Jardim

Gramacho
Context &
Perspectives

Prepared by:
Instituto de Estudos do Trabalho e
Sociedade IETS
October, 2013

Acknowledgments:
SEA
COMLURB
Prefeitura de Duque de Caxias
Prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro
ACEX
COOPERGRAMACHO
COOPERCAMJG
COOPERCAXIAS
COOPERJARDIM
ACAMJG

EPA Environmental Protec/on Agency

JIUS
May Yu
RUA Arquitetos
FFAU
John Hopkins University
Studio X
Jonathan Rose Companies
Shalini Vajjhala

About IETS
The Ins/tute for Labor and Social Studies (Ins$tuto de Estudos do Trabalho e
Sociedade IETS) is a non-prot, civil society organiza/on based in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. IETS is structured as a network which brings together researchers from
universi/es and other research organiza/ons working in a variety of elds with
policy makers. The four principal ac/vi/es of IETS are: applied research; design,
monitoring, and evalua/on of public policy; knowledge produc/on and diusion;
and open dialogue.

About this document

This document was prepared by IETS based on careful rst-hand research that
includes sta/s/cal and qualita/ve data, technical visits, informal and formal
interviews, mee/ngs and conferences, mapping ac/vi/es, bibliographic and media
research.
It was assembled as a mutually complementary document to the Redevelopment
Framework prepared by Jonathan Rose Companies. Both were funded by
Bloomberg Philanthropies, under the US-Brazil Joint Ini/a/ve for Urban
Sustainability JIUS.
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Jardim
Gramacho

Introduction_
IETS began working in Jardim Gramacho a small neighborhood in
the second largest city in Rio de Janeiros metropolitan region in
2010, commissioned by the State Secretary for Environment (SEA)
to elaborate a social, economical and environmental diagnosis of
the territorys situa/on. Central to the regions waste disposal
system and especially to the city of Rio de Janeiro the
neighborhood housed one of the largest landll in La/n America
since 1978. Known as the Metropolitan Landll of Jardim
Gramacho (AMJG), the sites closure was announced for 2011 due
to the exhaus/on of its capability to receive addi/onal waste and
other environmental issues implicated due to its loca/on,
propor/on and social impact along three decades.

Jardim
Gramacho

Introduction_
IETS work produced crucial data and constructed important
insights to help aid all levels of Government, especially the State,
through SEA, and Duque de Caxias municipality, where Jardim
Gramacho is located. The work consisted of a sta/s/cal report that
was representa/ve of families with and without a waste-picker, in
order to quan/fy the impact of the landlls closure on household
income and to allow analy/cal proling of Jardim Gramachos
residents and their social and economical /es to the AMJG.
Photos: the AMJG, already shutdown (lee) and the
neighborhood of Jardim Gramacho seen from its
northern limit, the Sarapu River (below), both
taken by IETS from a technical helicopter ight in
2013. On the photo below, the AMJG is located
exactly on the lee, where the picture cuts o.

Jardim
Gramacho

Introduction_
Also, a par/cipa/ve ac/on plan was devised with short-, mid-
and long-term necessary measures, their goals and their
poten/al promoters and stakeholders, accompanied by a
dynamic governance proposal based on the systema/zed
(although ongoing) ar/cula/on process for the AMJGs closure
and the neighborhoods redevelopment and social
compensa/ons.
Aeer the work was concluded in 2011, IETS maintained /es
with the territory: as an observer, accompanied the AMJGs
closing process; as a partner, par/cipated and supported the
neighborhoods community forum; and as an ar/culator, was
present in mee/ngs and debates on the subject of Jardim
Gramacho and social and economic impacts of the waste
disposal systems in Brazil. This posture allowed IETS to map and
register through technical visits, photographs, interviews and
passive observa/on the major transforma/ons in Jardim
Gramacho aeer the landlls closure. Unfortunately, no funds
were raised to enable a return to the eld to produce sta/s/cal
data to compare with the rst diagnosis and conrm or
disprove its prognosis.
The following document oers a synthesis of IETS data and
knowledge on the neighborhoods context and perspec/ves
given its historical trajectory and present dynamics illustrated
by images that may help picture the complex reality hereby
described, either from public archives or taken during IETS
visits to the territory.
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Context_

