Sustainability and Resilience
What efforts have been made to reduce the carbon footprint of the initiative?
The pragmatic efforts of “Reverdecer Bogotá” regarding the activities of urban and peri-urban agroecological agriculture in the face of the carbon footprint, are mainly focused on self-consumption or self-sufficiency of food and its commercialization.
The agricultural practices in the urbanized areas of Bogotá allow the access of the products in a close way directly from the urban or peri-urban garden to the market, without the need for the food to travel long distances from the rurality, considering the implications regarding resources consumption.
Likewise, the agroecological management of food from urban and peri-urban agriculture contemplates energy efficient actions such as, among others, making fertilizers through composting and vermiculture, collecting and storing rainwater, using plant extracts for pest management, and not using synthetic chemicals,
The pragmatic efforts to “Green Bogotá” from the activities of urban and peri-urban agroecological agriculture in terms of carbon footprint, focus on self-consumption or self-supply of food and its commercialization.
The agricultural practices in the urbanized areas of Bogotá allow the access of the products directly from the urban or peri-urban garden to the market without the need for the food to travel long distances from the rural area, which translates into a both economic and energetic economy of resources.
Likewise, the agroecological management of food from urban and peri-urban agriculture includes energy efficiency actions such as making fertilizers through composting and vermiculture, collecting and storing rainwater, the use of plant extracts for pest management and the no use of synthetic chemicals, among others.
How have the anticipated impacts of climate change been considered?
To promote resilience to climate change, the main option is the incorporation of the agroecological approach, which is manifested in the following actions: diversification of urban gardens, incorporating new species and, in particular, promoting native species. The latter have a greater capacity to adapt to local climatic variability. Also, within the new investigated species there are some rustic ones that do not present diseases in our context (ex: Mizuna, Red Mustard).
This practice incorporates the use of local resources, such as rainwater for irrigation; the use of organic compost from the proper management of local organic waste, the rescue of native species and the strengthening of local seed banks that promote the maintenance of agrobiodiversity.
What processes does the initiative include for it to be considerate in its use of soils and other natural resources?
The activities of urban and peri-urban agroecological agriculture have been held in the social environment, considering that the community fabric through the cultural appropriation of agricultural practices is the best strategy for its sustainability over time. Without interested community groups and organizations, urban and peri-urban agriculture simply could not be implemented or carried out in Bogotá.
Agriculture in urban and peri-urban areas with agroecological management in the city is understood as a process of food sovereignty that different population groups appropriate as a lifestyle.
This includes environmentally friendly practices, use of waste, reuse of resources such as water, application of ancient techniques to control pests and diseases to replace chemicals and products with a high impact on soil and vegetation.
Urban agriculture in Bogotá is a two-way educational process, in which communities and the Botanical Garden share experiences, transfer knowledge and contribute to generating co-responsibility processes around the city’s green spaces.
Some of the goals:
- Strengthen 20,000 urban and peri-urban vegetable gardens with the supply of seeds, inputs and/or basic tools, including the creation of community seed banks for productive improvement.
- Assist 40,000 people technically and/or with technology transfer for their respective production.
- Train 20,000 people in agroecological techniques and technologies for the production and promotion of healthy and safe food consumption.
- Design and implement 1 promotion and marketing strategy with farmers’ markets.
