Community garden: the project has managed to involve students, staff and professors of the FM.

The Study Group on Urban Agriculture (GEAU) will hold debates and conduct studies on the theme "Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture in São Paulo: Possibilities, Connections and Contemporaneity". Approved by the IEA's Board on May 9, it will be coordinated by Professor Thais Mauad, from the USP's School of Medicine (FM), an expert in urban health and founder of the community garden at the FM.

The GEAU will be hosted at the IEA for two years, producing scientific studies on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA) with emphasis on the city of São Paulo and its metropolitan region (RMSP).

Among the activities that have already been planned is a seminar with the participation of professors and researchers from the University of Melbourne to be held in August. The debate will address the research topic of Professor Mauad: "Achieving sustainable food production and irrigation in São Paulo and Melbourne," which seeks to understand, improve and promote the resilience of urban food production systems in these two cities.

The schedule for 2017 includes the presentation of the studies' results, as well as the publication of articles and the participation of group members in conferences and seminars.

The garden of the IEE is the result of the project Criando Terra no IEE ("Creating Earth at the IEE"), an example of urban gardening in an academic environment.

The GEAU has six members and two collaborating researchers from different areas. Given its interdisciplinary approach, the group brings together experts from the FM, the USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences (FFLCH), the Graduation Program in Environmental Sciences (PROCAM) of the USP's Institute for Energy and Environment (IEE), the Getúlio Vargas Foundation and the Université Rennes 2.

The research team was the winner in the academic category of the 5th Fecomércio Sustainability Award in 2015, with the project "Urban Agriculture: Production, Retail and Food Consumption." For the members of the GEAU, the award is "a great step forward in spreading the importance of urban agriculture in Brazil and São Paulo."

The studies should contribute to the debate about the nature of actors, social relations, socio-spatial dynamics and impacts generated by the UPA. The understanding of the new socio-spatial configurations generated by this branch are important to foster the academic debate on the contemporary urban world, according to the project's proponents.

In addition to establishing partnerships and disseminating the concept of urban agriculture, the studies aim at contributing with theoretical and methodological frameworks to explain urban phenomena, especially regarding the situation of the city of São Paulo and Latin America.

The Berlin-Tempelhof airport was disabled in 2008 and turned into an horticulture and leisure space after the claiming of civil movements.

Study Group on Urban Agriculture (GEAU)

Coordination: Thais Mauad (FM-USP)

Vice-coordination: Valéria de Marcos (FFLCH-USP)

Permanent members:

Angélica Campos Nakamura, Giulia Giacchè, Guilherme Reis Ranieri, Gustavo Nagib, Luís Fernando Amato Lourenço and Lya Cynthia Porto de Oliveira.

Collaborating researchers:

Mário Aquino Alves and Amalia Inés Geraiges de Lemos.

Photos: HortaFSPUSP.blogspot.com.br / Cecília Bastos and Marcos Santos (JornalUSP)/ Sylvia Miguel (personal archive)

The speaker will be agronomist Gabriel Bianconi Fernandes, technical advisor of AS-PTA Agricultura Familiar e Agroecologia. Moderation will be in charge of Hugh Lacey, a former visiting professor of the IEA, and Pablo Mariconda, coordinator of the research group. With live streaming over the Internet, the meeting will take place from 8 am to 11 am in the IEA Events Room.

The debate will explore the methodology for the diagnosis of agro-ecosystems developed by AS-PTA since 1990. AS-PTA is a civil non-profit association that works to strengthen family agriculture and promote sustainable rural development in Brazil since 1983. The experience accumulated by the organization over the years helped to check the contribution of the agro-ecological approach to face the great challenges of agricultural sustainability by farming families. AS-PTA operates in various networks of civil society aimed at promoting sustainable rural development.

The methodology incorporates the timeline of the agro-ecosystem and the territory to which it belongs, the valuation of the full product and not only its marketed part, the relationship with the markets, social participation, gender equality, income generation and access to public policies, among other topics.

Entitled Water Scarcity, Governance and Environmental Justice, the meeting will be held in Spanish. It will take place on November 10, from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm, in the IEA's Events Room, with moderation of Professor Pedro Jacobi, coordinator of the IEA's Environment and Society research group.

"Metropolitan areas are experiencing prolonged drought crises. The experience shows that the models prioritize the supply of water to the detriment of demand control. The management models also fail to offer low investment in sewage treatment and water-free consumption, a scarce resource," says Professor Jacobi.

The panelists will examine the contexts of water scarcity in the world, the emergence of conflicts, and the reactions and responses of social actors from the perspective of environmental justice.

The conferencists

Geographer and historian Leandro del Moral Ituarte, who currently heads the Department of Human Geography at the University of Sevilla, specializes in hydraulic works. He has studied the lower basin of the Guadalquivir river, which bathes the territories of Andaluzia, in southern Spain.

