Catalytic Communities

04/22/2026

Next week, our ED Theresa Williamson be presenting at Bloomberg CityLab 2026, led by Bloomberg Philanthropies together with the The Aspen Institute, in Madrid, Spain from April 27 - 29, 2026 https://citylab.bloomberg.org/speakers/

Our panel, at 11:20am on the 29th, will be a discussion about local news fostering community impact with Eric S. Lee, Founder & Publisher of Skylight (NYC), Joshi Herrmann, Founder of journalism startup ⁠Mill Media⁠ (Manchester, UK) and moderator: Vivian Schiller, Aspen Digital (Washington DC).

Theresa will be speaking about RioOnWatch and the profound impact of Rio de Janeiro's ecosystem of favela-based journalists, communicators and media platforms in standing up against historic inequalities and pushing for systemic change, within the context of Brazil's racial history and urban inequality.

04/17/2026

The fifth and final day of the global CLT exchange was filled with emotion! We began the day reflecting on all the learning accumulated throughout the week, highlighting the most significant moments and what each person takes back to their countries from the experience. Later on we defined commitments for the next steps, so that the impacts of the exchange can be felt in the future and we can maintain the connection of this incredible network. The bonds built throughout the week strengthen our work in defending the right to housing and community development, and show how the Community Land Trust is more than a model; it is a global movement that is growing ever stronger.

This activity is part of the International Exchange program conducted by Rondo Community Land Trust, CatComm, and the International Center for CLTs (CLT Center) with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

w/ International Center for Community Land Trusts, Catalytic Communities, Termo Territorial Coletivo—TTC, Rondo Community Land Trust, RWJFoundation

04/17/2026

On this fourth day of the International Exchange, global leaders from Community Land Trusts visited communities in Rio de Janeiro with histories marked by social mobilization and the struggle for the right to remain in their territories. The first visit was to Vila Autódromo, which underwent a traumatic experience of eviction and, through much fight, became a symbol of resistance for permanence, founding the Museum of Evictions, which this year celebrates 10 years. Immediately afterwards, we learned about the history of Shangri-Lá, the first housing cooperative in Rio de Janeiro, whose history of community organizing in favor of self-management and the right to decent housing is a source of inspiration. The day included a delicious lunch and also the celebration of the birthday of one of the participants - Akhona, from South Africa.

This activity is part of the International Exchange program conducted by Rondo Community Land Trust, CatComm, and the International Center for CLTs (CLT Center) with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

w/ Catalytic Communities, International Center for Community Land Trusts, Termo Territorial Coletivo—TTC, Rondo Community Land Trust, RWJFoundation

04/15/2026

On the third day of our exchange, Community Land Trust practitioners were invited to reflect on the challenges of community organizing in CLTs and strategies to overcome them. We also held a round table debate on collective land tenure and CLTs as a tool for promoting housing rights, with the participation of activists from various countries, including John Mussington (Barbuda), Ashley Allen (USA), Ricardo Carneiro (Portugal), Crystal West (South Africa), Guntoro Muhammad (Indonesia) and Tarcyla Fidalgo (Brazil), as well as Brazilian community leaders such as D. Penha (Vila Autódromo), Iara Oliveira (Cidade de Deus), Firmino (Rocinha) and Emerson (Salgueiro), among others.

This activity is part of the International Exchange program conducted by Rondo Community Land Trust, CatComm, and the International Center for CLTs (CLT Center) with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

w/ International Center for Community Land Trusts, Catalytic Communities, Termo Territorial Coletivo—TTC, Rondo Community Land Trust, RWJFoundation

04/15/2026

We started the second day of the international CLT exchange sharing personal experiences from participants working on projects defending access to land and the right to housing. Following this significant moment, throughout the day we debated the matter of intersectionality, seeking to understand how CLT articulates with issues such as race, gender, and social class inequalities in access to land. One of the highlights of the day was a panel discussion with John Davis – one of the world's leading authorities on CLTs – about lessons from the past of CLTs and possibilities for the future. At the end of the day, we took a tour of the Cantagalo favela with Márcia Souza from the Favela Museum.

