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UA
22
JUNE 2009
Building ResilientCities
URBAN AGRICULTURE
MAGAZINE
Adaption to Climate Change in AustraliaVulnerable Communities in QuitoLocal food systems in London
 
22
www.ruaf.org
In this issue
Urban Agriculture
magazine
Editorial03UrbanAgricultureinMontevideoandRosario12InterviewwithCrispimMoreira14PromotingAccesstoFoodinContagem,Brazil15AnUpdatefromNewOrleans17TheRoleofUrbanAgricultureinBuildingResilientCitiesinChina20AdaptingtoClimateChangeandBuildingUrbanResilienceinAustralia22BuildingtheResilienceofVulnerableCommunitiesinQuito25GreeninfrastructuresforCasablanca,Morocco27UrbanSchoolFarminginNakuru,Kenya.30TheroleofUrbanAgricultureintheRe-SocializationofPeopleinJuizDeFora,Brazil32LondonExamplesofBuildingResilientNeighbourhoods34TheElephantandtheCastle;towardsaLondonEdibleLandscape37DevelopmentofLocalFoodSystemsinCharlottesville,USA39RegionalFoodSelf-SufciencyandUrbanAgricultureinMetro-VancouverCanada41CarrotCity:Designingforurbanagriculture43AgriculturalBiodiversityStrengtheningLivelihoodsinPeriurbanHyderabad,India45OptimisingUseofWaterforUrbanAgricultureinTunisia48UrbanAgricultureandResilienceinLisbon49
Cover
Urban agriculture can play a critical role in helping theworld’s urban poor by providing a practical solution to thefood crisis in the shorter term, and by providing a climatechange adaptation mechanism in the longer term.This issue of the UA Magazine includes contributions tothe 5
th
Urban Research Symposium on Cities and ClimateChange held in Marseille in June 2009.
Photo Quito by: Isabelle Anguelovski 
27
Green infrastructure inCasablanca
Urban school farming inNakuru, Kenya
3034
Resilient neighbourhoodsin London
 
Urban Agriculture
magazine •number 22 • June 2009
3
www.ruaf.org
Citieswillthuscontinuetofacenewandongoingchallengesincreatingsufficientemployment;enhancingfoodsecurity;providingessentialservicessuchashousing,potablewater,sanitation,basichealthservicesandeduca-tion;planningandmaintaininggreenspaces;andmanag-ingurbanwastesandwastewater.Manyinnovationsarealreadytakingplaceinurbanareastorespondtothesechal-lenges.InthepastfewissuesoftheUA-Magazinewehavehighlightedthemultiplefunctionsofurbanagriculture:theroleitcanplayinincreasingfoodsecurity,incomeandemploymentgeneration;buildingcommunitiesandsustain-ableenvironments;andinreliefandrehabilitation.Inthisissue,weexploreurbanagricultureanditsroleindevelopingurbanresilience.
Disturbances, threats, and shocks
Citiesaresocio-ecologicalsystemsthatcan,asaresultofrapidsocial,economicorenvironmentalchanges,disastersorconflicts,slipintoastateofchaos(TidballandKrasny,2006).Long-termurbansustainabilityischallengedbyanumberofworldwidetrends,suchasrisingfoodandfuelprices,climatechangeandincreasingscarcityofwater.Unstablemacro-economicandpoliticalsituationsornaturaldisastersaggravatethesedisturbances.Prioritisinginvest-mentsincitiescanhelptomitigatetheimpactsofsuchdisturbancesintheshortrunandreducerisksinfuture.Well-targetedprogrammes,includingthoseinvolvingurbanagriculture,canplayanimportantroleincushioningtheimpactsfortheurbanpoorduringdifficulttimes(Baker,2008).
Food prices
haveincreasedsharplyinrecentyears:thishasraisedseriousconcernsaboutfoodandnutrition,especiallywithregardtothepoor(IFPRI,2008).Globalfoodpricesincreasedover80percentintheperiod2006-2008.Netfood-importingcountries–suchasmostcountriesinAfrica–havebeenhithardestbytheserisingprices.Althoughthepricesofmaincommoditieshavecomedownin2009,the
Building Resilient Cities
Urban growth is projected to increase significantlyin the coming decades. The world’s urban popula-tion is expected to double from 3.3 billion in 2007 to6.4 billion by 2050, and it is predicted that by 2030,60 per cent of the world’s population will live in cit-ies. Accompanying this urbanisation process is aphenomenon referred to as the “urbanisation of poverty”. Ravallion (2007) estimates that aboutone-quarter of the developing world’s poor live inurban areas, and this percentage is expected toincrease to 50 per cent by 2035.
Marielle DubbelingMarcia Caton CampbellFemke HoekstraRené van Veenhuizen
pricesofmostfooditemsarestillatleastdoublewhattheywerebeforethisincrease,andareanticipatedtoremainhighoverthemediumterm.Highfoodcostsdirectlyhitthehouseholdconsumptionbudgetsofthepoorastheyarealmostallnetconsumers.Thissituationisaggravatedbythedirecteffectsofworsen-ingeconomiesandjoblossesincities,aswellastheindirecteffectsofreducedremittancesandthepotentialforreduceddonoraid.Itisestimatedthathighfoodandfuelpricesalonehaveincreasedthenumberofextremelypoorintheworldbyatleast100million(WorldBank,2008).Children,womenandelderlyareamongthemostvulnerablegroupsaffected.HighfoodandfuelpricesresultedinwidespreadurbansocialunrestlastyearincountriesasdiverseasHaiti,Mexico,Egypt,Morocco,BurkinaFaso,CameroonandIndonesia.
Editorial
Urban agriculture fits in the urban social ecological system
Photo: Mario Gonzalez Novo
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