in both the water cycle and oxygen regeneration. Environmentalists

and academics often refer to the lomas as the “lungs of lima.” Due to the city’s desert location,

the lomas are the only natural greenery in the metropolitan area, making them valuable in and of

themselves. The lomas are also home to hundreds of species of flora and fauna.

While there are nearly 20 distinct lomas areas located in the Lima metropolitan area, the

present study focuses on three: the Lomas del Paraíso in Villa María del Triunfo (VMT)8, the

lomas de Mangomarca in San Juan de Lurigancho (SJL), and the Lomas de Amancaes in Rímac.

Environmental organizations and media outlets give particular attention to the problem of

informal settlement in these three areas. Through a study of satellite imagery, Huamaní and

López found that 26.3 percent of regular seasonal lomas cover in VMT was converted to

urbanized land between 1986 and 2014.9 The Lomas de Mangomarca covers about 500 hectares

and also hosts Incan archaeological sites. In addition to these areas’ ecological value, the lomas

also hold recreational, educational, and scenic value. The sites host hiking circuits and are

                                                                                                               7 The lomas emerge when winter fogs, formed by the evaporation of cold ocean water, move inland via wind and are intercepted by the low Andes foothills at between 200 and 1000 meters of elevation. The water captured by the soil allows for seasonal blooms between June and October. Humidity in the ecosystem ranges from 80 to 100 percent, creating perfect conditions for precipitation in the form of a clear wet fog known as garua that characterizes the lomas environment. It is estimated that the ecosystem holds 815 species of flora, 40 percent of which are endemic to specific lomas islands. During El Niño years, the lomas land coverage is much greater due to increased precipitation. For more about the lomas ecosystem, see Huamaní and López 2016. 8 See Reyes Rodríguez, “Impactos del turismo en las lomas de paraíso en el distrito de Villa María del Triunfo” 9 Huamaní and López, “Variación de las lomas del distrito de Villa María Del Triunfo por la expansión urbana y minera.”

frequented by students as field trip destinations. For these reasons, environmental organizations

consider the lomas to be valuable and worthy of protection. These groups and their activists work

to preserve the ecosystem by 1) educating populations on the lomas’ ecological and social value

2) promoting ecotourism and 3) calling for district and municipal government entities to take

actions to halt informal settlement in the areas.

Figure 2: Lomas areas in the Lima Metropolitan Area

Figure 3: Informal settlement in the Lomas de Mangomarca (Summer)

Section II Conservation Strategies

A review of the past nine months of lomas conservation groups’ Facebook activity

reveals that a majority of endeavors focus on spreading awareness about the ecosystem’s value.

On the Lomas del Paraíso ecotourism page, the group’s admins most frequently posted about

hosting schoolchildren and college students for educational visits to the lomas. Over nine

months, the page shared photos of thirteen different school groups. Other frequently discussed

strategies from the Lomas de Mangomarca and Lomas de Amancaes ecotourism pages include

tabling at events and fairs, hosting public hiking and volunteer maintenance events, and

presenting at workshops and forums. In an interview with the director of the Lomas de

Mangomarca Comité Ecoturistico, she discussed prioritizing environmental awareness education

for children living in surrounding areas. Overall, these groups have made functional and

comprehensive efforts in educating the public, encouraging environmental awareness and

appreciation, and beautifying and maintaining the areas. These three ecotourism groups, in

conjunction with others, also discuss holding meetings with political figures including the

mayors of their respective districts, members of congress, and a director from the Ministry of the

Environment.

Proyecto Lomas, which recently rebranded itself as a comprehensive environmental

organization called Centro Urbes, focused its efforts on its #salvamoslaslomas campaign up

through 2014. The campaign’s goal was to integrate proposals on development related to the

lomas ecosystem into political agendas. In September 2014, the group was able to organize the

candidates in the upcoming municipal mayoral elections to sign a political pact committing them

to protect these ecosystems should they be elected. The group also sought support from district

mayors, asking that they back conservation efforts at the local level.

