Palafitas: River dwellers under threat, Recife, Brazil (26 images)

This community of Palafitas or stilt dwellers living on the riverbanks next to "Brasilia Teimosa" in central Recife, in Northeastern Brazil, are amongst the last remaining on this riverbank. "Brasilia Teimosa" which means stubborn or resilient in Portuguese, has over many years resisted the encroachment of Large-scale developers.

In 2003, former President Lula da Silva made it his mission to transform the area. When he took power he announced that "the...
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This community of Palafitas or stilt dwellers living on the riverbanks next to "Brasilia Teimosa" in central Recife, in Northeastern Brazil, are amongst the last remaining on this riverbank. "Brasilia Teimosa" which means stubborn or resilient in Portuguese, has over many years resisted the encroachment of Large-scale developers.

In 2003, former President Lula da Silva made it his mission to transform the area. When he took power he announced that "the shantytown", Brasília Teimosa, was to be the template for his government's "new and more humane social policy". The first step was to tear down the Palafitas.

The majority of the Palafitas have now been torn down. However, the people living in them were not re-housed within the area, as promised, but rather placed in an unfinished housing project an hour away by bus. This dislocation has removed many from their livelihoods as fishermen.

This last remaining community of Palafitas is now about to be evicted and replaced by access routes to the towns latest large scale shopping centre. Brasilia Teimosa itself remains resistant to the continues attentions of private private developers.
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