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I’ve never been to Brazil, but when I picture it in my mind, I envision it a little bit like New Orleans: a melting pot of European, African, and indigenous traditions together in a stew of culture as rich and spicy as a steaming bowl of Jambalaya. And just as the music and color of Mardi Gras seem to pervade New Orleans 365 days a year, aren’t Brazilians perpetually celebrating that flashy festival, Carnaval?

Of the many characteristics I can attribute to Brazil, eco-consciousness and sustainability aren’t at the top of the list. “Sustainability”—for those who might not be up on their environmental terminology--is a concept that was first introduced in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), defined simply as progress that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” It generally encompasses the three goals of economic prosperity, environmental quality and social equity. These concepts are vitally important to all of us who share and care about this planet, our neighbors in it, and our collective futures.

[It is certainly important to the National Geographic-led My Wonderful World Campaign, a public awareness initiative that I have been working on for the last four months. The goal of the Campaign is to promote geographic literacy and “give kids the power of global knowledge.”]

When I think of “sustainability,” places in Western Europe, like Scandinavia, come to mind, and maybe New Zealand. With their high aggregate wealth, relative social equality, snowy-white landscapes and population profiles of a similarly pale hue, these countries are about as different from Brazil as you can get (or at least from my own impressions of the South American nation). So imagine my surprise when I discovered that there is one Brazilian city that is a world leader in sustainability: Curitiba.

I first learned about Curitiba in an undergraduate geography class called “Globalization, Development, and Environment.” When I saw that National Geographic Traveler's "Intelligent Travel" blog was hosting a blog carnival about sustainable cities (called "Carnival of Cities"), the city immediately came to mind. For, even after reading just a few accounts of Curitiba, my impressions had quickly developed in line with the lyrical descriptions of American writer, educator, and environmentalist Bill McKibben (in 3):

The first time I went there, I had never heard of Curitiba. I had no idea that its bus system was the best on Earth or that a municipal shepherd and his flock of 30 sheep trimmed the grass in its vast parks. It was just a midsize Brazilian city where an airline schedule forced me to spend the night midway through a long South American reporting trip. I reached my hotel, took a nap, and then went out in the early evening for a walk--warily, because I had just come from crime-soaked Rio.

But the street in front of the hotel was cobbled, closed to cars, and strung with lights. It opened onto another such street, which in turn opened into a broad and leafy plaza, with more shop-lined streets stretching off in all directions. Though the night was frosty--Brazil stretches well south of the tropics, and Curitiba is in the mountains--people strolled and shopped, butcher to baker to bookstore. There were almost no cars, but at one of the squares, a steady line of buses rolled off, full, every few seconds. I walked for an hour, and then another. I felt my shoulders, hunched from the tension of Rio (and probably New York as well) straightening. Though I flew out the next day as scheduled, I never forgot the city.

From time to time over the next few years, I would see Curitiba mentioned in planning magazines or come across a short newspaper account of it winning various awards from the United Nations. Its success seemed demographically unlikely. For one thing, it's relatively poor -- average per capita (cash) income is about $2,500. Worse, a flood of displaced peasants has tripled its population to a million and a half in the last 25 years. It should resemble a small-scale version of urban nightmares like Sao Paolo or Mexico City. But I knew from my evening's stroll it wasn't like that, and I wondered why.

Maybe an effort to convince myself that a decay in public life was not inevitable was why I went back to Curitiba to spend some real time, to see if its charms extended beyond the lovely downtown. For a month, my wife and baby and I lived in a small apartment near the city center. Morning after morning I interviewed cops, merchants, urban foresters, civil engineers, novelists, planners; in the afternoons, we pushed the stroller across the town, learning the city's rhythms and habits. And we decided, with great delight, that Curitiba is among the world's great cities.

Not for its physical location; there are no beaches, no broad bridge-spanned rivers. Not in terms of culture or glamour; it's a fairly provincial place. But measured for "livability," I have never been any place like it. In a recent survey, 60 percent of New Yorkers wanted to leave their rich and cosmopolitan city; 99 percent of Curitibans told pollsters that they were happy with their town; and 70 percent of the residents of Sao Paulo said they thought life would be better in Curitiba...

Curitiba has been billed the “best planned city in Brazil” and an “international leader for sustainable development” 1. How did this come to pass?

Curitiba was fortunate enough to have a few visionary individuals who pioneered a strategy of participatory, integrated urban planning beginning in the 1960’s—a time when leftist social movements took hold of much of Latin America and the world was ripe with progressive ideas. Of greatest influence was Jaime Lerner, who began his work as an urban planner, helped found a consulting organization called the Urban Planning Institute of Curitiba (IPPUC), and eventually became mayor 1. Lerner believed that “cities needed to be rediscovered as instruments of change” (Curitiba video, 1992 in 2.)

Under the leadership of Lerner and his successors (Lerner went on to become the Governor of the state of Parana, and is now retired from political life 2.), Curitiba has achieved an impressive set of sustainability milestones. To name a few:

Transportation & Bus System
Curitiba developed an inexpensive, “speedy” public bus system with direct routes and nifty stations specially designed for rapid loading and unloading. As a result, Curitiba has the highest public transportation use rates and the lowest air pollution per capita of any Brazilian city—despite having among the highest rates of car ownership 1.

Green Space

Effective zoning led to an increase in green space from one square meter per person, to 52 square meters per person over the last 40 years--despite the fact that the population tripled in the same time period! 1, 2 The city is now over 20% green space, with 28 parks and wooded areas 1.