This activity is part of the Global Exchange of CLTs carried out by Rondo Community Land Trust, CatComm and the International Center for CLTs, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

w/ International Center for Community Land Trusts, Catalytic Communities, Termo Territorial Coletivo—TTC, Rondo Community Land Trust, RWJFoundation

04/13/2026

On day 1 of the Global CLTs Exchange, we had an initial presentation of the pillars of the Community Land Trust and a lecture about the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. After the seminar, we carried out two in-person actions in communities that fight for the appreciation of their territories and the right to the city. We took a guided tour of Morro da Providência, the first favela in Brazil, led by Cosme Felippsen, a resident and local tour guide. And right after, we visited the Vito Gianotti Occupation in downtown Rio, ending the day with a get-together.

This activity is part of the International Exchange program conducted by Rondo Community Land Trust, CatComm, and the International Center for CLTs (CLT Center) with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

w/ International Center for Community Land Trusts , Termo Territorial Coletivo—TTC , Rondo Community Land Trust , RWJFoundation

04/06/2026

04/06/2026

The “International Favelas Conference,” which took place on March 17 and 18, organized by the Brazilian Institute of Architects’ Rio de Janeiro chapter (IAB-RJ), and Rio de Janeiro’s state government, to promote the Integrated City Program, had zero participation of favela residents. One of the slogans on its promotional cards and social media posts read “Integrated Cities: Past, Present and Future.” The verb tenses chosen to communicate this institutional message are reminiscent of Sankofa, an African symbol that calls for the recollection of past mistakes and learning in the present, leading to a wise future.

Unfortunately, however, there was no wisdom and much less learning to be had. Integrated City, which is based on other programs implemented in favelas since the 1990s, has been anything but innovative. In its promoters’ vision, it seeks to integrate the so-called informal city with the formal one—in other words, to insert the favela into the city which, according to this logic, unlike the favela itself, is well planned. But we are already familiar with these politics of discontinuity, in which government plans go unfinished, are badly managed and don’t yield the results they claim to seek.

The talks given by the event’s protagonists often echoed similar reflections: to move forward with hope, thinking that the city is you, is me and that we already propose solutions through the projects we work on. But in none of these spaces were the few favela residents and organizers in attendance—the primary experts—given the space, voice and attention they were due.

RioOnWatch went to the “international favelas conference” to hear these voices. Voices that only appeared at the end of the lectures, when the few residents and organizers present, the people who actually build and fight every day to improve these communities, expressed themselves on the microphone or during field activities. It is worth noting that these voices found the event promotions online: they were not intentionally invited.

“By implementing a project that brings infrastructure and upgrading to the favela, we imagine that improvements in sanitation, housing and safety will bring satisfactory results… Now, we have the program (Integrated City) in Pavãozinho… Despite the investment, we still see open sewage near the entrance connecting the community and the public facility, a buildup of trash and high demand, overloading the elevators, which, during peak hours, can have lines with waits lasting several minutes.” — Daniel Alves

“The event used the name ‘International Favelas Conference’ to lend legitimacy to a security-driven government project… It wasn’t a slip-up, but the perfect distillation of the State’s policy for favelas: funding for hard infrastructure (and the police), crumbs of space for grassroots participation and lots of international shine to mask the absence of genuine listening.” — Zilda Soares, Fala Akari Collective

Don't miss the full article: bit.ly/47JXTZY

04/02/2026

In recent years, Rio de Janeiro has accumulated a deficit of over 800,000 trees removed across the city, reaching an alarming net rate of 35 trees cut down per day.

RioOnWatch reported on the dismantling of the award-winning Reforestation Collective Action Program, a rare example of an effective, historic public policy in the city’s favelas. Now, various movements are coming together to demand an end to deadly tree topping, a practice that is affecting diverse neighborhoods across Rio de Janeiro, alongside the dismantling of environmental protection agencies and the destruction of the city’s iconic green areas.

On a recent afternoon, neighbors, technical and environmental advocates gathered to discuss strategies to combat the dramatic rise in predatory tree pruning across the city.

“In just a few years, they are destroying a heritage built over generations!!! We, the residents of the island, cannot allow this to continue!!!”