Discussion of the #salvamoslaslomas campaign suggests that pushing government bodies

to take action resulted in undertakings intended to protect the ecosystem. In 2014, the Ministry of

Agriculture and Irrigation (MINAGRI) added 10 lomas areas to their list of fragile ecosystems,

including the Lomas del Paraíso and the Lomas de Amancaes. Inclusion on this list means the

government will give special attention to the conservation of these areas. This special attention

came in the form of the “Lomas de Lima” program in 2013, an initiative of the Ministry of the

Environment and Mayor Susan Villarán. The project included the creation of three tourist

circuits in the Lomas de Paraíso, Lomas de Mangomarca, and Lomas de Lúcumo. Other major

plans included the creation of a 10,400-hectare Regional Conservation Area and three lomas

recreation parks, coordinated by the National Service of Protected Natural Areas (SERNANP).

While the three tourist circuits were launched later that year, the Regional Conservation Area

and the lomas parks projects were put on hold when Villarán lost the 2014 mayoral election to

Luis Casteñeda.10 While the establishment of a Regional Conservation Area may have meant

great things for ecotourism, various studies show that establishing a protected natural area is not

always effective in preventing informal urbanization and land degradation.11121314 Further,

                                                                                                               10 “Proyecto sobre protección de lomas estaría estancado desde que inició gestión de Castañeda,” Actualidad Ambiental, October 19, 2016.Actualidad Ambiental, October 19, 2016. 11 Keith Pezzoli, “Mexico City’s Contested Ecological Reserve,” in Human Settlements and Planning for Ecological Sustainability (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1998). 12 Wenz, “Does Environmentalism Promote Injustice for the Poor?” 13 Adrian Guillermo Aguilar, “Peri-Urbanization, Illegal Settlements and Environmental Impact in Mexico City,” Cities 25, no. 3 (June 2008): 133–45. 14 Fernanda Figueroa and Víctor Sánchez-Cordero, “Effectiveness of Natural Protected Areas to Prevent Land Use and Land Cover Change in Mexico,” Biodiversity and Conservation 17, no. 13 (December 1, 2008): 3223.

evidence from Thailand suggests that conservation areas such as national parks are sometimes

established simply as justification to keep the poor out.15

A number of Facebook posts call for the government to take punitive actions. Calls to

evict new settlers from the lomas are not uncommon, and neither are evictions in the Lima area.

In a 2015 Facebook event “Gran Marcha Verde por la Lomas de Mangomarca y de Todo San

Juan de Lurigancho,” hosted by the Lomas de Mangomarca Comité Ecotouristico, one of the

group’s seven demands was the eviction of settlers in the lomas.

While strategies for environmental awareness and communication with government

bodies are fully present in these environmental groups’ discussions, strategies for addressing the

complex problem of informal settlement are noticeably absent. Discussions pointing to the

invasion problem tend to emphasize the problem rather than a solution. In fact, much discussion

on informal settlements worldwide frame these communities as “problems” to be solved.

Solutions to the “slum problem” have historically involved disintegrating and dispersing

settlements.16 Governments sometimes justify this “slum clearance” by framing it as a way to

attack crime, when in reality, they only succeed in moving crime and poverty elsewhere.17 In

looking at settlement in the lomas, environmental organizations’ apparent failure to give

attention or effort to understanding the motivations of informal populations or to the

complexities of poverty means the situation is boiled down to an oversimplification: They are

destroying the ecosystem, so if we eliminate them, we eliminate our problem. This

overgeneralization frames informal settlers as problems and does not allow space for a

                                                                                                               15 Krishna Ghimire, “Parks and People: Livelihood Issues in National Parks Management in Thailand and Madagascar” (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 1991). 16 Alan Gilbert, “The Return of the Slum: Does Language Matter?,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 31, no. 4 (December 7, 2007). 17 Mike Davis, Planet of Slums (London: Verso, 2007).

consideration of their situation. Dangerous vilification and a lack of effective solutions is the

result.