Jardim Gramachos historical trajectory majers to the extent that it

corroborates the neighborhoods tradi/onal features, geopoli/cal
inser/on and recognized poten/als, allowing an analysis of the
con/nui/es and discon/nui/es in that territorys development. In
this sense, the early years of Jardim Gramacho reects the colonial
dynamic that ruled todays metropolitan region at the /me: coee
and sugar cane mills that used the river system and the proximity to
the Guanabara Bay to drain produc/on towards ports and other
des/na/ons. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the region
around Rio de Janeiro city, known today as Baixada Fluminense,
gradually evolved from a completely rural social and economic
organiza/on to a populous urban reality.
The denite kicko was the extensions of the train system towards
Rio de Janeiro States interior, towards the imperial ci/es in the
mountains, through the then barely occupied outskirts of its capital.
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Gramacho

Context_
In 1884, the train tracks crossed todays municipality of Duque de
Caxias and inaugurated a sta/on in the nearby neighborhood of
Gramacho in 1888. Large proper/es and farms were broken down
into ever-smaller lots, public services slowly crept in and the
aboli/on of slavery, proclama/on of the Republic and migra/ons
from inside and outside of the country towards the capital and its
proximi/es both pressured and were fed by the industrial and
urbaniza/on processes set in mo/on more aggressively aeer the
1930s.
At that point, another important development inductor was
constructed, aec/ng Jardim Gramacho in a especial way: the
inaugura/on of the Washington
Luiz Highway (BR-101) in
early 1930s cut the incipient
urban /ssue that covered
that area and became a
deni/ve physical fron/er for
the neighborhood. Despite
this fact, Jardim Gramacho
ocially and administra/vely
extends to the other side of
the highway during IETS
research there were waste
pickers directly and indirectly
iden/es who lived on the
other side of the road, but it
was also veried that the
Photo: Washington Luiz Highway (BR101), taken
by IETS during helicopter technical visit in 2013

Jardim
Gramacho

Context_
highway represents an important barrier in the neighborhoods
dynamics.
From this period through the 1970s, although IETS did not gain
access during its research of any documents that dealt specically
with the areas development, tes/monies and contextual
informa/on indicate that Jardim Gramacho developed as a low- and
middle-income residen/al area, with local businesses and larger
industries or suppor/ng enterprises alongside and close to the
highway. When the neighborhood was chosen to host the landll,
Brazil had been under an authoritarian military regime for over a
decade, and the project itself was part of that Governments
ajempts to ins/gate a metropolitan approach to its urban centers
around the country.
Opened in 1978, inadvertently following Rio de Janeiros
tradi/onal axis for disposing of waste the Guanabara Bays
mangrove shores but promising in terms of innova/ve forms of
co-management between neighboring ci/es in a metropolitan
mindset, the new landll became immediately inappropriate. By
1979, economic crisis made Government cutback on expenses,
while the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) prohibited the
disposal of waste in bodies of water such as rivers, lakes, lagoons
and bays. By mid-1980s, the military regime had almost
disintegrated completely, meaning that its ins/tu/ons such as the
one created to monitor the landll and other metropolitan projects
lost legi/macy and power, while each municipality was struggling
with their own budgets.
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Jardim
Gramacho

Context_

It was during this decade that the daily 3.000 tons of waste grew to
5.000 tons per day, ajrac/ng more and more waste-pickers that began
working and living in and near Jardim Gramachos landll. Living
condi/ons at this /me were precarious: the landll was virtually an
enormous and incontrollable wasteland in which trucks poured endless

Photos: to the lee, a precarious home

of a Rio de Janeiro city slum in the
1960s from the Na/onal Archive; to
the right, a precarious home of Jardim
Gramachos slum in 2013, taken
during IETS technical visits.

loads of trash, while people and

animals competed for the leeovers.
There are reports of the AMJG that
point to res, structural problems and
manure leakage to the Bay during this
period, or the gradual infrastructural
degrada/on of the landll. Meanwhile,
in social and economic terms, these
were also the decades in which it
became clear that Brazil was not
managing to accommodate with
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Jardim
Gramacho

Context_
welfare most of its popula/on, and urban fringes and the rural
interior also suered economic and infrastructural degrada/ons.
Since the 1980s, COMLURB, which is Rio de Janeiros city
company responsible for cleaning, collec/ng and disposing of
waste, had assumed responsibility for running the landll,
becoming the ocial beneciary of the land even though it was
located in another municipality due to Rios preponderance both
in terms of necessity for a waste facility and quan/ty of waste
disposed in the AMJG. By the early 1990s, when Rio de Janeiro
held the UNs Conference for the Environment known as Eco or
Rio 92 the neighborhood was already iden/ed with poverty
and inhumane condi/ons related to waste and lth. Growing
public awareness, new local or na/onal ins/tu/ons and foreign
funds nally aligned to try and remedy the situa/on in Jardim
Gramacho.
Concluded in 1996, the AMJGs recupera/on and restructuring
transformed into a controlled landll, with several environmental
and technical standards. This was a turning point for the landll
and for Jardim Gramacho, in which COMLURB changed its modus
operandi completely: with a concession involving both landlls
recupera/on and opera/on by the private sector, it kept the role
of supervisor while the AMJGs opera/on and maintenance was
done by successive contracts with private companies, up un/l its
closure in 2011.
During this eeen-year period (1996-2011), over four dierent
corpora/ons held contracts to operate the AMJG under
COMLURBs

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Jardim
Gramacho

Context_

supervision and with each new concession, COMLURB added

dierent clauses involving social and environmental measures to be
done by each corpora/on. Among these measures were: (i) replant
na/ve mangrove seedlings from the Guanabara Bay; (ii) hire a
social assistant to register and organize the waste-pickers working
shies, avoiding child labor and enforcing the use of individual
protec/on equipment; (iii) support the crea/on of a coopera/ve
within the AMJG for waste-pickers to structure their work; and (iv)
build a school and an adjacent basic health unit for the community
(run by the city of Duque de Caxias). These measures gradually
transformed both the internal dynamics of the landll, and the
neighborhood and its inhabitants.
During the lajer years of the 1990s and throughout the decade of
2000, Jardim Gramacho became notorious for its size and the
waste-pickers life dynamics through documentaries, art ini/a/ves,
media reports, studies and other means. In 2007, COMLURB signed
its last concession for the landll with the consor/um Novo
Gramacho Energia Ambiental S.A., with four ends: (1) to operate
the AMJG during its remaining life/me; (2) to execute the closing
process, with no previously established date; (3) to implement
systems that can capture, treat and burn biogas in accordance to
the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) ; and (4) to operate,
aeer the landlls closure, the economic explora/on of the biogas
for 15 years aeer the emission of the ocial closing term of the
AMJG.
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Gramacho

Context_

The announcement of the landlls closure in 2010, following

Brazils new federal policy for solid waste treatment and disposal
published that same year, mobilized both the public sector and
the waste-pickers, through their coopera/ves and associa/on
that had been growing in number since the rst coopera/ve,
COOPERGRAMACHO, was created in 1997. In this sense,
mobiliza/on meant poli/cal ar/cula/on to guarantee the
compensa/on for the waste-pickers for losing their source of
income that COMLURB had added to their contract with Novo
Gramacho and to mi/gate the social, environmental and
economic long-/me eects and impact of the closure for waste-
pickers and the neighborhood.

Photo: the AMJG aeer closure. Pedro Kirilos / O Globo Agency.

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Gramacho

Context_

An/cipa/ng the events of Rio +20 in 2012, which, like Eco 92,
was an interna/onal conference organized by the UN about
sustainable development, the closing process was led by Rio de
Janeiros State Secretary for Environment (SEA) and by the city
of Rio de Janeiros Mayors oce. On the one hand, SEA and
the City of Rio had to subs/tute Jardim Gramachos landll with
another large-scale one to be able to close down the AMJG, a
task that had technical and poli/cal dicul/es due to land
scarcity and price and due to increase in expenses for the waste
disposal system. On the other, SEA and the City of Rio, based
on the contractual clause in which COMLURB guaranteed a
nancial compensa/on for the waste-pickers, to be paid by
Novo Gramacho along the years, ar/culated to pay upfront this
compensa/on according to what the waste-pickers wanted.
In June of 2012, when the AMJG was denitely closed and the
new landll in Seropdica another city on the outskirts of Rio,
but towards the west rather than close to the Bay was
already func/oning, Novo Gramacho, COMLURB and SEA
ar/culated a registering process that iden/ed around 1.700
waste-pickers that worked or had worked in the AMJG. Since
the ajempt to cons/tute a fund for the waste-pickers that
would use the compensa/on to create job opportuni/es,
immediate income relief and other purposes failed due to
poli/cal reasons, Novo Gramacho, SEA and COMLURB
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Gramacho

Context_
called for an assembly of the registered waste-pickers so they
could vote. The majority voted to receive an individual
compensa/on they could cash from the Bank in full, meaning
that each of them got around US$7 thousand (or R$14 thousand
in local currency).
The payment of the compensa/on, mo/ved, according to
several waste-pickers, by the suspicion they had of receiving the
money or benets if they chose several deposits or even
indirect use of the funds, weakened the eorts and mobiliza/on
by ar/culated eorts, since in itself it already produced enough
poli/cal gains in an elec/on year (2012) for both Rio de Janeiro
and Duque de Caxias ci/es. Other than a few investments by
local candidates of Duque de Caxias, no plan or structured
ac/on was taken in Jardim Gramacho by public oces. In few
months, the lack of investments and ar/culated ac/on
provoked a series of nega/ve consequences, such as illegal
dumping in inappropriate places such as waste-pickers
backyards and mangroves, the misuse of the compensa/on in
electronic equipment, motorcycles, drugs and other bad
investments, the con/nuous loss of income and income
genera/on opportuni/es. The precarious housing areas suered
with oods and res, the neighborhood had at least two
episodes of armed robbery to a pharmacy and a minimarket and
from all sides of Jardim Gramacho, people began feeling the
neighborhood lost its visibility and importance in the
governmental agenda.
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Gramacho

Context_
Although in some ways, perspec/ves may seem downhill or at
least of no improvement, Jardim Gramacho had enormous
poten/al that is being slowly recognized by the private sector, in
a disar/culated way. The next sec/on will present what are
these perspec/ves.

Photo: the community daycare center closed and for sale, taken during IETS technical
visits to Jardim Gramacho in 2013.

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Gramacho

Perspectives_

Jardim Gramacho could have been any other neighborhood in the

large suburban towns that sprawl around the city of Rio de Janeiro
like Duque de Caxias, where it is located, if it hadnt been the spot
where there func/oned once the largest as it is called landll in
La/n America. The massive size and public notoriety of the AMJG,
however, was not the only asset that makes Jardim Gramacho
dierent from any other neighborhood of the Baixada Fluminense:
its strategic loca/on and economic poten/als, which are related,
cannot be closed down.
In over three years of involvement with the territory as an informed
observer, IETS has gathered informa/on and had the opportunity to
monitor the changes in the neighborhood since the announcement
of the AMJGs closure, un/l a year aeer it actually happened.
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Jardim
Gramacho

Perspectives_

Having produced sta/s/cal data right before the AMJG closed and
despite the lack of funding to return to the eld and redo the work
for a comparable and contemporary diagnosis, IETS maintained its
monitoring through par/cipa/on in the community forums
mee/ngs and events and in ar/cula/on mee/ngs between public
oces and the private sector regarding Jardim Gramacho, while also
making several visits to the eld with the objec/ve of mapping urban
and visible changes.

