The CORAL Project in Guanabara Bay: For an Almost Forgotten Peripheral Community

This article discusses some socioeconomic advantages of an environmental development project that goes bythe acronym CORAL (Brazilian abbreviation for "Lacustrine Complex for Observation, Recreation andAdministration"). The CORAL project features the potential recovery of peripheral fishing communities in GuanabaraBay. Better biological and coastal management of Guanabara Bay is required because this ecosystem has been degradedby untreated sewage and oil industries installed along its shores. The purpose of the CORAL project is to link itsconceptual and architectural design to public policy that targets artisanal fishermen, who fear that their means ofsurvival is increasingly threatened in an irreversible manner. The CORAL proposal arose due to the fact that there hasbeen almost complete abandonment of this important littoral periphery, which is rarely mentioned or seriouslyconsidered in Rio's debates on social development.