Bernard Barraqué, research director at the Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement of Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, in Paris, has focused his recent studies on the allocation of water resources, evaluation of sustainable policies and methods, institutional and participatory approaches, and comparative analysis of the sustainability of water management in major European cities. He also works at Agro ParisTech - École Nationale du Génie Rural, des Eaux et des Fôrets.

The participation of Alex Ricardo Caldera Ortega, from the Department of Public Management and Development of the University of Guanajuato, has been cancelled due to the speaker's agenda.

Photo: Tim J. Keegan/Flickr

The meeting, sponsored by the ACIESP (São Paulo State Academy of Science), by the USP's Institute of Biosciences (IB) and by the INCLINE (Interdisciplinary Climate Investigation Center), and supported by the IEA, will be divided into thematic panels: Water, the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP-21), Biodiversity, Cities and Health, and Public Policies. USP researchers and science journalists will mediate the discussions.

In the late afternoon of the last day there will be the inauguration ceremony for the new members of the ACIESP.

Programme:

October 14 (morning)

Moderator: Marcos Buckeridge (President of ACIESP and professor at the IB)
Opening session
9.30 am Marco Antonio Zago (President of USP)
9.40 am José E. Krieger (Provost for Research at USP)
9.50 am Gilberto Xavier (IB)
10.00 am Marcos Buckeridge 
10.30 am – 12.00 pm Impacts of the global climate changes in São Paulo
With Jose Antonio Marengo Orsini (National Institute for Space Research)

October 14 (afternoon)

Moderator: Herton Scobar (O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper)
Panel 1 – Water
2.00 pm The drought of 2014 in the source of the Cantareira System
With Humberto Ribeiro da Rocha (USP's Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Astmospheric Sciences - IAG)
2.30 pm Water and Agriculture - The New Challenges
Orivaldo Brunini (Agronomic Institute)
3.00 pm Human right to water: relative scarcity and application challenges
Wagner Costa Ribeiro (USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Social Sciences (FFLCH), and IEA)
3.30 pm Break
3.50 pm Q&A

October 15 (morning)

Moderator: Tércio Ambrizzi (IAG/USP)
Panel 2 – COP-21
9.00 am The COP-21 and the science of the global climate changes
With Paulo Eduardo Artaxo Netto (USP's Institute of Physics - IF)
9.30 am Bioenergy as a global warming gas mitigation strategy and its contribution to sustainable development
With Glaucia Mendes Souza (USP's Institute of Chemistry - IQ)
10.00 am – 12.00 pm Q&A

October 15 (afternoon)

Moderator: Marcos Pivetta (FAPESP Research Journal)
Panel 3 – Biodiversity
2.00 pm Global climate changes and biodiversity: introduction to the problem
With Carlos A. Navas Iannini (IB)
2.30 pm The sixth mass extinction is underway: the reptile and amphibian biodiversity crisis
Barry Sinervo (University of California)
3.30 pm Break
3.50 pm Q&A

October 16 (morning)

Moderator: Eduardo Geraque (Folha de S. Paulo newspaper)
Panel 4 – Cities and Health
9.00 am Impacts of the global climate changes in Ciudad de México
With Víctor Orlando Magaña Rueda (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México - UNAM)
9.40 am Global climate changes and their effects in Paulista citizens' health
With Paulo Hilário Nascimento Saldiva (deputy director of the IEA and professor at the USP's School of Medicine - FM)
10.20 am Using computer games to raise the awareness of climate changes and neglected tropical diseases
With Manuel Cesário (Academia Magdalena)
11.00 am – 12.00 pm Q&A

October 16 (afternoon)

Moderator: Pedro Roberto Jacobi (IEA and professor at the USP's Institute of Energy and Environment - IEE)
Panel 5 – Public Policies
2.00 pm Reviewing public policies to deal with the water crisis in a scenario of climate change
With Pedro Roberto Jacobi (IEA and IEE)
2.20 pm Patrícia Faga Iglecias Lemos (São Paulo State Secretary for the Environment)
2.40 pm Science Diplomacy: Communicating Science in Society
With Julia Knights (Director of the Science Innovation Network - British Embassy in Brazil)
3.00 pm – 4.00 pm Q&A
4.15 pm – 5.15 pm Climate Change and the Earth System
With Carlos Afonso Nobre

Inauguration ceremony for the new members of ACIESP
Opening
5.30 pm - José Goldemberg (President of FAPESP/USP)
6.00 pm - Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz (Scientific Director of FAPESP/UNICAMP) - to be confirmed
6.30 pm - José Roberto Krieger (former President of ACIESP)
6.45 pm - Marcos Buckeridge (President of ACIESP and professor at the IB)