Rural Rio de Janeiro: Over the Hills and Far Away?

The urban-rural landscape between the three cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Belo Horizonte is the most densely populated part of the entire Brazil and its economic backbone. For the state of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), many rural areas are characterized by declining and aging population, while the urban areas still increase in population (George and McGranahan 2010; Gragnolati et al. 2011). Greater economic opportunities and other pull factors of urban areas draw rural migration toward the cities where they cause higher demands for food, water, and energy resources, which are met by rural landscapes’ decreasing agricultural production. This development puts additional pressure on the natural resources, which already suffered from historical overexploitation (Chap. 2).