Entre açudes e leões: reconstruindo a história da área do Parque Estadual Dois Irmãos

Abstract

The Dois Irmãos State Park (PEDI), located in the northern part of the city of Recife/PE, is an urban ecological Atlantic Forest reserve area of 384.42 hectares, with a very specific context, it's a green area highly frequented in the midst of peripheral communities lacking public leisure facilities, but, also, a reference zoo in the conservation of the northeastern Brazilian wild fauna, as well as a center of practical training for young students in the areas of biology and veterinary. The present research sought to identify how the PEDI area was appropriated, identified, and object of disputes by different social groups at different moments in the history of urban development of the city of Recife, and what was the socio-historical context of formation of the PEDI itself. We were able to identify that the dams were the first public arrangements in the area, present since the first half of the 18th century, with origins in the sugar cane mills installed in the region. In the 19th century, the area was used as a catchment source by a piped water distribution company, and from the 20th century on, it started to be remodeled in the modern urban-sanitary molds. We identified that one of the milestones of this process happened in 1925, with the construction of a botanical garden aimed at the production of eucalyptus, and another one in 1939, with the creation of the zoo-botanical park in the same area. These different appropriations and reuses over time have shaped this region of the city differently from other neighborhoods in Recife and are reflected in the present, with new interests focused on the preservation of urban forest areas, but this complex game of political and social forces has also influenced the institutional constitution of the PEDI from the past until today.