Clique aqui para Português
On November 14, the Sustainable Favela Network (SFN)*, in partnership with the National Secretariat for the Peripheries (SNP) of Brazil’s Ministry of Cities, hosted the launch event for the publication Nature-based Solutions in Peripheral Areas: Advances in the Regulation of a New Public Policy. With support from GIZ Brasil, the Expanded Monitoring Working Group (GTAA) has been developing this initiative since October 2023. In addition to the Sustainable Favela Network, the project involved the Sustainable Peripheries Institute, the University of Brasília (UNB)’s Peripheries Research and Extension Group, the National Observatory for the Right to Water and Sanitation (ONDAS), the Urban Bioconnection Alliance, SEMASA Santo André, the World Bank Brazil, the Network for Antiracist Adaptation, and independent researcher Erich Wolff.
The launch event was held in parallel with the G20 Social Summit in Rio de Janeiro’s Gamboa neighborhood, at Zona Imaginária—an atelier featuring a permanent exhibition of images portraying the history of Brazil’s first favela, Providência, located nearby. The event aimed to expand the discussion on public policies for climate adaptation in peripheral areas through the Living Peripheries Program and marked an important step towards innovation in urban development using Nature-based Solutions (NbS).
The event brought together practical NbS experiences implemented in favelas by members of the Sustainable Favela Network. These were represented by Alessandra Roque (Agroecological Providência), Luis Cassiano (Green Roof Favela) from Parque Arará, Otávio Alves Barros (Vale Encantado Cooperative), Roberto Fonseca (Horto Natureza), and Alan Brum (Roots in Movement Institute) from Complexo do Alemão. Raissa Monteiro (GIZ Brasil), along with National Secretaries Adalberto Maluf (National Secretariat for Urban Environment and Environmental Quality, Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change) and Guilherme Simões (National Secretariat for the Peripheries, Ministry of Cities), also attended the event. They emphasized the federal government’s commitment to advancing solutions to address the climate crisis in peripheral areas and favelas, which are disproportionately vulnerable to climate impacts.
What Are Nature-based Solutions (NbS)?
Luiz Arend Filho—coordinator of the Department for Mitigation and Risk Prevention at the National Secretariat for the Peripheries, Ministry of Cities—introduced Nature-based Solutions (NbS) during his talk, highlighting their benefits not only for favelas and peripheries but for society as a whole.
“NbS are actions that broach social challenges, holding benefits for communities and the ecosystems involved… For example, when it rains, part of the water infiltrates the ground, while the rest produces surface run-off. When there is urbanization, with concrete and tarmac, less water infiltrates, and more water runs off surfaces. When intense rains produce more water, what is the traditional solution? To increase river capacity, channels, or add concrete. If urbanization continues and exceeds predictions… there’s even more water. Then, still within a traditional approach, what’s done? The overflow is put into a big reservoir, using even more concrete. Is there an alternative? Yes, there is. The alternative is NbS. What does [traditional] urbanization do? With more water, less water infiltrates, and more water runs off the surface. What do Nature-based Solutions do? They hold the water, infiltrate the water, and reverse what urbanization has done.” — Luiz Arend Filho
During the event, Luiz Arend Filho, National Secretary for Peripheries Guilherme Simões, and National Secretary for Urban Environment and Environmental Quality Adalberto Maluf launched the publication Nature-based Solutions in Peripheral Areas.
At the event, Secretary Maluf highlighted the importance of working in partnership, particularly regarding urban environmental issues in peripheral areas and favelas. He discussed the Resilient Green Cities Program and its potential for Brazilian peripheral areas, emphasizing that favelas already provide—and can continue to provide—many alternative solutions to the impacts of climate change, which disproportionately affect these areas.
“When we simply think about land, the major projects proposed by local governments tend to rely on gray infrastructure—large-scale, multimillion projects involving big construction companies. Do they solve the problem? Partially. But there will never be enough funding to address everything. In contrast, Nature-based Solutions take us back to our origins by using natural elements, by using the cities and the natural geography of the areas where we live. There is a very clear territorial connection in peripheral areas… a gender and racial element… [these are areas] where we can implement solutions such as urban agriculture and filtration gardens…. [these approaches] can also create critical infrastructure, like drainage systems.” — Adalberto Maluf
Nature-based Solutions as Public Policy
The National Secretary for Peripheries, Guilherme Simões, from the Ministry of Cities, spoke extensively about the launch of the publication Nature-based Solutions in Peripheral Areas and about NbS as public policy. Watch the video above for the full talk in Portuguese.
“Our role is to prevent risks and disasters, especially those related to landslides. We are the ones in the federal government responsible for slope containment walls—the large, concrete structures you see in places like Rio and Recife, designed to hold back landslides. And they work—you could say they work, right, Luiz? But for a long time, we have been emphasizing the importance of considering other types of solutions for this problem. Why? Because concrete walls have consequences. Since they’re made of concrete, when the sun hits them, that area will overheat compared to others. And that spot, as any local resident knows, becomes nothing but a huge wall. And when there’s a problem somewhere else, people move in and take over the spot again…
I need to address the fact that, to reduce disaster risks in Brazil and improve people’s safety in the face of climate events, we need to reduce inequalities. Because if someone has better living conditions, they don’t need to move to at-risk areas, right? No one—and this is the classic phrase we activists in this area always say—no one moves to an at-risk area or lives there because they want to, because they choose to. We go there because we live in cities that produce inequality in industrail proportions. I’d like to circle back to talk about NbS here because we’re going to hear more and more about them. And the more we hear about them through the lens of those who live them, who act on them, who build and create these experiences, the better…
We are thrilled to be the first federally-funded initiative within a secretariat to carry the name Nature-based Solutions. This is a debate we must have in Brazil; we need to talk about it. We have to explain that those who suffer the most from the impacts of the climate crisis are the poorest. We have to state the obvious. But if someone has to explain the obvious, we’re right here. We’ll explain the obvious as many times as it takes.
As long as we see the State’s role as simply developing policies and implementing them from the top down, this relationship will not work… That’s why the more we build on this methodology—which led to this publication and the Peripheries Without Risks strategy before it—the better. The community risk management plans we are creating in partnership with universities and favela and peripheral communities include a range of proposed actions… I want to emphasize that this moment is deeply rewarding because I feel we are building something meaningful and proving that it is possible. Tackling inequality is not something of the past. Confronting the effects of the climate crisis is not something for the future. It is our challenge—here and now, in our time, right?… In 2025, we will launch a call for proposals for Nature-based Solutions projects. And it’s not just about plans on paper: we want to see things happen. We want to turn these sketches into real interventions. To show our people, as well as mayors, governors, and technicians—many of whom still question this approach and prefer the easier path of pouring concrete over everything, right?—that Nature-based Solutions, rooted in lived experiences in peripheral territories, can indeed provide real answers to the climate crisis.” — Guilherme Simões
Favelas as Pioneers in Creating Nature-based Solutions
The panel on Nature-based Solutions in Favelas showcased various community-led models by members of the Sustainable Favela Network. Alessandra Roque, from Agroecological Providência, shared insights about the agroecology project, environmental education, and other community-based actions in Morro da Providência.
“We set up a school called Agroecological Providência in Morro da Providência. Our goal is for every child to have access to education… We may not have the funding to take these children to an ecovillage or a farm, but we do have the means to bring one or two examples of each species or the environmental pathway to show them. So, within the project, we’re not connected to the public sewage system; instead, we use an evapotranspiration basin to treat our sewage. We also have a dry toilet, a green roof, a worm farm, a static compost pile, a revolving compost pile, and a crusher. There are many ways to manage our waste… We strive to make full use of food, even banana peels, utilizing everything, absolutely everything we have.” — Alessandra Roque
Green Roof Favela‘s Luis Cassiano, a resident of Parque Arará, developed a green roof project at his home. In his presentation, he explained how this technology works and how it has helped reduce the temperature in his house, making the environment much more comfortable.
“I used to live with my mom in a caretaker’s house in the Atlantic Rainforest when I was a teenager. So, I had a lot of contact with nature. Later, we were able to buy our house in this favela [Parque Arará]. That’s when I realized I had gone from living next to the jungle to living in a concrete jungle. When we moved, it was extremely hot, and I had to figure out how to deal with all that heat. A friend of mine, who lived in Germany, suggested that a green roof might help. I thought that made a whole lot of sense! First, because I’ve always loved plants. And there are so many people in favelas who, like me, love plants—but they kind of forget that passion, you know? Because all they see around them is concrete and bricks, and they just get used to it. They give up on planting because they feel like there’s no space for it. I don’t really have space to plant either. So, I thought it would be a cool idea. Let’s see how it works. I started doing research and found out it was possible. Through my research, I connected with an amazing person, Bruno Rezende, who was doing his PhD on green roofs and developing a technique specifically adapted for favelas. I began to understand the concept better and dig deeper into it. Now, I’ve had a green roof for about 13 years. My roof is still green and thriving. So, what does it do? It significantly lowers the temperature. With cooler temperatures, we save on electricity. We use less air conditioning, spend less at night, the house looks prettier, and the ecosystem thanks us for it.” — Luis Cassiano
Otávio Barros, from the Vale Encantado Cooperative, located in Alto da Boa Vista on the edge of the Tijuca Forest, shared his experience with the community-led construction of an ecological sanitation biosystem to address the problem of sewage being discharged into local water bodies.
