Serviços ecossistêmicos e áreas verdes urbanas: quem possui acesso aos benefícios do verde em Fortaleza-CE?

Abstract

The urban environmental issue must be integrated into the city-building process, especially with regard to socio-spatial segregation and housing and land problems. This integration is particularly relevant in peripheral countries, where social inequalities are more evident in the urban space, influencing both environmental impacts and degradation and access to the benefits generated by ecosystems. The main aim of this research was to analyse the impacts of sociospatial segregation on access to ecosystem services and green areas in the city of Fortaleza. Initially, a bibliographical, documentary and cartographic review was carried out on the formation of the city's urban space, with an emphasis on historically segregated areas and their respective environmental impacts. Ecosystem services were then mapped using the Matrix Method, based on the perceptions of specialists and relevant actors, using the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES). The buffer method for accessibility to green areas was also applied, with a radius of 300 metres. This data was overlaid with census information on income, race/colour and gender of the head of household. The results show a clear influence of socio-spatial segregation, historically built since the 1877 drought, on unequal access to green areas and the ecosystem services offered by these spaces. It was found that this inequality is a problem of socio-environmental injustice and environmental racism, given that the black and brown population, with low incomes and female-headed households, is mostly present in the areas excluded from the accessibility radius. It is estimated that approximately 70.65% of the city is outside this access zone, concentrated mainly in the west, south-west and south regions. Also noteworthy is the high relevance attributed by experts to the services provided by areas of vegetation, water bodies, dunes and beach strip, which in turn are located predominantly in the east, southeast and far west regions, opposite the excluded areas. Finally, this work sheds light on a problem that demands urgent attention from public authorities, adding to the efforts for socio-environmental justice in the city of Fortaleza, led by environmental movements, universities, researchers and political representatives committed to the issue.