Photo: a comparison between 2011

(above) and 2013 (right) of two
buildings on Jardim Gramachos square.
The warehouse with the red door has
been repainted and is available for rent,
while the building has become an
evangelic church. (2011 photo from
Google StreetView and 2013, taken by
IETS in technical visits.)

The following sec/on will describe the present-day situa/on of

Jardim Gramacho from the perspec/ve of social and economic
17

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Gramacho

Perspectives_

dynamic, ins/tu/ons and public establishments, and observed

poten/als for revitalizing Jardim Gramacho.
The urban sphere of inuence held by the AMJG, however, is the
area of Jardim Gramacho contained within the triangular area with
the Sarapu River to the north, the Guanabara Bay to the south,
connec/ng diagonally with the Highway to the east. In this sense,
Jardim Gramacho covers an area of about 880 acres within
constraining physical fron/ers, although ocially the neighborhood
sprawls also on the other side of Highway Washington Luiz.
Socially and economically, the area was characterized, with data of
2010, as a low-income, mostly residen/al neighborhood with
industries and deposit establishments in it main and connec/ng
roads, and a public square with a commercial agglomera/on and a
soccer eld at Jardim Gramachos geographical heart. The urban
and physical descrip/on of the neighborhood can be explored in
detail in the mutually complementary document, produced in
partnership with IETS by Jonathan Rose Companies, Jardim
Gramacho Framework for Redevelopment.
With 17.777 inhabitants in 5,858 residen/al units, according to the
na/onal census of 2010, IETS data revealed that Jardim Gramacho,
despite the visual dierences between its subareas, has low
inequality. Educa/on and income indicators, for example, vary less
within the neighborhood than when it is compared with the rest of
the metropolitan region. This means that investments in Jardim
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Perspectives_

Gramacho have to consider the area as a whole, and not only those
where waste-pickers families dwell, since educa/onal, income,
health and public service challenges are everywhere in the area.
The average schooling between adults in the neighborhood, for
example, is of 6.2 years, or an incomplete fundamental phase of
regular schooling (lower/middle school). Among waste-pickers, the
average drops to 4 years of schooling and func/onal illiteracy
(cannot read and write simple notes) is of around 40%. Adolescents
from 15 to 18 years of age and young adults (19 thru 24 year-olds)
show, however, an improvement in schooling: the rst group has
an average of 6.7 years, while the lajer has 8.1 years of schooling.
In terms of per capita income, the neighborhood varies from US
$186 (R$372) to US$155 (R$311) per month among families
without or with waste-picker income, respec/vely. Compared to
the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan region, the neighborhoods per
capita income rates are alarmingly lower than the regions of US
$453 (R$905) monthly per capita average. This explains the low Gini
coecient for inequality, which in 0,44.

Photo: residen/al shacks in the slum close to the AMJG, taken during IETS technical visits to
Jardim Gramacho in 2013.
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Gramacho

