Aleksandra Brzozowski Sanjay Coelho Lisa Hallgren Ian Marcuse Krista Petersen Sustainability in an International Planning Project: Looking at the Community-Based Watershed Management Project in Santo André, Brazil

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Community Based Watershed Management (CBWM) project in

Santo André, Brazil, by outlining the geographical context of the project, identifying some sustainability

planning considerations within this context, describing the stakeholders involved and the actual processes

employed by the project. The paper was done as part of a case study assignment for a planning course. We

would like to thank Erika de Castro for reviewing the information presented in this paper, but stress that the

conclusions drawn and any errors in the information presented are our own.

BACKGROUND Geographical Context

Brazil is the largest country in Latin America, and is also considered to be one of the continent’s most advanced

countries. The state of São Paulo is Brazil’s most populous and economically important state (Columbia

Encyclopedia, 2001) and contains South America’s largest city (also named São Paulo) and its surrounding

region, the São Paulo Metropolitan Area (SPMA).

Figure 1. São Paulo’s geographic position in Brazil.

The SPMA is the largest metropolitan area in Brazil, and the third largest in the world. Rapid economic

development and population growth from the 1960s to the 1980s have been accompanied by serious air and

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water pollution and overcrowding (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2001). Since the 1980s, most of the SPMA’s

settlement growth has occurred in peripheral areas, including informal settlements occupying lands within

watershed areas. The low level of services in these informal settlements, in particular waste treatment and

garbage collection, has led to unhealthy living environments and is a contributing factor to the environmental

degradation of watershed protection areas (WPAs).

Santo André is one of 39 municipalities in the SPMA, and together with six other cities comprises the Greater

ABC Region of the SPMA, as shown in Figure 2. Most of these cities have encountered issues of watershed

degradation due to human settlements within WPAs. In the ABC Region, as much as 100% of a municipality

may fall within a WPA, and as many as 30% of a municipality’s population may live illegally in a protected

area (CHS, 1999).

Figure 2. Location of Santo André municipality with the ABC Region and SPMA.

Fifty-five percent of the Municipality of Santo André is located within the Billings Reservoir Basin watershed

and 60% of the municipality is in designated “reserve areas.” (CHS, 1999) 15% of Santo André’s population

lives in favelas (Portugese for slums) and 4% of the population lives in favelas in the WPA (van Horen, 2001),

as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Map of settlement and protected area in Santo André

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Project Introduction

The Community-Based Watershed Management (CBWM) project in Santo André, Brazil, is a five-year project

with the primary goal of making “Municipal Watershed Management in Santo André more effective and

participatory and responsive to the needs of informal settlements.” (CHS, 1999) The project is funded by the

Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Its two main partners are the Municipality of Santo

André in Brazil and the Centre for Human Settlements (CHS) at the University of British Columbia in Canada.

This project envisions reducing environmental damages and improving settlement livability by developing a

sense of stewardship in the watershed residents and by building the capacity of the municipality to manage the

watershed in an adaptive and sustainable manner.

CRITICAL ISSUES This section identifies the issues we believe to be of critical concern for the Santo André Watershed Protection

Area.

Informal Settlements

There still exists a large problem with occupation of the Santo André watershed protection area (WPA) by

informal, illegal settlements. Though the percentage of citizens living in the WPA (4%) is low compared with

neighbouring municipalities, the population was less than half that number in 1982 (CHS, 1999).

These low-income settlements require upgrading, as they have very few services and lack adequate electricity or

a proper water supply. The favelas also lack adequate sewage treatment and garbage collection, which in

addition to damaging the watershed’s environment affects the community’s health. Health awareness in general

is an issue that needs to be addressed in the municipality.

The informal settlements violate several land-use regulations, and occupants of the existing favelas have settled

illegally on already-owned land. Therefore, the stakeholders must achieve their objectives while upholding

legal requirements, which may be a challenge.

Watershed Quality

At present, pollution is causing eutrophication and sedimentation in the watershed. However, water pollution

from settlements in the Santo André WPA is not the only factor damaging the watershed – direct and indirect

water pollution from the entire metropolitan area is a critical issue. The scale of this issue is quite complex, as

the various political boundaries within São Paulo state do not correspond with the biophysical boundaries of the

watershed. In addition to watershed diagnoses that will give a detailed understanding of, and direction for the

region, a comprehensive approach to water quality that acknowledges the transboundary effects of pollution

from neighbouring jurisdictions needs to be established. (CHS, 1999) This will require focus from the broader

ABC Region, as well as the even larger São Paulo Metropolitan Area (SPMA).