While defenders of the lomas ecosystem may celebrate evictions, discussion of

repercussions of eviction on the settlers themselves are also absent. According to the United

Nations, forced evictions constitute a human rights violation.18 In Abuja, Nigeria, 800,000

people were evicted from informal settlements between 2003 and 2007. Urban scholar Adiukwu

Fidelis Onyekachi writes that besides the destruction of peoples’ livelihood, the result of these

forced evictions was the development of new settlements with enhanced difficulties and complex

characteristics.19 When the root causes of housing difficulties are not addressed, the difficulties

are simply moved elsewhere.

Policies designed to protect the lomas—such as Municipal Ordinance n 1084, which

prohibits settlement in the ecosystem—tend to be punitive in nature. To truly prevent

degradation, environmental policies must be preventative rather than punitive.20 Environmental

policy scholar Udo Simonis writes that punitive and reactive environmental policies often

identify and respond to the problem after it’s too late to reverse the damage.21 Further, these

types of policies are often expensive for institutions and for society. Christian Shütze noted in his

1981 “The State of Nature in the Nation” essay that while Germany was celebrating the

appropriation of funds towards environmental protection, these funds were being applied

                                                                                                               18 “Forced Evictions” (United Nations Human Rights, 2014). 19 Adiukwu Fidelis Onyekachi, “Prospects and Challenges of Informal Settlements and Urban Upgrading in Abuja,” International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research 11, no. 2 (November 2014). 20 Sanjay Sharma, Governing Environment: Federal Perspective from India and Canada (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016). 21 Udo Simonis, “Preventative Environmental Policy: Prerequisites, Trends and Prospects,” Ekistics 52, no. 313 (1985): 369–72.

reactively to cases of environmental damages that had occurred in the past.22 Thus, the

appropriation of such funds served more a political purpose than a practical purpose. Further,

punitive environmental policies such as “polluter-pays” principles often end up pushing the

burden of environmental protection off of individual polluters and onto society as a whole.23

Peruvian government bodies may argue that existing institutions do not have the resources to

efficiently prevent settlement in the lomas. However, if the state does not give prevention

strategies resources, money will have to be spent on evictions and punitive legal actions. When

policies focus on reactive and punitive measures, resources are taken away from possible

prevention activities. A 1926 forestry law in Mexico, designed to protect a natural area from

campesinos emphasized punitive measures over preventative measures.24 A large section of the

law detailed infraction penalties and how they would be dealt. These types of measures required

a well-funded and efficient forestry bureaucracy, which was not available. This law’s problems

resulted partly from the institution’s inability to carry out these punitive measures.25 Switching to

a prevention-based approach would have been less of a burden on the institutions and would

have been a more impactful use of resources.

The strategies employed by these conservation organizations reflect the ideals of an

environmentalism proposed by Kevin DeLuca—a “wilderness environmentalism” rather than a

“humanist environmentalism.”26 DeLuca’s approach is grounded in a prioritization of wilderness

over anthropocentric ideals and is critical of traditional environmental organizations’ transition

                                                                                                               22 Ibid. 23 Ibid. 24 Dan Klooster, “Campesinos and Mexican Forest Policy During the Twentieth Century,” Latin American Research Review 38, no. 2 (June 6, 2003): 94–126. 25 Ibid. 26 Kevin DeLuca, “A Wilderness Environmentalism Manifesto: Contesting the Infinite Self-Absorption of Humans,” in Environmental Justice and Environmentalism: The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2007).

to an environmental justice emphasis. The call for evictions coupled with a lack of strategy

towards curbing invasions is evidence of a prioritization of wilderness over human well-being. In

this way, the lomas protection movement presents ecosystem protection as in conflict with social

justice, in agreement with DeLuca. The presence of anti-invader rhetoric acts as further evidence

for a prioritization of the ecosystem over settlers.