Perspectives_

In terms of poverty, IETS measured Jardim Gramachos income

rates against the periods poverty and extreme poverty lines, which
pointed to the existence of 5,800 people considered in poverty (or
42,4% of the neighborhoods popula/on), of which 2.100 people
were in extreme poverty (or 15,8% of the popula/on). When
dis/nguished by the presence of a waste-picker in the family, there
are around 50% of poor and 18% of extremely poor families with
waste-pickers, compared to 40% of poor and 14,4% of extremely
poor families without waste-related income. This conrms the low
inequality within Jardim Gramacho, as well as its cri/cal condi/on
as a whole.
IETS calculated the impact of the AMJGs closure in the poverty and
extreme poverty measures, since the research done dis/nguished
waste-picking related income from other sources. The projected
impact of the closure was radical: without the waste-picking
income guaranteed by the AMJG, the rate of families under the
poverty line would go from 50% to 87%, with extreme poverty
rates rising alarmingly to 68%, against the ini/al 18% measured in
2010.
This way, Jardim Gramacho poses a social and economic challenge,
since it demands, at the same /me, investments to improve
income and quality life for all of its popula/on and focal eorts to
relieve the probable and harmful impacts of the AMJGs closure.
The challenge becomes even greater considering the low average
schooling of the popula/on, especially waste-pickers, and
professional restraints imposed by the lack of training and job
opportuni/es.
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Gramacho

Perspectives_

In this sense, the neighborhoods development depends on

investments for accessible educa/on and training opportuni/es,
which can range from suppor/ng local public establishments that
suer with budget issues such as the daycare center and one of the
basic health units ran by Duque de Caxias municipality, that have
been evicted of the proper/es they func/oned in for not paying the
rent to educa/onal, appren/ceship and job training opportuni/es
and programs, either independently or ar/culated with the schools
and other public and local ini/a/ves for adolescents and adults.
Although scarce and with low adhesion, some ini/a/ves have been
iden/ed by IETS in the territory: such as the NGOs and the FAETEC,
which in a State program for technical training in civil construc/on
and digital capabili/es.

Photo (lee): one of the few NGOs

that maintain programs for the
youth in Jardim Gramacho. Opening
date known, but it was not there in
2011. Taken during IETS technical
visits to Jardim Gramacho in 2013.

Photo (right): the new

training center for civil
construc/on, part of the
States FAETEC program,
opened in 2012. Taken
during IETS technical visits
to Jardim Gramacho in
2013.

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Perspectives_

In terms of local job oers, the waste-related industry that was once
strong in Jardim Gramacho, such as recyclables deposits, have lost
strength and presence, opening up space (lots and warehouses) for
other economic sectors to occupy. Technical visits done by IETS
compared this presence between 2011 and 2013, indicate that new
produc/ve, logis/c and distribu/on chains and ac/vi/es have
appeared, while enterprises that were non-related to the AMJG s/ll
remain. Among the tradi/onal companies and ac/vi/es, IETS
iden/ed a wood, furniture and construc/on cluster at the south
entrance of Jardim Gramacho, as well as several bus companies
garages and mechanical and industrial equipment corpora/ons
which maintain units in the neighborhood.

Photos: evangelic church for sale (lee) and comparison between a warehouse in 2011 (top right, from
Google StreetView) and 2013 (bojom right). Photos from 2013 were taken during IETS technical visits to
22
Jardim Gramacho.

Jardim
Gramacho

Perspectives_

Changes observed in 2013 through technical visits point to four

tendencies: (1) there is an apparently natural and frequent rota/on
in the commercial agglomera/on, that was both observed and
reported by informal interviews with shop owners, which is
especially true with religious temples and churches that are
numerous and widespread in the neighborhood; (2) there was an
investment in outside appearance and structure from some of the
exis/ng industrial or larger companies; (3) the new ac/vi/es are
mostly related or similar to exis/ng ones non-related to waste, such
as industrial, construc/on and mechanical equipment, garages,
logis/cs, and product deposits; (4) these new ac/vi/es are not hiring
local workers in signicant numbers, veried through informal
interviews with managers and local coopera/ve and community
leaders that have been trying to ar/culate job opportuni/es for local
unemployed people.

Photos: comparison between another industrial lot in Jardim Gramacho, in 2011 (lee) and 2013 (right),
taken from Google StreetView and during IETS technical visits to Jardim Gramacho, respec/vely.
Next page: two vacant lots, for sale (top) and empty (bojom) in dierent areas of Jardim Gramacho, taken
during technical visits in 2013.
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Perspectives_

Despite the clear tendency which has been ajrac/ng new economic
ac/vi/es to Jardim Gramacho mostly due to loca/on and reasonable
price of land and rent, the neighborhood has enormous construc/on
poten/al, with vacant lots and empty warehouses.

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Gramacho

Perspectives_

The natural economic process that has been taking place, however
posi/ve for the neighborhood, has not been absorbing local workers in
no signicant scale and have not contributed to the relief of poverty in
Jardim Gramacho. With the closure of the AMJG, waste-related
ac/vi/es lee the neighborhood very rapidly, remaining only a few of
the old larger deposits, while new clandes/ne deposits have been
found during technical visits in 2013 in the more precarious areas.
Due to low educa/onal development and waste-related job training
among many of the unemployed in Jardim Gramacho, there are
opportuni/es for innova/ve ac/vi/es to take place in that area that
can sustain the recycling and reuse tradi/on that has ourished in the
past thirty years. In this sense, IETS has been studying, together with
John Hopkins University students, possibili/es for this produc/ve
chain that are both economically and environmentally interes/ng and
feasible. On top of that, there is a tendency which has been proving
itself ecient which is development through clusters that seems
adequate for the territory, given Jardim Gramachos loca/on and
connec/vity.
In the more social aspect, the neighborhood suers from poor public
services like most of neighborhoods in the periphery of Brazilian
metropolitan regions. Specically, Jardim Gramacho is extremely
vulnerable in terms of safety, with no police sta/on or post and known
drug tracking. Also, recent armed robberies in the neighborhood to
a minimarket and a pharmacy, of which the lajer gained notoriety
because of the use of a bulldozer to commit the crime. Also, it is badly
served of public transporta/on, with only two bus lines that only pass
through few areas near the highway. Even though it is strategically 25

Jardim
Gramacho

Perspectives_

posi/oned, it is badly connected to the rest of Duque de Caxias, with

only one accessible crossway for motor vehicles, even though the
neighborhood has several streets o the highway.
Educa/on and health services have been suering from lack of
investments, such as the two evicted public services daycare and
basic health unit that had to move and share other related public
spaces. Another common contradic/on in Brazil, some of the exis/ng
public equipment have had their exteriors reformed.

Photos: public service complex for

social assistance and basic health
unit in 2011 (top lee) and 2013
(immediately below); building that
used to be occupied by a health unit
in the neighborhood, evicted by lack
of rent payment (bojom lee) and
the small space it now shares with
other two health unit teams, both
from 2013. Photo from 2011 was
taken from Google StreetView and
from 2013 were taken by IETS during
technical visits.

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Jardim
Gramacho

Perspectives_

The basic demands of Jardim Gramachos residents have been

organized and demanded by its most ac/ve and heterogeneous civil
society representa/ve body, the Community Forum of Jardim
Gramacho.
Created in 2005 as a locally-based
ar/cula/on eort by the NGO IBASE, the
neighborhoods community forum is
composed of several ins/tu/ons, such
as waste-picker coopera/ves, local school representa/ves, local
churches and religious temples, sport and leisure associa/ons, local
NGOs and others.
Among their demands, that have been veried and supported by
sta/s/cal and qualita/ve data and technical visits done by IETS, there
are the following areas that need investment:
u Child daycare centers: there is currently only one public daycare
center, which has been evicted from its premises and now
func/ons within another public school of the neighborhood;
u Investment and widening professional capacita7on courses: there
is only one /mid ini/a/ve in Jardim Gramacho, ran by the State,
for civil construc/on courses. In technical visits, it was veried that
the structure may be adequate, but there are problems with
availability of hours and teachers, as well as evasion and few
courses oered.
u Parks, squares and cultural spaces: essen/ally, public spaces in
Jardim Gramacho are scarce, those that exist are basically
extended sidewalks and roundabouts, with no planned and invi/ng
27

Jardim
Gramacho

Perspectives_
spaces for cultural events and gatherings or for walking and res/ng.

