Mata do Planalto: a Case of Resistance to the Real Estate Market

Abstract

In recent decades, the northern region of Belo Horizonte has been assured the potential for centrality through the implementation of projects such as the construction of the Metropolitan Transport System Green Line and of the State Government Administrative Complex (aka “Administrative City”) , as well as through the expansion of the Metropolitan Train System. Those interventions were followed by the valorization of urban land, reinforcing the interests of large real estate capital associated with the production of closed condominiums. In the search for better locations, real estate capital – associated with the State Government – advances on the last forest fragments, against the very aim of the organized civil society. This article is about the process of dispute between the real estate sector, with the support of the State, and the organized civil society aiming the integral preservation of the one of the very last forest areas of the city of Belo Horizonte.