The “Invader” Rhetoric

Pejorative language that vilifies particular groups has the effect of reinforcing social

distances and inequalities. Alan Gilbert rightfully and passionately criticizes the UN and other

Western groups’ use of the word “slum” to characterize informal or irregular settlements.27 He

writes that the pejorative nature of the word, along with its implication that all such settlements

are homogenous, obscures the realities of the lives of these areas’ residents and misrepresents

approaches to urban informality problems. While the word “slum” is absent in Peruvians’

vocabulary, the word “invasión” to describe an area of land occupied without title and

“invasores” to describe such occupants, presents the same problems. While the problematic

nature of the term “slum” has received attention from scholars, the term “invasion” has been

largely ignored. The use of this term clearly carries negative connotations and invites

marginalization and stigmatization, as well as the application of “othering” mechanisms to these

populations.28

While protectors of the lomas ecosystem did not coin the term “invasion,” the

characterization of settlers as invaders, nevertheless, presents rhetoric that implies a prioritization

                                                                                                               27 Gilbert, “The Return of the Slum: Does Language Matter?” 28 The process of othering can be described as a human tendency to categorize people, and perceive one’s identity and categorization and being the most correct form of humanity. The term has its scholarship origins in philosophy of the self. Peter Wenz, Environmental Ethics Today (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).

of ecosystem needs over human needs. The Lomas de Mangomarca Comité Ecoturistico page

consistently shares anti-invasion posts and recently hosted an anti-invasion and anti-land

trafficking march. Such posts come in the form of photos of recent invasions, articles related to

invasions or evictions, or calls-to-action. For example, Proyecto Lomas posted in September

2016 that the group was standing united with the Institute of Culture, History, and Environment

(ICHMA) to denounce invasions in Mangomarca. In January 2015, the same group posted a call-

to-action, asking followers to call authorities and decry a recent land invasion occurring in the

Lomas de Amancaes. The president of Orientadores Ecoturísticos de Las Lomas del Paraíso

posted a full album of photos detailing newly constructed shacks in the Lomas del Paraíso. While

his commentary did not point fingers at the informal settlers themselves, he called for authorities

to take action.

Posts promoting anti-invader rhetoric stimulate significant and sometimes heated response

from followers, regardless of whether they’re framed as calls-to-action. Group affiliates and non-

affiliates also share these types of posts on their personal Facebook pages, often generating

comments reinforcing and promoting anti-invasion rhetoric. Such comments can be categorized

into three groups:

1) Firstly, general opposition to invasion in the lomas, which ranges from “No a la invasión

en Mangomarca” to “YA es hora de defender las lomas ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡”

2) Secondly, comments criticizing the invaders for their disrespect for the ecosystem, the

most aggressive of which include threats. Two angry commenter threaten to burn down

newly constructed homes in Mangomarca and Amancaes invasions, writing “por mi

saquemos los palos y quememos las casas” and “Una botellita con gasolina y un fósforo

y listo, Chao casita.” Another writes, “esos son unos SINVERGUENZAS!!”

3) Thirdly and most commonly, comments criticizing state authorities for failing to prevent

land trafficking and resulting invasions in the lomas zone. In Mangomarca, commenters

regularly accuse the SJL mayor of corruption, arguing that he must be profiting from land

trafficking. One commenter sarcastically writes,

“Agradecemos al alcalde de SJL Por su aporte a la conservación y preservación del ecosistema al promover y apoyar las invasiones en beneficio económico de los traficantes de terrenos y en contra de la buena Salud de su población.”

These groups’ presentation of anti-invader rhetoric, and commenters’ enthusiastic and

supportive responses to this rhetoric contribute to a dehumanization and “othering” of informal

settlers. The oversimplification of the problem as one caused by informal settlers and solved by

their eviction and removal produces a construction of these populations as “others” and deprives

them of legitimacy. The framing of these populations as culprits of destruction while ignoring

the fact that they’re visibly struggling with dimensions of poverty is a mechanism through which

their humanity is dismissed. Processes of “othering” only reinforce social distances between

groups and contribute to the normalization of inequality.29 Regrettably, such processes are not

uncommon in the context of the urban poor. Current poverty discourse fails to resist the

classification of the poor as “others” and fails to distance itself from the dominant victim-

blaming framework.30 A reorientation of the rhetoric used in the lomas protection movement

towards pro-poor and pro-rights language would allow for more effective solution generation via

a reemphasis of strategy toward pro-human justice policy.

                                                                                                               29 María Cristina Bayón, “La construcción del otro y el discurso de la pobreza narrativas y experiencias desde la periferia de la Ciudad de México,” Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas Y Sociales, no. 223 (October 2014): 357–76. 30 Michal Krumer-Nevo and Orly Benjamin, “Critical Poverty Knowledge Contesting Othering and Social Distancing,” Current Sociology 58, no. 5 (September 1, 2010): 693–714,

Section III Relationship between poverty and the environment

The 1972 United Nations Conference on Human Development was the first international

meeting to extensively address the linkages between poverty and environment.31 In 1987, the

World Commission on Environment and Development proposed that environmental problems in

impoverished areas contribute to a vicious cycle where poverty is both a cause and consequence

of environmental degradation.32 The Commission stated that approaches to environmental

protection should attempt to address the underlying causes of poverty and inequality.

Sally-Anne Way of the United Nations writes that in recent years there has been a shift

away from blaming the poor for land degradation and towards reemphasizing the rights of the

poor.33 She cites The World Bank’s 2001 “Environmental Strategy,” which shifts focus away

from the “vicious cycle” and towards a broader approach to the poverty and environment link.

Way calls for future research to focus on a rights-based approach.

If, as international organizations and scholars suggest, there is acknowledgement of the

importance of addressing underlying and broad causes of poverty and moving away from

blaming the poor, why do organizations protecting the lomas so clearly fail to do so?

Development scholar Frank Ellis writes that scapegoating the poor allows the state,

commercial interests, and wealthier populations off the hook for their own environmental

                                                                                                               31 Tim Forsyth, Melissa Leach, and Ian Scoones, “Poverty and Environment: Priorities for Research and Policy,” United Nations Development Programme and European Commission (Falmer, Sussex: Institute of Development Studies, September 1998). 32 Sally-Anne Way, “Examining the Link between Poverty and Land Degradation: From Blaming the Poor toward Recognising the Rights of the Poor,” in Governing Global Desertification: Linking Environmental Degradation, Poverty and Participation (Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2006), 27–41. 33 Ibid.

impacts.34 Poverty is often not the only factor contributing to the degradation of an ecosystem. In

the lomas, the proximity to a cement industrial park and a polluted city with a limited waste

disposal system also contribute to its destruction.35 The informal settlements, however, are the

most visible culprits.

Policies designed to address environmental degradation will not be effective unless they

address poverty simultaneously.36 Past policies banning populations from accessing sensitive

areas have proven ineffective because the institutions responsible failed to implement them in a

way that acknowledged the underlying causes of poverty and its multidimensionality.37 This is

                                                                                                               34 Frank Ellis, Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). 35 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.” 36 Way, “Examining the Link between Poverty and Land Degradation: From Blaming the Poor toward Recognising the Rights of the Poor.” 37 The case of Ajusco, Mexico City is an excellent example. Following failed efforts to remove informal settlers from a settlement known as Los Belvederes in an ecological reserve, the state presented the group with the “Program for the Conservation of Ajusco” in 1984. The proposed plan 1) established limits between the ecological reserve and the space where residential use would be permitted, which could require some families to relocate 2) stopped the provision of free water service 3) outlined suggestions to improve state-community communication 4) called for the creation of a government outpost in the zone to establish the state’s physical presence and 5) offered settlers incentives to leave Los Belvederes and return to their point of origin. The settlers called the offer absurd, pointing particularly to the offer to send them back to the point of origin. On that specific provision, the newspaper El Día wrote that, “[F]irst [the state] will have to address the problems in the countryside that compelled people to migrate to the city in the first place.” In response to the state’s proposal, popular community groups mobilized and gained strength. The cycle of invasion and eviction and state-community conflict continued throughout the 1990s without real conclusion. What lessons can we learn from the Ajusco example? Pezzoli states that the conflict exemplifies the problem with states’ top-down approaches to ecological conservation planning. Further, as El Día printed, the state failed to address the problems that were causing people to build their homes in Ajusco in the first place. An emphasis on alternative housing options rather than an emphasis on eviction and control tactics might have saved authorities and the Los Belvederes community from years of conflict.

