CASE 1 A LOCAL PARTERNSHIP FOR PROMOTING URBAN AGRICULTURE IN LISBON, PORTUGAL Version 5. 9 June 2010 A BRIEF PRESENTATION OF URBAN AGRICULTURE IN PORTUGAL Portugal was known as an agricultural country, but the reality is now far from that. In 2001, according to the official statistics (INE, 2009) the active working population in the agricultural sector was less than 5% of the total active population in the country (it was 48% in 1950). No wonder then that the Portuguese agricultural production in 2008 is less than 20% (in weight) of the total of agricultural products consumed in the country (INE, 2009). However, for thousands of years, Mediterranean landscapes have been deeply associated with agricultural uses. With the actual reduction of agricultural activity, it s not only the rural economy that has declined but also the biodiversity, being well recognized the role that non-industrial agriculture has for the region s environmental balance. But the urban+services magnet continues to have a great influence on land-use patterns and on the loss of population and investments in the rural realm. Food production was an important issue in Portuguese economy and regional planning until mid-xx century, even in peri-urban areas; the strong urbanization process that began by that period changed the focus and agriculture was since felt as a rural issue and accordingly, almost no more considered as a urban function. But agriculture has not disappeared in the city just because urban planners were not considering it; in fact, on the opposite, agriculture always had territorial and social expression in the Portuguese cities and conurbations, even after the mid-xx century. In Portugal the tradition of green spaces in towns expresses itself more strongly since the XVI century with the quintas de recreio that surrounded the city center, providing it with fresh vegetables and fruits; cereal fields, olive orchards, vineyards and the raising of small cattle completed the overall picture of periurban agriculture, with the centers of production and consumption very close and well connected. Until the middle of the XX century that relationship between the city and its agricultural periphery was a major feature of the concentrated urban form. With the growing of the city limits and the internal migration from rural to urban areas, some of the new settlements were designed for those rural migrants, creating small private productive areas linked with the individual housing functions. In the seventies, with the degradation of the economic situation and the returning of many Portuguese families from former Portuguese provinces in Africa, some shantytowns grown in the periphery of the cities with small and degraded agriculture sites nearby; those were made on a subsistence basis, some times vary badly tended, irrigated with sewage water and without any ecological or aesthetic value; we assume that for many people the messy image that they might still have about urban agriculture originates from this situation. Today, with most shantytowns already transformed in planned urban areas, is the work of the immigrants from former Portuguese speaking-countries in marginal areas (roadsides, as the most notorious) that constitutes for the average citizen eyes, the biggest expression of informal urban agriculture in towns. However, the biggest urban agriculture areas are normally in ancient farms, former agricultural fields
or big valleys, well inside the urban core, like the Chelas valley area, in Lisbon. There are for some years now a great number of initiatives involving the creation of small-scale pedagogic kitchen-gardens in the open spaces of schools; one of the most known and coherent is the program Biological agriculture and composting in schools, run by the Municipality of Moita, since 1999. Another initiative is the municipally-owned and managed sites for public acess to the or Pedagogical allotments, where the public can visit and learn farming techniques or even farm their own plot; Olivais Pedagogical Farm, in Lisbon, is one of the first examples (since 1996) of the first situation, and the Social and Pedagogical Allotments of Guimarães (since 2008) of the second. Both are very well known locally, with a great number of visitors the first and farmers the second. Other situations are consequence of social housing operations, that involved the destruction of informal urban agriculture sites, replaced afterword by a planned space; one of the examples of this situation is the Bairro do Ingote, in Coimbra, where the municipality, with the technical support of the Agrarian Superior School of Coimbra, created in 2004 an allotment area; the success of that operation is pushing those entities to create more of those spaces through the city. Another example is designed public parks that contain an area for kitchen-gardens or allotments; almost all of them recent, one good example is the Bela Vista Urban Park at Cacém, Sintra s municipality. But maybe the older program of planned area for UA is one in Azambuja, where for now more than 60 years, social allotments are run by the local municipality, and still in use. One of the most famous, widespread and well implemented urban agriculture programs is the one conducted by LIPOR (the intermunicipal agency for solid waste in the Porto s area); the Horta à Porta (Kitchen-garden at the door) program began in 2003, has already 12 allotment areas in function, with a global area of 2,5 ha; in each allotment every user takes care of 25 m2 in organic ways of production. In Lisbon, two big UA areas are being organized by the Municipality, but in areas where there s already informal agricultural occupation in Chelas (15 ha), and Benfica (3 ha); other UA areas will be organized or created in other parts of the city. One of these will be in the area known as Alta de Lisboa, the biggest planned urban area in Portugal (350 ha), where from the organization of local residents an urban agricultural park of 3 ha is about to born, with the support of the local community institutions, local promoters and the Municipality, in a truly bottom-up successful approach. Other initiatives are already implemented, or about to begin, all over the country, in a very positive moment and movement for the recognition of the environmental, economic and social values of planned UA programs. 1. Organisation The case presented is a partnership between: a civic ecology NGO: AVAAL a landscape architecture / environmental management office: BIODESIGN Both are based in Lisbon, Portugal. AVAAL is a newly created (2009) NGO whose mission is societal development trough environmental improvements in local community; BIODESIGN is an experienced (since 1991) environmental consultancy which works in Portugal and Portuguese-speaking countries. 2. Practice The partnership evolved from two observations:
UA in Portugal and, particularly, in Lisbon s Metropolitan Area, is often practiced in informal ways, on derelict and marginal areas, namely on the side of heavy traffic roads and in steeped valleys where normally the water quality of the streams are bad; consequently, property ownership, soil quality, airborne particles and water problems arise with these kind of locations and practices of informal UA. However these UA areas are also very important for the local informal economy and for the insertion of jobless immigrants. The exact area, number of plots and people involved are not known, but UA is widespread and becoming more evident with the economic crisis. In mixed-class neighbourhoods in Lisbon, UA is also a reality or mainly a desire for both highmedium and low income strata of the population, and so being potentially very important for social cohesion between those groups. So, with those facts in mind, a NGO (AVAAL) was created in order to assure the implementation of UA (without the mentioned problems but with the mentioned advantages), in local communities, starting with one specific neighbourhood called Alta de Lisboa, with a population of c. 30.000 inhabitants. The vision is to create a 3-level UA practice: the community level (with the creation of a horticultural park that can provide plot areas for c. 100 families of the local community), in the approval of the design phase; the school s level (with vegetable gardens for children and teachers in the 4 local schools), with 2 schools already involved; the family level (with short-term courses on sustainable, healthy food production and consumption; and the construction and provision of small in-house or on roof-tops vegetable containers; this level of work is done with another community organizations, like the Neighbour s Association), with the courses and the construction of the containers on the go. All the vegetable productions are made (or to be made) in an organic, if possible certified, way, and linked with local composting schemes. The partnership involves: BIODESIGN to provide technical assistance in the participatory planning and design process on a voluntary and no-cost basis, AVAAL to congregate the population and implement the 3-level UA mentioned practices. 3. Urban Agriculture practiced In Portugal most of the UA is traditionally done mainly for familiar economy reasons, mainly by migrants, from Portuguese rural areas or Portuguese-speaking African countries. However the food habits and climatic regimes are very different at their regions of origins, curiously the plants cultivated by both groups in the Lisbon area tend to be similar, adapted to the local climatic conditions. Some differences arise within groups, for instance with the production of maize or sugar cane from the African community, crops that are not produced by the Portuguese urban farmers. Other diversified type of new UA schemes are appearing, more concentrated on leisure and environmental issues, and with a more formal approach and design, mainly organized by public companies or local authorities, most often in city parks, with the objective to involve urban population in UA activities and without the ownership, water or soil problems above mentioned. The target population is the local community, which is a mixed neighbourhood. 4. Experience In the specific neighbourhood where the mentioned partnership is taking place (Alta de Lisboa), UA is still mostly informal and done by unemployed immigrants for Portuguese-speaking African countries, with a great accent in generating a small income for low-wages families.
Many more of these migrants would also like to have plots and the planned horticultural park already in design, will provide plots for them; major characteristics of the park: total area of c. 2 ha plot size: 25-75 m2 mandatory frequency and practice of an organic horticulture practical course. Social inclusion of vulnerable groups, leisure for urban population with a strong environmental dimension and income generating activities and marketable outcomes are the envisioned dimensions for the UA that will be practised. To create a sense of purpose and to prepare the best use of the future plots, the following actions have or are being performed with the local community regular meetings with different socio-economic groups in order to promote mutual knowledge and social cohesion community production of the program and rules for the new horticultural park, discussed and voted by all the interested persons visits to inspiring or similar groups / projects, creation of vegetable gardens in schools and senior community houses organic food production courses sponsoring and communication of the process. 5. UA and the urban food crisis With the Portuguese external debt crisis in course it is certain that restrictive economic measures will be implemented by the Government that will imply more unemployment and reduction of social support to low-income communities. It is easy to understand that UA will become more important in those communities, particularly in Lisbon, where citizens and specially immigrants are far from rural opportunities to create their own food. 6. Themes of relevance for future developments in both continents Challenge 1: The model of development to move toward a sustainable and harmonious society This partnership is proving that the approach and common work between private companies, local NGO and public authorities, with a common vision and clear roles for each of them, is a very powerful way to quickly promote change and empower communities to take care of their own public green spaces for promoting UA in a positive social and environmental manner. Jorge Manuel Frazão Cancela, Landscape architect / Environmental manager Biodesign (www.biodesign.pt) Rua D. Jerónimo Osório, 1 12ºA 1400-119 Lisboa, Portugal jorgecancela@biodesign.pt AVAAL (www.avaal.pt) Rua Luís Pissarra, 6ª 1750-101 Lisboa, Portugal avaal.geral@gmail.com
Annex photos of the UA practices in Lisbon Area, 2010, Jorge Cancela