 Recycling
Curitiba’s recycling program has been overwhelmingly successful both in terms of its environmental and social benefits. Over 70% of the city’s garbage is recycled at plants that employ individuals struggling to overcome drug dependencies and homelessness 1, 2. Through a “green exchange,” families can trade in bags of garbage in return for food vouchers and bus tickets 1.

Education
Students in Curitiba are educated to become engaged citizens through learning progressive social and environmental concepts at an early age. The recycling program, for example, was first initiated in the school system 1. Mayor Lerner established a “University for the Environment” (Universidade Livre do Meio Ambiente) where students can continue to pursue higher education, and eventually become key players in the city’s ongoing efforts for green development 1.

Curitiba: World model
I’ve now described Curitiba as if it were perhaps the pinnacle of sustainable urban development projects, nothing less than a panacea for the ills of industrial society. While this might be a bit hyperbolic, its achievements are certainly impressive: In 1992, the Resolution passed at the International Urban Forum in Curitiba was used to inform policy at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro 2. All this in Brazil, a country notorious for burning down the largest, most biologically diverse rainforest in the world to produce cattle and soybeans in the mad dash to ‘develop.’ Brazil: home to bloated megacities like Sao Paolo and Rio de Janiero, with some of most egregious cases of air pollution in the world.

Indeed, the case of Curitiba seems to prove the power of dynamic leadership when utilized as a voice articulating the most basic wants, needs, and desires of a population. In the words of Mayor Jamie Lerner himself: “There is no endeavor more noble than the attempt to achieve a collective dream. When a city accepts as its mandate its quality of life; when it respects the people who live in it, when it respects the environment; when it prepares for future generations, the people share responsibility for that mandate, and the shared cause is the only way to achieve that collective dream” 1. Sounds like the very definition of “sustainability” to me.

Curitiba: Ideal vacation destination
Through Lerner’s efforts, Curitiba truly seems to have become “more intelligent and more humane”2. It is certainly a must-visit destination for all “intelligent travelers” interested in sustainability at both the global and local levels, an example of a city “doing it right.” So why not take a trip to Curitiba, where European social values and aesthetics meet Brazilian free-spiritedness and flair. Stroll down the Dua das Flores--the oldest pedestrian street in Brazil—or through one of the city’s many parks (I like the sound of the Parque Alemao, the “German Woods” with plaques that recount the story of Hansel and Gretel); and visit the Oscar Niemeyer Museum and the Feira do Largo da Ordem open air market .

My Brazilian-born roommate may have put it best when, in a last-ditch attempt to find a first-hand review, I emailed her at work to ask if she’d ever personally visited Curitiba: “I went when I was very young, and I barely remember anything. But I can tell you this much: It is indeed paradise.”

Sarah for My Wonderful World

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Comments

[sj]

hello
im doing a sustainable city project for school
and i just wondered. would you consider the fact that Brazil si doing much to perserve the ranforest and to lessen th eimpact on it, aprt of Curitiba's sustainability?

[Thiago Prado]

When I was living Brazil many types I heard that Curitiba was the model city for all the other cities in Brazil.
I've never been there but by the pictures must be a really good place to live and work.

[Travel Guy]

That's very interesting about Curitiba, I hadn't heard of it either. Did Portugal have anything to do with the foundation for their urban planning and stuff? Or did this happen after? Great stuff, I like the "Intelligent Travel" blog too. Thanks.

[Sarah Jane]

Hi Jose,

Thanks very much for your comments!
My research suggests that you are accurate in many respects: As a nation, Brazil has taken steps in the last 5 years to dramatically improve its environmental policies, including initiation of a program in 2004 to rapidly decrease rates of deforestation in the Amazon. Of course, this policy was instituted largely in response to particularly severe rates of deforestation in 2002 and 2003: http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html.

While Brazil is making admirable progress, especially considering that its economy is very much still in the process of development, the country has a ways to go before it can be considered a world leader on environment. I could not find the "German Watch" ranking system to which you referred, but here's one I DID find: the Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index performed by Yale and Columbia Universities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_2006_Environmental_Performance_Index#Overall_EPI_score.2C_2006

And of course, the United States is probably the worst performer of all in the international community. While cited as number 28 on the EPI list for exercising some progressive policies, and despite having been recently passed by China in total CO2 emissions, the U.S. is one of the MOST consumptive countries per capita. This is significant given that it boasts the third largest population in the world. Never mind that the U.S. has failed to sign on to international treaties like the Kyoto Protocol. Thus, both Brazil and the U.S. (ESPECIALLY the U.S.) have improvements to make. We all, as citizens of the earth, must take dramatic steps to start better caring for our planet and our descendants.

[José Henrique Almeida Santos]

On the other hand, Amazon is desappering because of the Global Warming. In Brazil, our cars use the "devil and demoniac (according to CNN)" biofuels, and our energy is produced by water, wind, biomassa, natural gas (only a little share is derived from oil). Every time you turn on your enormous television, use the lights of your three-store house and put your enormous car on the street, you are contributing for the disappering of the Amazon Forest, and to the destruction of our country.

[José Henrique Almeida Santos]

Brazil is doing everything for its development, but not destroying the Amazon. We preserved 80% of this forest, and the government is doing a big effort to stop deforestation (it stopped to grow in 2004). There is a "environmental index" created by a agency called "German Watch" (if I remember), that put Brazil in the 8th position as a country that most do for environment, against the 55th position of USA and something like that for France (in a list of 57 countries). Mexico and Argentina are in good positions (5th and 10th). It's time to you (people from the auto-declared "first world") start to do something for the planet.

[ray kofi]

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