clearly visible in the failed enforcement of the settlement-prohibiting metropolitan ordinance n

1084. These types of policies do not recognize the livelihoods of people living in the areas.38

How then, can environmental organizations protect the lomas ecosystem while

simultaneously protecting the rights of the poor? Here, I would like to introduce the concept of

environmental synergism. Environmental synergists believe “synergy exists between respect for

people and respect for nature. Overall and in the long run, simultaneous respect for people and

nature improves outcomes for both.”39 In other words, respecting humans and wilderness

simultaneously will always have a greater impact than respecting one over the other. It is with

this concept in mind that I suggest that shifting emphasis toward pro-poor rhetoric that seeks

solutions to housing scarcity would yield more positive outcomes for both the lomas ecosystem

and for the settlers. Coupled with these organizations’ educational and touristic efforts, focusing

on affordable housing policy may protect both the rights of the poor and the lomas ecosystem

synergistically.

Addressing the housing deficit

Well-designed public policies can help expand the housing market for populations in the

poorest wealth quintiles. The market for low-income housing is commonly neglected by the

formal housing sector, necessitating the creation of informal settlements.40 In line with this

assertion, there are currently no strong housing strategies attempting to address housing scarcity

                                                                                                               38  Benamy Turkienicz and Andrea Mussi, “Lessons from Incremental Housing Surveys Collected in Brazil,” 2010.  39 Wenz, Environmental Ethics Today. 40 Turkienicz and Mussi, “Lessons from Incremental Housing Surveys Collected in Brazil.”

for the lower class in Lima.41 Recent statistics show a current national housing deficit of 1.8

million homes, yet there have been no recent housing construction projects for populations with

less than $10,000 USD.42 Private developers are rarely eager to work on low-income housing

projects, even when government subsidies are offered.43

In Lima, current government programs emphasize credit-lending.44 The home financing

program MiVivienda uses government subsidies to make mortgage loans from private lenders

affordable to lower middle-class families. The similar program Techo Propio was created later to

reach lower-class families by providing mortgage loans for homes between USD $4,000 to

$8,000. The program failed to reach significant populations, however, with only 600 out of

10,000 approved customers taking the loan between 2002 and 2007.45 An ACCION International

study suggests that Techo Propio’s low impact is a result of the lack of available homes in the

price range, coupled with lower-class populations’ inability to repay loans.46 It is estimated the

Techo Propio’s default rate will be 14 percent.47 The Mi Terreno program, launched in 2014, is

designed to combat informal settlement and land trafficking by offering credit to families

looking to buy land. However, beneficiaries must pay 30 percent upfront, and home construction

can only begin when 60 percent of the loan has been repaid.48

Programs from earlier decades such as the Proyecto Experimental de Vivienda (PREVI)

in the 1960s made Lima a leader in social housing. Luis Rodríguez, the organizer of the 2016

                                                                                                               41 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.” 42 “En el Perú faltan 1,8 millones de viviendas,” El Comercio, March 4, 2016. 43 Turkienicz and Mussi, “Lessons from Incremental Housing Surveys Collected in Brazil.” 44 “En El Perú Faltan 1,8 Millones de Viviendas,” El Comercio, March 4, 2016. 45 “A Comparison of Housing Finance Programs for Low Income People in Peru” (ACCION International, May 2007). 46 Ibid. 47 Ibid. 48 “´Mi Terreno´ ofrece préstamos hasta por S/. 50 mil,” Rpp.pe.