Photo: Public leisure space that can be called the main square of Jardim Gramacho, taken during
IETS technical visits in 2013.

u Transporta7on: Jardim Gramacho, although well located, has

connec/vity and mobility problems that slow down development.
It demands more bus lines, more stops along the neighborhood,
and more buses in the lines.
u Police: with lijle reasons to feel safe, Jardim Gramacho inhabitants
demand a police sta/on or post that works 24 hours. Recent
robberies and other security issues make it necessary for both
industrial and commercial ourishing and personal well-being.
u Health: access to 24-hour and emergency health units is
unacceptably hard for Jardim Gramachos residents, which also
claim they need specialized doctors like cardiologists and
pediatricians, among other equipment and personnel.
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Jardim
Gramacho

Perspectives_
All pictures taken by IETS during technical visits in 2013.

Photo (lee): high

rota/on commercial
spaces near Jardim
G r a m a c h o s m a i n
square.

Photo (right): newly

painted warehouse
for rent.

Photo (lee): new

t r a n s p o r t a / o n
business in Jardim
Gramachos main
street.

Photo (right): newly

reformed container
rental company in the
back area of Jardim
Gramacho.

Photo (let): new steel

e q u i p m e n t
distribu/on center in
Jardim Gramachos
main street.

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Jardim
Gramacho

Perspectives_

u Work & Income: Jardim Gramacho has a rare poten/al, which is to

be a produc/ve area where there are poten$ally job opportuni/es
for all types of skilled and unskilled labor, such as industrial and
mechanical equipment distribu/on and other produc/ve
industries. Also, there is construc/on space for new innova/ve
ac/vi/es that are waste-related, which can join forces with the
several waste-picker coopera/ves that con/nue to receive,
separate and sell legally recyclables of all sorts. With the iden/ed
chains and their poten/al complementarity, as well as the recycling
economic tradi/on that can be structured, IETS has been discussing
with economists and public ocials the possibility of cluster
development in Jardim Gramacho. Despite the dicul/es of
engaging the private sector in public investments, the idea is to
plan the ajrac/on of specic types of companies that are in the
same or in complementary ac/vity chains to the territory and to
engage exis/ng and new private actors as contributors and
stakeholders that ac/vely par/cipate in the neighborhoods daily
life (lobbying for services and changes, sharing costs, monitoring
quality of the services provided, maintenance, etc.).

Aeer 2012s City elec/ons, Duque de Caxias elected a Mayor aligned
with the State Governor and with renewed energy to promote eorts
around town. Eorts, however, have been minimal in the Jardim
Gramacho area, since Duque de Caxias is facing bigger problems with
natural catastrophes and broken-down health system and other public
services. Also, SEA has slowly been preparing a technical plan of a part
of the neighborhood to raise federal funds for a housing project.
30

Jardim
Gramacho

Perspectives_

To change the current situa/on in Jardim Gramacho, however, eorts

must be bejer ar/culated. The relief that had been promised,
happened only through the compensa/on and small ini/a/ves such as
the NGO Techo, which is building a handful of homes for families in
extremely precarious condi/ons.
This document provides only synthesized informa/on on context and
perspec/ves of Jardim Gramacho neighborhood that is considered
basic background for any interven/on, investment and inten/on to
transform this territory and oer bejer lives for its people.

Photo: Jardim Gramacho neighborhood seen from above. The water body at the back is the Guanabara Bay,
whose mangroves limits the eastern and southern limits of the territory. Upfront, the precarious living area
and illegal dumping sites (as well as clandes/ne road) are shown, located in the northern area of JG, near the
old AMJG. Picture taken from a technical helicopter visit in 2013.

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