“I work with tourism, and we are part of the Vale Encantado Cooperative, which was founded in 2005. In 2007, when a group of tourists visited the community, I took them to a nearby waterfall. They wanted to bathe in it, but I told them they couldn’t because the water was polluted—not only by the favela but also by the apartment complexes above it. That’s when I started thinking about how this situation could be resolved… At the time, I worked at PUC, Rio’s Pontifical Catholic University, and I used to visit several departments—geography, arts, environmental studies—trying to figure out the best way to treat sewage. That’s when I met Léo and Tito, who are now our partners at the community. Together, we created a biosystem, a sewage treatment system that works through root zones. It’s located at the lower end of the favela, where the sewage flows down naturally by gravity. Before that, the sewage from houses was funneled directly into a stream, forming a small, completely contaminated creek—an open sewer running through the favela. We installed all the necessary piping, redirected the sewage into this system, which includes that round dome you can see over there, resembling an igloo. That cylindrical structure decants all the wastewater that comes into it. That white pipe no longer exists… Now, once the water is treated in the system, it’s returned to the environment, released into a flatter area, and absorbed by the plants growing around the community.” — Otávio Barros
Roberto Fonseca, from Horto Natureza, works in the Horto community, located in Jardim Botânico. His efforts focus on revitalizing, maintaining, and preserving the Macacos River, which runs through the community, as well as promoting environmental education. He is also dedicated to creating a counternarrative, challenging the misconception that the residents of Horto are responsible for polluting the river.
“Horto Florestal was crucified in the media, with numerous threats of forced evictions. The fight to preserve our homes was a long one. Our ancestors did so much to protect Horto, but their contributions were forgotten, and a lot of our history was erased. The Horto Natureza project came to show that there were many people there dedicated to its preservation. As the grandson of a Botanical Garden worker, I drew from my heritage and we built a sustainable project to show the media that those who care for the land deserve to live on it. I started out by cleaning up the Macacos River. Before that, everything that happened in [the upscale neighborhood of] Lagoa was blamed on the Horto community… Horto has always been a place of preservation, but we had no way to make this visible—it was hidden. When social media came along, I started posting about the preservation work that residents had always done… We began doing some incredible work with the community, showing that by planting, we could also harvest. That’s when we started our own sustainable vegetable garden, using natural materials, and proving that the Macacos River was being preserved… We are not invaders; we are preservers.” — Roberto Fonseca
Alan Brum, from the Roots in Movement Institute—which focuses on human rights as well as local, social, cultural, and human development in Complexo do Alemão (CPX)—facilitated the Complexo do Alemão Popular Forum. This forum collectively produced the Complexo do Alemão Popular Action Plan, with one of its key priorities being the green urbanization of the favelas that make up CPX. In his presentation, Brum highlighted the vital role of collective spaces in favelas as a means of empowering the community as a whole.
“We were able to develop this plan in Complexo do Alemão with a diverse range of actions. Many of these actions are closely related and incredibly rich. My presentation, however, focuses on urban, socio-environmental, and climate interventions. We began working in the favela, collaborating with a university to create a socio-environmental assessment of the favela itself, engaging with the School of Architecture to ensure the residents’ priorities were heard and incorporated. From there, we developed the urban intervention plan to present to public officials and push to include it in the public agenda. This work was carried out over the past two years, leading to the involvement of the Secretariat of Environment and Climate… We succeeded in ensuring that this secretariat, rather than the Municipal Secretariat for Housing—which typically handles favela urbanization—took on the project. This shift is crucial for incorporating Nature-based Solutions into our urbanization project. The project outlines and details features like a green corridor and an orchard, recovering one that existed in the area decades ago, as part of integrating Nature-based Solutions. Here, we aim to foster a discussion about what Nature-based Solutions mean for favelas.” — Alan Brum, Roots in Movement Institute
Following the presentations of NbS initiatives in favelas, the National Secretary for Peripheries, Guilherme Simões, reflected on the importance of these initiatives in shaping new public policy.
“We are creating new public policy. I think that should be the sole purpose of people occupying positions of power, of managing budget execution. This is the only purpose: to create public policy through this process of exchange, seeing what you are all doing, admiring it, and saying, damn, this can be scaled up. Green roofs can grow in scale; they don’t need to remain restricted to half a dozen houses or shacks in a community or favela. They can grow in scale. Of course, it’s important to respect the dynamic that was created, how it was conceived, etc., but it can be scaled up… And this methodology of bringing organized collective agents to co-create public policy should not be limited solely to NbS actions.” — Guilherme Simões
Watch the full recordings of the presentations during the launch of NbS in Peripheral Areas here:
See the Photos of the Event on Flickr:
*The Sustainable Favela Network (SFN) and RioOnWatch are initiatives of the NGO Catalytic Communities (CatComm).
About the author: Bárbara Dias was born and raised in Bangu, in Rio’s West Zone. She has a degree in Biological Sciences, a master’s in Environmental Education, and has been a public school teacher since 2006. She is a photojournalist and also works with documentary photography. She is a popular communicator for Núcleo Piratininga de Comunicação (NPC) and co-founder of Coletivo Fotoguerrilha.