Limápolis workshop at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), calls for a return to

such models.49 According to Rodríguez, the city requires multi-sectorial solutions to the problem

of constant expansion into the city’s foothills. In Colombia, this type of program has been

successful. The Macroproyectos de Interés Social Nacional (MISN) program addresses the

nation’s housing deficit by providing incentives for private companies to create mixed-use

developments, combining social housing with retail and industry space and private investments.

Because of the high profits from retail and other investments, developers are willing to devote

space in these projects to low-income housing units.50

The Chilean government has often been praised for its implementation of comprehensive

social housing policy. The state drastically increased the funds available for social housing in the

1990s, and produced 400,000 housing units within the decade, either directly or through the

provision of subsidies.51 By focusing on subsidies rather than loans for the lowest-income

families, Chile succeeded in providing housing to the most vulnerable populations.52

The Chilean state’s creation of a strong social housing policy was partially motivated by

a desire to decrease land invasions and informal settlements.53 Since informal settlement is a

reaction to the formal housing market’s failure to meet demands, increasing the supply of low-

income housing will result in a decrease of informal settlement development. Governments often

try and address the symptoms of poor housing markets rather than the complex causes. Literature

on low-income housing in Latin America tends to center around informal settlement upgrading,

                                                                                                               49 “En el Perú faltan 1,8 millones de viviendas.” 50 César Patricio Bouillon, Room for Development: Housing Markets in Latin America and the Caribbean (New York: Inter-American Development Bank, 2012). 51 Dionysia Lambiri and Miguel Vargas, “Residential Segregation and Public Housing Policy, The Case of Chile” (St. Louis, United States: Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, 2011). 52 Bouillon, Room for Development: Housing Markets in Latin America and the Caribbean. 53 Ibid.

land titling programs, and incremental housing strategy.54 None of these methods are directly

appropriate in the lomas ecosystem, as environmentalists’ goal is to see as little urbanization as

possible in the area. However, organized social housing initiatives targeting poor populations—

especially initiatives that emphasize subsidies rather than credit lending—would offer an

alternative to populations that may be inclined to settle in the lomas.

By focusing efforts on the implementation of effective housing policy and low-income

housing projects, lomas conservation organizations will be able to protect the rights of the poor

while synergistically protecting the ecosystem. These organizations will also move away from

vilifying the poor toward emphasizing justice for them.

CONCLUSIONS

In this article, I have illustrated how lomas conservation groups’ vilification of the poor

delegitimizes their existence and lends itself to unproductive strategy in preventing informal

settlement in the ecosystem. I have also shown that if these organizations shift towards fighting

housing scarcity in Lima, they will be able to emphasize protections for both the ecosystem and

the poor. Human justice and conservation need not be incompatible in this context.

The current framing of the lomas settlement problem as one caused by the poor and

solved by removing the poor reveals elements of elitism. These conservation leaders’ anti-

invader rhetoric fails to consider the multidimensionality of poverty and the push and pull factors

influencing groups to settle in the lomas reflects an imperialist and classist structure. As rhetoric

influences strategy and policy, Peruvians see actions that disregard, rather than support, the

poorest populations. At a time when environmental justice is branching away from traditional

                                                                                                               54 Ibid.

environmentalism, as discussed by DeLuca and Wenz, my findings in this article will hopefully

aid in developing synergistic strategies that respect both humans and nature in other contexts.

Further, discussion of housing deficits and social housing policy in the context of

environmentalism is particularly relevant at a time when “sustainable development,” is a popular

buzz word.

Sustainable housing is a popular topic approached by urbanists, architects, and scholars in

other areas, and should incorporate elements of environmental justice and the perceptions of low-

income populations on the environment. While my research was limited by geographic location,

I would have liked to have conducted interviews with the informal populations to gauge their

perceptions of the lomas’ ecological value and of their own environmental impact. Incorporating

the views of low-income populations in a study on sustainable construction and social housing

would be a productive avenue for further research.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“A Comparison of Housing Finance Programs for Low Income People in Peru.” ACCION

International, May 2007. Aguilar, Adrian Guillermo. “Peri-Urbanization, Illegal Settlements and Environmental Impact in

Mexico City.” Cities 25, no. 3 (June 2008): 133–45. Bayón, María Cristina. “La construcción del otro y el discurso de la pobreza narrativas y

experiencias desde la periferia de la Ciudad de México.” Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas Y Sociales, no. 223 (October 2014): 357–76.

