Is it a rubbish dump, a magnet for crime, a degraded wasteland? Or is it an urban oasis, a vibrant community hub, a bulwark against poverty and climate change?
While rough ground and vacant lots in cities everywhere can quickly generate problems, municipalities in Brazil have reimagined them to address issues from food security and climate resilience to equality and social engagement.
In Curitiba, the largest city in the countrys south, urban agriculture has proliferated under power lines and in other idle and underutilized sites, connecting people, restoring nature and rewarding industrious citizens with nutritious and affordable food.
We are recovering these degraded areas and giving them a new purpose producing food under a system of ecological management, said Gabriel Dalmazo of Curitibas Secretariat for Food and Nutrition Security.
With urbanization proceeding at breakneck speed more than 4 billion people already live in cities, which are expected to be home to about 7 in every 10 people by 2050 making urban areas more liveable and resilient is a huge and urgent challenge.
Cities are vulnerable to climate-driven shocks, which, among others, can disrupt food supply chains, sending prices skyrocketing and exacerbating food waste. About 1.7 billion food-insecure people three-quarters of the global total already live in cities.
To help cities around the world adapt, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is implementing the Generation Restoration project to help them assess, restore and protect urban ecosystems, by integrating them into their planning and development processes.
Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the project is part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global initiative supporting the implementation of commitments to meet restoration goals of one billion hectares of land worldwide.
As well as providing technical and financial support to more than a dozen pilot cities, Generation Restoration showcases model cities implementing solutions. These range from urban wetland restoration to the creation of urban forests and ecological corridors, providing insights and inspiration that others can learn from.
Measuring the benefits
Curitiba, one of three Brazilian cities in the programme, has leveraged this initiative in its efforts to quantify the ecosystem benefits of its urban agriculture programme with the aim of identifying innovative financing and investment methods to sustain its long-term ambitions on nature restoration and conservation.
Over the last decade, the municipality has developed policies and tools that cover all stages of the food cycle to promote food security, reduce inequalities and waste, and boost the resilience of the city and its 1.9 million inhabitants.
To support local food production, the city has enabled groups of citizens to establish more than 200 urban gardens. The gardens yield approximately 1,600 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables every year, delivering health and nutrition benefits to an estimated 32,000 people who are engaged in the urban gardens as well as their families.
By growing food close to where it is consumed and promoting sustainable farming practices, the city has reduced greenhouse gas emissions related to transportation and food waste. Organic waste generated on the urban farm and in surrounding communities is turned into compost and used as fertilizer, improving soil health and fixing carbon.
The city has also set up two urban farms that act as demonstration plots and training hubs for sustainable agriculture. A third is due to open before the end of 2025.
In addition, about 130 hives of native stingless bees in schools, gardens and other locations are helping pollinate plants across the city and contributing to the conservation of the natural flora and fauna of the surrounding Atlantic Forest region.
Other elements of Curitibas food security policies include family warehouses that provide essential foodstuffs and other products at affordable prices to low-income families; the provision of meals to vulnerable people; a price comparison website to help people plan their spending; and support for city markets selling local produce.
Under the UNEP pilot project, experts have explored the citys options to further scale urban agriculture and develop carbon markets valuable guidance for the municipality as it pushes forward with the restoration of the citys ecosystems.
Based on an analysis of urbanization pressure, climate risks and restoration potential, the project estimates that adding another 2,000 hectares of urban farms would reduce temperatures by almost 1C in some areas, give 166,000 people more access to green spaces, and increase water infiltration by 233,000 cubic metres during heavy rainfall events.
Moreover, the expanded farms could sequester 64,000 tonnes of carbon, potentially generating carbon credits worth some USD 3.5 million revenue that could help pay for projects such as the Food Connection Program, which envisages a 20-kilometre-long belt of urban agriculture and green spaces around the city.
The experts recommended steps the municipality could take to further reduce ecological degradation and create a future-proofed model of sustainable urban development, such as policies to prevent further encroachment onto farmland and to embed urban agriculture in spatial planning processes.
The findings underline that cities with more green spaces are better equipped to cope with the growing threats that climate change is throwing at us, including torrential rainfall and extreme heat, said Mirey Atallah, Chief of the Adaptation and Resilience Branch in UNEPs Climate Change Division. Coupling that with ecosystem restoration, food production and community engagement only multiplies the benefits.
So Paulo and Manaus
Manaus, the biggest city in the Brazilian Amazon, is also implementing a pilot project under the Generation Restoration initiative.
The Manaus project has helped develop a draft law on urban agriculture, staged community events to promote urban gardens, and brought government and civil society leaders together to elaborate ways to advance urban agriculture, healthy diets, ecological restoration and climate resilience.
So Paulo, meanwhile, is acting as a role model city under the global initiative in recognition of its own advanced approach to urban agriculture, food security and resilience.
The city, the largest in all the Americas, runs programmes that provide bio-inputs, soil remineralizers and access to machinery as well as training and investment to many of the citys 2,600 mapped agricultural sites. These include commercial farms, Indigenous lands, community gardens and over 1,000 school gardens, where local communities and young people learn how to produce and consume food sustainably and reduce waste.
Through the Generation Restoration project, all three cities have joined with academics and civil society groups to exchange ideas and experiences on how best to design, fund and deploy agriculture to restore urban ecosystems and meet other development goals.
By raising the profile of urban agriculture as a force for good, Dalmazo said UNEP had also helped the cities build a stronger case with both potential investors as well as donors for its expansion.
Some see agriculture as destructive. But we have been able to position ecological farming as a restorative activity, he said. Thats an advocacy win that we hope will bring in the support we need.
About the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
The UN General Assembly has declared 20212030 a UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Led by the UN Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, together with the support of partners, it is designed to prevent, halt, and reverse the loss and degradation of ecosystems worldwide. It aims at reviving billions of hectares, covering terrestrial as well as aquatic ecosystems. A global call to action, the UN Decade draws together political support, scientific research, and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration.
