Recreio green corridor - Rio de Janeiro

The Recreio green corridor is an urban planning mechanism launched in 2012 by the Municipal Secretariat for the Environment in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, alongside several city departments. The green corridor aims to protect, connect, restore and enhance the area's rich biodiversity and ecosystems as a tool to increase the resilience and adaptive capacity of the city's west side, an area affected by coastal flooding and erosion. The corridor also seeks to educate the residents about native vegetation and help build social interaction and cohesion between the local communities. The corridor was designed to preserve and connect 320 ha of existing local urban nature elements and protected areas and add 61 ha of open public spaces and squares. The corridor has a linear extension of close to eight kilometers, passing through diverse urban areas such as natural parks, a lagoon system, water canals, and social housing areas. The green corridor is part of the 'Carioca Mosaic of Protected Areas', whose legal basis is the National System of Protected Areas, and which is one of the objectives of the municipal plan to conserve and restore the Atlantic Forest of the city of Rio de Janeiro, developed by the Municipal Secretariat of the Environment in 2015.

Overview

Type of instrument:

Legislative, regulatory and strategic instruments›Urban planning mechanisms

Challenges addressed

Ecologic connectivity
Water management (e.g. reuse)
Green space management (e.g. accessibility)
Flood risk: pluvial and fluvial / soil permeability
Heat stress and heat island effect
Landslide risk
Social cohesion
Social equity
Reconnection to the biosphere / environmental education
Human health, comfort and well-being

Consideration of nature-based solutions:

Different types of nature-based solutions were protected or created such as parks, forests, lakes, lagoons, water streams, coastlines, community gardens, sustainable urban drainage systems, green multifunctional streets, green islands, and green bus stops as part of the green corridor.

Targeted (peri-)urban areas:

Parks and (semi)natural urban green areas

Allotments, community gardens or agricultural areas

Blue areas

Green areas for water management

Urban green space connected to grey infrastructure

Good practice characteristics:

Support multifunctional NBS

Sustainable in the long-term

Locally appropriate

Potential to be replicated / upscaled

Inclusivity

Governance

Government body/bodies

Initiating body:

Municipal Secretariat for the Environment

Instrument design:

Details about how the instrument was designed:

The green corridor plan was developed on the basis of an interdepartmental study conducted by the Rio de Janeiro's environmental department with 20 experts from eight city departments (e.g. Coordenação do Proteção Ambiental, Secretaria Municipal de Meio Ambiente). The city commissioned a landscape design studio and an urban planning company to design the green corridor. These two companies also helped clarify the role of each part in the whole project, applying an inter-scale and multifunctional approach. The environmental department was responsible for the project implementation and community engagement.

Involvement of non-governmental actors:

Citizens or community groups / NGOs

Type of actor involvement:

Civil society consultation through e.g. workshops, surveys

Instrument implementation:

Type of involvement:

The Mosaico Carioca blog was established as an open channel of communication between Civil Society, Conservation Units, and Protected Areas located in the metropolitan area of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The blog provides information about the protected areas (trails, attractions etc.) and offers the opportunity for citizens to become volunteers and support e.g. environmental education, implementation or management of the protected areas. In addition, environmental education programmes have been developed and implemented to engage and educate residents and raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services to quality of life and well-being.

Type of non-governmental actors involved:

Implementation of NBS (e.g. with government funds)

Volunteers supporting environmental education

Targeted actors:

Citizens or community groups (CBOs), NGOs

Financing

Sources of funding:

Public local authority’s budget

Private Foundation

Budget:

Unknown

Details about instrument financing:

No information is available on the total costs for the implementation of the corridor. However, environmental compensation was one of the main sources of funding. This was connected to, for example, the 2016 Olympic Games infrastructure builds, which needed to comply with legislation on the compensation of natural areas damaged within construction works.

Monitoring, evaluation and impacts

Achieved outcomes and impacts:

The Recreio Green Corridor has protected many core areas, removed invasive species and introduced native vegetation. Some measures have provided more space for the caiman and capybara populations while allowing people to observe these animals (without physical contact). The green corridor has also contributed to improved flood protection and stormwater management, increased biodiversity, ecological quality and connectivity of ecosystems and green and blue space areas; greening neighbourhoods and thus better access to green areas; provision of health benefits; and increased human well-being and awareness about NBS benefits as well well as social inclusion and environmental education. The corridor also provides clean mobility with convenient and safe cycling and walking routes and improved public transport with green bus stops.

Success factors and lessons learned:

The design and implementation of the corridor revealed that it is very challenging to work on enhancing green spaces with nature-based solution projects when there is no political will to introduce them or to protect ecological areas more broadly. Partnerships between public and private institutions and the involvement of qualified professionals and committed citizens are essential to protect and enhance nature in urban areas. There is a need for awareness raising and education among different stakeholder groups about nature-based solutions and their ability to protect and enhance native biodiversity in urban areas. The personal commitment of public servants is essential for success. Some officials continue to be responsible for pushing the green corridors along the lagoons.

Sources and further information

Further documents

Weblinks:

https://oppla.eu/casestudy/20074

https://una.city/nbs/rio-de-janeiro/recreio-green-corridor

https://www.defprojetos.com/corredor-verde

http://mosaico-carioca.blogspot.com/p/pnt_04.html

Further documents

Photos