Bearzatto, Sara. “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.

Bouillon, César Patricio. Room for Development: Housing Markets in Latin America and the Caribbean. New York: Inter-American Development Bank, 2012.

Davis, Mike. Planet of Slums. London: Verso, 2007. DeLuca, Kevin. “A Wilderness Environmentalism Manifesto: Contesting the Infinite Self-

Absorption of Humans.” In Environmental Justice and Environmentalism: The Social

Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2007.

Ellis, Frank. Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

“En el Perú faltan 1,8 millones de viviendas.” El Comercio, March 4, 2016. Figueroa, Fernanda, and Víctor Sánchez-Cordero. “Effectiveness of Natural Protected Areas to

Prevent Land Use and Land Cover Change in Mexico.” Biodiversity and Conservation 17, no. 13 (December 1, 2008): 3223.

“Forced Evictions.” United Nations Human Rights, 2014. Forsyth, Tim, Melissa Leach, and Ian Scoones. “Poverty and Environment: Priorities for

Research and Policy.” United Nations Development Programme and European Commission. Falmer, Sussex: Institute of Development Studies, September 1998.

Ghimire, Krishna. “Parks and People: Livelihood Issues in National Parks Management in Thailand and Madagascar.” United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 1991.

Gilbert, Alan. “The Return of the Slum: Does Language Matter?” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 31, no. 4 (December 7, 2007).

Huamaní, Martín, and María López. “Variación de las lomas del distrito de Villa María Del Triunfo por la expansión urbana y minera.” Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2016.

Klooster, Dan. “Campesinos and Mexican Forest Policy During the Twentieth Century.” Latin American Research Review 38, no. 2 (June 6, 2003): 94–126. doi:10.1353/lar.2003.0018.

Krumer-Nevo, Michal, and Orly Benjamin. “Critical Poverty Knowledge Contesting Othering and Social Distancing.” Current Sociology 58, no. 5 (September 1, 2010): 693–714.

Lambiri, Dionysia, and Miguel Vargas. “Residential Segregation and Public Housing Policy, The Case of Chile.” St. Louis, United States: Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, 2011.

“´Mi Terreno´ ofrece préstamos hasta por S/. 50 mil.” Rpp.pe. Olufemi, Olusola. “Socio-Political Imperatives of Land Invasion and Eviction: Revisiting the

Bredell Case, Johannesburg, South Africa.” Toronto, Canada, 2004. Onyekachi, Adiukwu Fidelis. “Prospects and Challenges of Informal Settlements and Urban

Upgrading in Abuja.” International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research 11, no. 2 (November 2014).

Pezzoli, Keith. “Mexico City’s Contested Ecological Reserve.” In Human Settlements and Planning for Ecological Sustainability. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1998.

“Proyecto sobre protección de lomas estaría estancado desde que inició gestión de Castañeda.” Actualidad Ambiental, October 19, 2016.

Sharma, Sanjay. Governing Environment: Federal Perspective from India and Canada. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016.

Simonis, Udo. “Preventative Environmental Policy: Prerequisites, Trends and Prospects.” Ekistics 52, no. 313 (1985): 369–72.

Turkienicz, Benamy, and Andrea Mussi. “Lessons from Incremental Housing Surveys Collected in Brazil,” 2010.

Way, Sally-Anne. “Examining the Link between Poverty and Land Degradation: From Blaming the Poor toward Recognising the Rights of the Poor.” In Governing Global Desertificiation: Linking Environmental Degradation, Poverty and Participation, 27–41. Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2006.

Wenz, Peter. “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.

Wenz, Peter. Environmental Ethics Today. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.