Rio De Janeiro’s Eco Barriers: Protecting the Environment or Hiding the Slums?
Debate is raging over Rio De Janeiro’s proposed eco-barriers designed, according to officials, to protect its endangered Atlantic coast forest.
There’s no question that the Atlantic forest, which has over 20,000 plant species, 950 bird species and more than two dozen Critically Endangered vertebrate species, needs protecting. More than 90 percent of the forest has already disappeared over the past hundred years – initially due to coffee and sugarcane plantations and later, to urbanization.
But the building of the huge concrete walls (up to 10 feet in some …
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