A Zona Especial de Negócios Rurais em Duque de Caxias/RJ: potencialidades e possibilidades para o turismo rural

Abstract

The municipality of Duque de Caxias, after the emancipation from Nova Iguaçu, began to receive large industrial enterprises, originating from a New State political measure, to contemplate the changes in the urban structure of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Started in the 1940s, these projects marked Caxias territory, which came to be seen as an industrial city. This perspective was so striking that it influences nowadays the territorial planning of that municipality. In the 2000s, with the creation of the City Statute, the Municipal Master Plan of Duque de Caxias (PDU) was created, and in it, several development zones that diverge from the industrial activity. One of them points to rural-themed tourism. Thus, there is an urgent question to be discussed: Does the city of Duque de Caxias, so marked by industrial activity, have a potential for rural tourism, according to its Master Plan? That said, the general objective of this dissertation is to analyze the macrozone defined by the PDU (ZEN Rural) and its rural tourism potential, against a legislation that doesn’t offer support for this activity. As specific objectives we will seek to: analyze the process of occupation and modification of Caxias since the end of the 19th century, in view of the socioeconomic transformations that took place in the capital Rio de Janeiro, in addition to the actions promoted by municipal urban legislation, which prioritizes the industrial use in detriment to other uses compatible with the local reality; write about the practice of Rural Tourism and possible concepts and characteristics through the contribution of geographers and researchers; discuss the methodologies for defining rural and urban areas and also investigate the tourist planning devices of State and Federal agencies that include Duque de Caxias; to investigate the localities included in the ZEN Rural in order to present the activities carried out there, their possibilities and potential. The path of investigation chosen will be the logic of discovery, since an analysis subdivided into three stages is necessary: first, to demonstrate the construction process of Duque de Caxias and the development of the industrial activity in it, and how the urban legislation was (and still is) an influential factor, even if it promotes conflicts over land use. Second is to analyze the theoretical contributions of rural tourism and its guidelines in different administrative spheres, and finally, to investigate, locally, the dynamics present in ZEN Rural. Therefore, it was possible to conclude that, as much as public management insists on a vision of territorial development based mostly on industrial activity, there are locations that promote activities and experiences in rural areas, however, without a proper development strategy. We can say that there is a potential for the development of rural tourism in Duque de Caxias, even if the activities seen there are not related to the rural way of life, and that there are possibilities for growth, as long as they are carried out with a planning oriented to sustainable development.