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Besides water pollution, competing uses for the watershed (including hydropower demand, conservation of

fragile areas, the need for drinking water, and land for housing) require the stakeholders to agree on which

restrictions are necessary to promote more sustainable use of the watershed and protect the long-term health of

the ecosystem.

Socio-economic concerns

Socio-economic concerns such as poverty and overcrowding are major factors contributing to the illegal growth

in the area; these issues must be recognized when developing regulations for future watershed protection.

Community economic development should be a focus, identifying the economic opportunities that exist in the

area. Also, issues such as household violence and access to education are to be addressed.

Scope & Logistics

While there are a variety of issues to be addressed, the project must envision a reasonable goal that can be

achieved. Project participants must agree upon some holistic goals and discuss their desired outcomes for the

project, which are realistic within the project’s constraints.

As well, funding for the project must be a consideration when creating a management framework. The project

participants should have an accurate appraisal of the costs, along with an agreed-upon distribution. Agreements

should also involve comprehensive cost projections, whereby the parties decide how to address unforeseen

expenses, in order to ensure that the project will be completed under all circumstances. These agreements

should also examine the requirements of monitoring after the project has been completed, which could place an

additional strain on project funding.

Planning Participation

Residents of the informal settlements are low-income and largely marginalized members of society, who have

historically been excluded from planning processes. It is now acknowledged that traditional top-down master

planning approaches have been inadequate in serving the needs of either the municipalities or the residents.

Including the local residents at the neighborhood level in defining problems and developing solutions is

emphasized in participatory planning. Balancing decision-making power between all stakeholders is crucial as

well.

Similarly, the project participants must also consider how to maximize and optimize communication among

themselves. It is vital to ensure that the strategies devised are accepted by all of the participants involved, and

supported by the local and regional governments. Some of the participants may have greater active roles in the

project than others, but all must have ample opportunity to provide feedback. In addition, the stakeholders must

address viable methods for feedback from the public in general. Also, the competing uses of the watershed as

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outlined above may necessitate conflict resolution between stakeholders. Mediation, negotiation and facilitation

may be attempted as methods of reaching decisions.

Issues chosen for the CBWM project

Many of the issues listed above have been acknowledged in the CBWM project, although many are impossible

to address due to the necessarily limited scope of the project. The mandate and budget handed down from

CIDA, the project’s sponsor, has narrowed the scope of the project to focus on capacity building in Santo André

communities. The specific objectives for the CBWM project have been:

• To introduce Community-Based Watershed Management (CBWM) methods to Watershed Protection Areas

in Santo André, with the applicability to other communities and municipalities.

• To improve the quality and availability of information necessary for municipal decision-making related to

watershed management.

• To expand institutional linkages between Canada and Brazil (CHS, 2000).

The next section will look at the stakeholders involved in the projects and their chief concerns coming into the

CBWM project. We will then look at the planning processes undertaken over the past four years of the project.

STAKEHOLDERS A Multi-Stakeholder Approach

The CBWM project involves a wide variety of stakeholder groups at the state, regional, municipal, local and

international levels. With the election of the leftist Partido Trabahadores (Workers Party), the process of

democratization during the 1980s brought in a new political agenda that emphasizes popular participation. This

has led to significant devolution of powers to the municipal and community levels. Now, in the CBWM project,

municipalities and communities play an important role in watershed programs and projects including education,

health, infrastructure, economic development, housing, environment and dissemination of information. The

support of the higher level state, regional and municipal institutions has provided for fertile ground within

which the CBWM project is able to bring together a variety of concerns with the power to implement change at

the watershed level.

Increased stakeholder involvement is extremely important in the project’s approach. The active involvement of

diverse stakeholders and their perspectives on different issues of concern is vital to the participatory planning

process. Widespread involvement supports the goal of the CBWM project, to make watershed management in

Santo André "more effective, participatory and responsive to the needs of informal settlements" (CHS, 1999).

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Regional and Municipal Level Stakeholders

The seven municipal governments of the ABC Region make up the Intermunicipal Consortium of the Greater

ABC Region. The Chamber of the Greater ABC Region was later founded after a new electoral cycle in 1997,

with the objective of establishing strategic guidelines for sustainable development in the area. Participation in

the Chamber includes seven mayors, political leadership, civil society, business and unions (CHS, 2001).

A number of other inter-municipal institutions have been created to address local and regional economic

development in order to cope with the adverse effects of structural adjustment and de-industrialization in the

region. These institutions are also concerned with social development, urban growth and environmental issues

such the contamination of drinking water, loss of natural green areas, and increasing air pollution, within the

constituting municipalities (de Castro, 2003). They have proven to be flexible, decentralized and practical

mechanisms for integrating regional planning and local concerns. They also ensure that broader concerns are

integrated into the CBWM framework (van Horen, 2001).

An important initiative to the Santo André CBWM project is the new State Law of Recovery and Protection of

Watersheds, passed in 1997. It addresses the need to develop environmental legislation that is decentralized,

meaningful and responsive to the particular needs of watershed residents. It is significant because it

acknowledges the reality of settlements in the watersheds, provides for the upgrading of community needs

including socio-economic development and infrastructure, and delegates authority to municipalities to enact

regulations affecting watershed areas within their boundaries (van Horen, 2001). The partnership between

municipal governments of the ABC Region that share common environmental problems is important in the

discussion of this law. Working together, sharing information and building institutional relationships based on

common interests is vital towards developing a sustainable development plan in the region. (de Castro, 2003,

interview)

The involvement of regional and municipal level institutions in the CBWM project ensures that planning is

grounded in a regionally comprehensive framework of water management. Including these stakeholders also

increases the likelihood that the CBWM framework of watershed management and participatory planning will

be formally accepted and implemented by municipal, regional, and state governments (van Horen, 2001).

Sub-Municipal Level Stakeholders

The municipality’s desire to more effectively address sustainable development in the watershed has led to the

creation of a sub-municipal structure. The Sub Prefeitura de Paranapiacaba e Parque Andreense -SPPA

(named for the principal neighborhoods within the watershed area of Santo André) is made up of sectors that

take care of social development, infrastructure, environmental issues, and community participation (de Castro,

2003). The municipality has delegated power to the SPPA to administer watershed programs and projects

related to socio-economic development, infrastructure upgrading, environmental management and

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dissemination of information (Saad, 2002). These sub-municipal structures have increasingly worked with and

supported local residents, civil society and other professionals in their participation in the CBWM planning

process (CHS, 2002).

Another government agency involved is the Municipal Service of Environmental Sanitation of Santo André

(SEMASA), the environmental agency primarily concerned with water quality and distribution, as well as

sewage and garbage collection in the municipality. SEMASA also addresses issues of basic infrastructure and

environmental education at the community level, especially within the urbanized part of the city.

The Gender Planning Office and the Youth Bureau are also a part of the Santo André municipal government

and are concerned with raising awareness, building capacity, and supporting participation in the CBWM

project.

The University of São Paulo is another collaborator in the CBWM project. Motivated by the prospect of service

learning, it was involved at the beginning of the project in two specific roles. The School of Public Health

addressed health education and environmental awareness in the communities, and the School of Architecture

and Urban Planning gave assistance in the development of urban design land use planning in the pilot projects.

Neighbourhood Level Stakeholders

Squatters, women, youth, seniors, community leaders, and other community residents (including property

owners) all have a stake in the project. They have rights and responsibilities relating to their community and are

very knowledgeable about their settlements. Furthermore, they are the people most impacted by the planning

and management of the watersheds and are critical in supporting local watershed protection initiatives. While

each may be differently treated in terms of power, the project’s aim is to have all voices heard equally when

managing the watershed.

Improving the quality of life in the informal settlements is a priority for many people in the community.

Community concerns include secure tenure and improved housing, increased levels of service such as garbage

removal, water quality, safety, local economic development and general social improvements like day care,

health, and schools. Engaging the community in meaningful ways to begin addressing these concerns will result

in a high degree of ownership felt toward the CBWM project. Involving residents in the planning process also

encourages the community’s participation in environmental protection and supports the CBWM focus of

"involving people in the development process as stewards of the environment." (CHS, 1999)

International Partnerships

At the international level, the CBWM project links the Municipality of Santo André and other Brazilian

institutions with a number of Canadian institutions. The Canadian partners include UBC’s Centre for Human

7A Multi-

stakeholder Approach

Settlements, Institute for Resources and the Environment, City of Vancouver, Greater Vancouver Regional

District, Fraser Basin Council, and the University of Victoria Centre for Dispute Resolution.

The primary focus of the partnering institutions is mutual learning. The CBWM project provides a great

opportunity for Canada and Brazil to learn from each other’s knowledge and experiences. Canadian institutions

have shared with Santo André a range of knowledge and skills including participatory planning processes,

regional watershed management models, gender planning, and conflict resolution and mediation skills. In the

same way, Brazil has several participatory processes, such as the participatory budget, that several Canadian

cities and institutions are interested to learn about. Also, the application of Canadian methods in very different

contexts may well result in new, innovative forms of watershed management. (de Castro, 2003).

Regional-Municipal São Paulo State Waterbasin

Subcommittee São Paulo Municipality Council of the Greater ABC

Region Intermunicipal Consortium of

the Greater ABC Region SABESP – São Paulo State

Water and Sanitation Company CETESB – State Environment

Protection Company Secretary for Economic

Development

Sub-Municipal Santo André Municipality

Secretarias SEMASA – Municipal Service of

Environmental Sanitation of Santo André

EMPLASA – São Paulo Metropolitan Planning Corp.

University of São Paulo − Faculty of Public Health − School of Architecture and

Urban Planning Abused Women’s Reference

Centre International Centre for Human Settlements, UBC Institute for Resources and the

Environment, UBC Institute for Dispute Resolution,

University of Victoria Greater Vancouver Regional District City of Vancouver Fraser Basin Council CIDA

Neighbourhood Watershed residents interest

groups Community leadership Low-income favela

communities “Illegal” residents Women Youth Seniors

Figure 4: Stakeholder Summary. Note that often stakeholders participate on many levels (eg: SEMASA also works at the community level on environmental education).

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PROJECT PROCESSES

It is important to reiterate that this is a learning-by-doing project. All the initiatives and efforts are developed as a means to resolve the complex issue of a watershed management plan structured on community participation, and learning in the process of doing it. The activities are meant to enable the community to steer itself and guide the project implementers into developing community planning and information processing capacity. - CHS, 2000

The above quote summarizes the overarching planning process undertaken in this project. All stakeholders

devise their own means of recording and reflecting on the project, so that they may incorporate new knowledge

and experience to future projects. Another tenet of Learning by Doing is empowerment of the community

involved, considering it far more important to enable a community to plan for itself than to create a plan on its

behalf. Creating viable training programs for managers in the basin and promoting environmental education in

the region are two examples of planning for empowerment.

Figure 5. Taken from the CBWM Project Overview Presentation by Erika de Castro, 2002. Project team’s conceptualization of the Learning by Doing process.

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Capacity building, participatory planning, and mutual learning are other important planning processes

encapsulated in the quote and figure. These processes operate at many different scales in the project, including

the international, regional, municipal and community levels.

Municipal Level

The planning process at the municipal level emphasizes building the capacity of the municipality to initiate and

sustain participatory watershed management. Prior to the project, the municipality already had programs in

place to address some of the socio-economic areas of concern in the informal settlements, and the project builds

on those efforts. One of the municipality’s objectives is to incrementally and comprehensively upgrade the

informal settlements and favelas through a program called Urbanização Comunitária. Two other programs,

Favela Limpa and the Programa Integrado de Combate a Exclusão Social, are aimed at improving health

conditions by cleaning up the slums (Favela Limpa) and improving social and economic inclusion of people in

the favelas (Programa Integrado de Combate a Exclusão Social). The CBWM project enhances these intiatives

by adding to them a new environmental dimension, and by working with the municipality to establish a new

regulatory framework for watershed management. These processes are building a strong municipal framework

for sustainable development that extends to the regional level (van Horen, 2001).

The project has provided a variety of training to the municipal and regional agencies to give them the skills to

continue the CBWM process after the funding from CIDA ends. The municipality has been trained in

Environmentally Sensitive Areas methodology, conflict management, gender awareness, bioregional mapping,

community economic development, and the use of hypermedia to maintain and update watershed biophysical

data.

Community Level

Many participatory planning processes are used at the community level, and a great deal of learning-by-doing

also takes place at this level. Three pilot projects were undertaken to apply new approaches and methodologies

and to learn from their implementation. The first pilot project location is an illegal subdivision with irregular

housing, the second location is an illegal favela, and the third is an historic village.

In the first pilot project, a variety of innovative participatory planning techniques have been used to foster

community involvement. These include interviewing residents, conducting socio-economic surveys, collecting

oral histories, and creating a Youth Resident Committee. Another tool of engagement was hip-hop workshops,

designed to encourage youth to express their views on social, economic, and environmental issues in an

unconstrained manner. (Saad, 2003)

In the second pilot project, community members, representatives of the municipality and technical experts from

the University of São Paulo in such diverse areas as agronomy, geography, architecture, and engineering

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participated in a charrette, guided by an urban design professor from UBC. The purpose of the charrette was to

create innovative sustainable urban designs for the area.

The third project, emphasizing maintenance of an important heritage site, has stressed community economic

development through sustainable tourism. The community has received training in pro-poor eco-tourism

initiatives and has developed a tourism guide for visitors to the region. A survey was conducted to gather

information on the interests and needs of women in the area. This information was used to plan income-

generating programs and workshops on a variety of issues, including domestic violence (CHS, 2003).

The bioregional mapping technique has been included in all of the pilot projects as a way to visually reflect all

the interests of the communities. In workshops, community members and local officials identify social,

economic, and environmental issues important to them and develop maps, charts, graphs, reports, and other

reference materials that mirror those issues (de Castro and McNaughton, 2003)

International Level

Mutual learning has consistently been a significant planning process at the international level. The project

participants have never thought of the Canadian partners as “experts”, nor the Brazilian partners as recipients of

expert knowledge. Rather, the project team recognises the value of contributions from all partners and from all

socio-economic levels. Both Canadian and Brazilian organizations are able to learn about how the Canadian

watershed management tools relate to various communities in Brazil.

The Canadian team contributes expertise and ‘lessons learned’ from organisations with experience in watershed

management, such as the Greater Vancouver Regional District and the Fraser Basin Council. Planning methods

and training programs developed by these organisations and by institutes at UBC and the University of Victoria

have been adapted for use in Santo André.

Furthermore, the Brazilian partners share with the Canadians their knowledge of successful participatory

planning methods. A participatory budgeting process is already in place in Santo André to prioritise yearly

spending, and this process has been a success. In addition, the city has a participatory process called “City of the

Future” for setting long-term strategic goals for growth and development (Daniel, 2000). Santo André has a

Women’s Office, Youth Office, and Public Participation Nucleus engaged in these issues (CHS, 2001). Private

organisations like the Theatre of the Oppressed, which uses performances to create a dialogue between the

audience and the actors, have also been fostering greater community engagement (CHS, 2003).

CONCLUSION

This report has provided an introduction to the CBWM project in Santo André, Brazil, and identified the major

issues, stakeholders and planning processes involved.

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The CBWM project highlights the inescapable relationship between humans and the environment. By

attempting to improve these relationships, the CBWM project may provide Santo André with a model to

achieve a more sustainable future. It underlines the importance of clear communication between all

participants, so that a variety of stakeholders from different backgrounds can work together to solve problems.

It also builds capacity in the communities so they may plan for long-range management – for it is the

communities upon which the success of this project is ultimately dependent. The efforts towards participatory

planning will hopefully help create viable, healthy and engaged communities, and encourage local stakeholders

to take the lead in becoming stewards of their environment. The measure of a successful CBWM project will be

in furthering such goals.

In closing, it is important to reiterate the importance of reflective practice. If organized and undertaken

effectively, the CBWM project may provide a positive example for similar capacity-building projects. We have

recently learned that a similar project is being proposed for Peru, and the Santo André experience should be

extremely informative for this initiative (de Castro, 2003). Therefore, it will be important to critically examine

the strengths and weaknesses.

REFERENCES (All internet sources accurate as of Oct. 19, 2003.) CHS, 1999. CBWM Inception Report. http://www.chs.ubc.ca/brazil/Outputs/Inception_Report.pdf CHS, 2000. CBWM 2000 Narrative Report. http://www.chs.ubc.ca/brazil/Outputs/NarrativeReport_2000.pdf CHS, 2001. 2001-2002 Annual Report Workplan. http://www.chs.ubc.ca/brazil/Outputs/2001_Annual_Report.pdf CHS, 2002. 2002-2003 Annual Report Workplan.

http://www.chs.ubc.ca/brazil/Outputs/Annual_Workplan_2002.pdf CHS, unpublished. 2003-2004 Annual Report Workplan. Ceslo Daniel, 2000. The City and its People: Dimensions of Community Participation in Santo

André. http://www.chs.ubc.ca/brazil/Outputs/Celso_paper.pdf Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001. Entry for “Sao Paulo”.

http://www.bartleby.com/65/sa/SaoPaulo.html. Erika de Castro, 2003. Personal Interview, October 16th, 2003. Erika de Castro and Alison McNaughton, 2003. Bioregional Mapping as a Participatory Tool in

CBWM. http://www.chs.ubc.ca/brazil/Outputs/Bioregional_Mapping.pdf Layla Saad, 2003. Cultivating Citizenship and Participation Through Culture.

http://www.chs.ubc.ca/brazil/Outputs/CultivatingCitizenship.pdf. Basil van Horen,2001. “Planning Toward Community Based Watershed Management in Santo

André, São Paulo, Brazil.” Environment and Urbanization, vol. 13.