São Paulo

Sao Paulo's Life-Lab will use national and local funding to deliver pilots focusing on street trees, urban forests and sustainable water management. This includes a highly ambitious masterplan for sustainable drainage and river restoration, which will be taken forward to address flooding hazards, degraded water quality and lack of amenities. It will test low-impact development and urban river daylighting on the Jaguare Creek Sao Francisco neighbourhood.

In Sao Paulo, 3000 trees are felled in urban areas every summer due to improper management practices and environmental stresses. The Municipal Plan of Urban Trees of PMSP guides the proposed new law for urban trees in Sao Paulo and will define rules and guidelines for: shared responsibility of urban trees; measures to reduce environmental inequalities; and permissions for planting, pruning and replacement of trees.

Sao Paulo will demonstrate the potential for restoration of Atlantic Forest fragments and new urban woodlands. These pilots will test the effects of new habitat creation on human well-being and ecosystem services, whilst fostering educational processes and raising awareness of the role of nature-based solutions for environmental and urban sustainability.