"When land value increases based solely on zoning parameters such as increases to permitted building heights, land is purchased to generate profit. And the trees in these areas end up disappearing. There is no space left. All that’s left are schools that are borderline obsolete or bankrupt and the grounds of old clubs. And what about the city’s 2024 Master Plan, which was approved precisely to enable the use of this territory? What we’re seeing is the tip of a system that ultimately impacts trees… It will reduce the city’s biodiversity and expand heat islands. We’re living a moment very similar to when Rio’s hillsides were entirely planted with coffee and we lost all our protective forests. [Afterwards,] we had to restore them, stop cutting down trees [reforesting by planting the Tijuca Forest], something I find very difficult given the political group currently in power and the dynamics within the Chamber of Deputies.” — Roberta Rocha

Don't miss the full article: bit.ly/4c43rQt

04/01/2026

Concerned with the felling of trees across the Taquara neighborhood, in Rio de Janeiro’s West Zone, not far from where the 2016 Olympics took place, community journalist Magnun Alves shared an account on social media about the merciless wave of tree “pruning” that has been devastating the region over the past two years, offering a heartbreaking local account that reinforces recent reporting on RioOnWatch, such as the must-read “Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes Sells Off Iconic Green Spaces” published earlier this month.

Jacarepaguá has slowly been losing its bucolic feel. Lately, what has been moving fastest is the felling of mature trees—the very ones that for years gave shade, cool air and beauty to our streets.

Jacarepaguá already suffers from flooding, because much of the neighborhood is covered by concrete. At other times, we face extreme heat, exacerbated by the lack of green areas. Planting trees in remote areas or on hillsides where wildfires have occurred might even be understandable, but what we are seeing happen is something else: sidewalks that once had trees are being turned into parking areas. And this is not happening only in Jacarepaguá.

The question remains for us all: what kind of city do we want to leave for the years to come?

Don't miss the full article: bit.ly/4bGvfv8

04/01/2026

Two years ago, classes at the Brant Horta Technological Municipal School (GET Brant Horta), located in Penha, a complex of favelas and surrounding neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone, resumed in a special way: with a collective action in the school’s community garden.

The Complexo da Penha region is one of the city’s main urban heat islands. Concerned about this reality, GET Brant Horta began raising students’ awareness by carrying out practical actions of care and preservation in the area surrounding the school, encouraging a sense of belonging.

Among various types of vegetable gardens, innovative irrigation systems assembled by the students, local awareness campaigns, and actions at home and in Ary Barroso Park, the students of the school demonstrate their leadership in the socio-environmental care of the school and the neighborhood. They have even won international recognition and are competing for new awards.

For principal Marjorie Guimarães, the garden has brought numerous benefits to daily life at the school, such as developing student leadership and improving performance:

“We used to have students, for example, who never spoke to anyone at school. One of them went from being introverted to extroverted and even came up with the irrigation system [for the garden]. He’s an example of how there’s an emotional aspect to all of this, because he has a stutter and had to explain things in his own way. It was good for both his health and emotional wellbeing. Others developed a sense of belonging, which encouraged them to stay longer at school and play games like ping-pong and volleyball. For us, that’s really great because it means they aren’t out on the streets. The more restless students also come together in the garden, and we use it as a bargaining chip: for the most absent or disengaged students, we tell them they have to come [to school to participate in the garden]. As a result, their behavior has improved a lot.”

Don't miss the full article: bit.ly/4uWM9xj

03/27/2026

This Women’s Month, following Rio de Janeiro’s 2026 carnival, RioOnWatch visited Mesquita, a city in Greater Rio’s Baixada Fluminense region, to learn about the Carolinas of Jacutinga project, created in honor of Carolina Maria de Jesus. De Jesus, one of the greatest authors in Brazilian history, was the inspiration behind one of Rio’s premier samba schools, Unidos da Tijuca’s 2026 carnival parade. Like the women of Jacutinga, she was a waste picker. Today, these residents transform their neighborhood’s history through a cooperative focused on recycling, art, environmental education and memory.

Founded in 1992 and legalized in 2010, the Coopcarmo cooperative's headquarters now houses a waste separation warehouse, an innovative handmade paper factory, Repapel, and the Socio-Environmental Memory Center, which is open to the public. In addition to Mesquita, the Carolinas are leading the way in solid waste management in four other cities in the Baixada Fluminense region: Belford Roxo, Nova Iguaçu, Nilópolis, and São João de Meriti. For these women, as it was for Carolina Maria de Jesus, recyclable material is a tool for emancipation.

This article is part of a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the Digital Brazil Project on environmental justice in the favelas through RioOnWatch: bit.ly/3DyEKIX.

Don't miss the full article: bit.ly/4d4EQNv

w/ Cooperativa Mista De Coleta Seletiva, Unidos da Tijuca, Petrobras, FUNASA, Instituto Moreira Salles - IMS, Sebrae, UnB - Universidade de Brasília, Rede Favela Sustentável, Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies