São Paulo, Brazil

Hotspot & Ecoregion Status

Globally, the Atlantic Forest Hotspot is second only to the Amazon in diversity of species, but it has been much more significantly degraded. It is highly fragmented - only 7% of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest has been preserved in fragments of more than 100 acres. In the State of S ã o Paulo, the remnants of the Atlantic Forest are concentrated in the Serra do Mar Mountain Range, between the Metropolitan Region of S ã o Paulo and the city of Santos in the Metropolitan Region of Baixada Santista. ^[1]

Large parts of the Atlantic Forest were deforested in the 16th and 17th centuries for quality hardwoods that were used for shipbuilding and furniture manufacture. Deforestation for agriculture and lumber/fiber plantations (soybean, sugarcane, pine and eucalyptus as well as illegal timber trade continues to diminish the forest today). ^[2] The majority of the remaining forest fragments are isolated and scattered throughout a landscape dominated by agricultural uses. Urban development and tourism are also significant threats to habitat in this region.

Species statistics ^{[3] [4]}

	Number of species	Percentage/Number of endemics	Notable species & other notes
Plants	~20,000	~8,000	Brazil-wood ( Caesalpinia echinata ), Brazilian rosewood ( Dalbergia nigra ) 70 percent of trees are endemic
Birds	1,023	188
Mammals	260	>70	85 percent of primates of endemic
Reptiles	>300	~95	important feeding grounds for marine turtles
Amphibians	>450	~50%
Freshwater Fishes	>350	133

The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund has identified logging, poaching, animal trade, urban and industrial development as well as deforestation driven by agriculture and the expansion of pasture as the most significant threats in the Atlantic Forest. ^[5]

Serra do Mar Coastal Forests Ecoregion

The greater metropolitan region of Sao Paulo is located within the Serra do Mar Coastal Forests ecoregion (also known as Sierra de Mar Coastal Forests). This ecoregion is identified as one of four centers of endemism within the Atlantic Forest hotspot. ^[6] The elevation gradient in the ecoregion supports varied ecosystems ranging from shrublands to montane forests. The rich collection of Bromeliaceae (bromeliad), Myrtaceae (myrtle), Melastomataceae , and Lauraceae (laurel) species distinguishes this region from the rest of the Atlantic Forest. ^[7]

The Serra do Mar forests have been reduced to 47% of their original extent and continue to face significant threats from tourism and urban development. Lowland forest areas are particularly vulnerable. Additionally, some traditional practices (such as palm heart extraction) post threats to specific plants and the animal species that depend on them. ^[8]

Environmental History

The region of the present day metropolitan areas of Sao Paulo was historically known as the plains of Piratininga . It is located on a plateau 800m above sea level ; a very steep, mountainous descent over 60 km separates Sao Paulo from the coa st and the port city of Santos.

Before Portuguese conquest, the region around present day Sao Paulo was inhabited by unconsolidated tribes of the indigenous Tupinakin people. The Tupi, who are believed to have originally settled in the Amazon, eventually spread out along the majority of the South American Atlantic coast. Their culture had a strong influence on the development of Brazilian culture; the indigenous language Nheengatu was the primary language of Brazilians as late as the 18th century. ^[9]

The colonial history of Sao Paulo began with the founding of the Jesuit mission Sao Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga in 1554. Sao Paulo was relatively isolated and grew slowly for about 300 years as the primary development of Brazil was concentrated in sugar plantation in the north-east. I ts location at the mouth of the Tiete-Paranapanema river system made it a strategic hub for slave traders, known as bandeirantes, who captured indigenous people and sold them to the northern plantations. The city’s location atop a plateau at 800m above sea level and 60km from the coast constrained its growth; in contrast, Sao Paulo’s coastal counterpart, Rio de Janeiro, grew rapidly especially as it became a trading port for gold exports. ^[10]

Several rail lines between Sao Paulo and the port of Santos were completed in the late 1800s just as American coffee demand rose steeply. As the Paraiba valley became a coffee growing hub , Sao Paulo ’s location at the western end of the valley made it an important link in the connection between the co ffee growers and t he port of Santos.

The economic dominance of coffee exports in Brazil’s economy gave Sao Paolo significant political weight in the reorganization that followed Brazil’s transition to independence from Portugal . It only shared this out-sized power with one other state — Minas Gerais — which exported dairy (their power sharing deal was called the “cafe com leite” deal, i.e. the coffee-and-milk deal). ^[11]

The coffee industry continued to shape Sao Paulo significantly through the first half of the 20th century. Brazil did not abolish slavery until 1888, but when it did, coffee plantations suddenly needed workers. The state government saw immigration as a great boon to the economy of Sao Paulo and even went as far as to pay for passage and help immigrants get settled with subsidies. Waves of immigrants from Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Japan helped Sao Paulo to grow from the 10th largest Brazilian city in 1870 to the second largest Brazilian city in 1920. By 1893, immigrants accounted for more than 55% of Sao Paulo’s population.

Industry followed agriculture, and textile manufacturing and coffee processing were the primary industries of the early 19th century. By 1945, Sao Paulo was the industrial center of South America. Today the city has more than 2,700 industrial sites whose output accounts for 10% of Brazil’s exports.

The Tiete River which runs through Sao Paulo was dammed twice to create two reservoirs--the Guarapiranga Reservoir completed in 1906 and the Billings reservoir completed in 1935. The dams were originally built to generate hydroelectric power but eventually became critical sources of drinking water for the city. These reservoirs established the southern limit of urbanization for a long time but today there are problems with illegal informal settlement around the reservoirs.

The 20,000 acre Cantareira State Park was established in 1962 to protect Sao Paulo’s water supply.

Current Environmental Status & Major Challenges

Brazil’s urbanization rate increased steeply in the second half of the 20th century; today more than 80% of the population lives in cities. In São Paulo, the majority of the urban growth occurred through urban sprawl and the peripheralization of the population.

Sao Paulo’s most urgent environmental crisis is its vulnerability to drought. Between 2014 and 2015, the city received less than half of the rain it received the previous year. This sudden shortage o f precipitation caused a drought so severe that the Cantareira reservoir system was at 5% of capacity, with less than a month’s supply of water. The drought was declared an official “state of calamity.” The army was prepa red to send in troops as the crisis stirre d civil unrest . Experts have pointed to the city’s growth, its leaky water system,  the pollution of the Tiete and Pinheiros rivers as well as the Billings Reservoir, and the deforestation and destruction of wetlands in areas surrounding the city as major culprits. Scientists have also found that extensive, ongoing deforestation of the Amazon river has also severely reduced precipitation across Brazil. ^[12] Although the drought eventually broke before the Cantareira ran out of water, the threat of dipping back into a drought cycle is ongoing.

Although the Tietê River and its tributary, the Pinheiros River, were once important sources of freshwater and leisure for São Paulo, but they became heavily polluted by industrial effluents and waste water discharge in the second half of the 20th century. Clean-up programs financed by international development banks are currently underway.

Ironically the city also has a high water table and is continuously pumping water out of its bowels, i.e. out of the foundations of its buildings. “Existe Agua em SP” (which translates to “There is water in Sao Paulo”) is an activist citizen-mapping project led by Adriano Sampaio which is mapping Sao Paulo’s streams including those that are now culverted/underground/etc both to make people aware of them — of their ecological richness as well as their potential to supply water in times of drought. His project is modeled on the Rios e Ruas (Rivers and Roa ds) project by the geographer Luiz de Campos and arc hitect Jose Bueno’s .

In addition to extensive water pollution, air pollution is also a significant problem dur to São Paulo’s extensive industry (the macrometropolis has more than 2,700 industrial sites, which account for 10% of the nation’s exports). This pollution has significant negative impacts on adjacent forest remnants.

Growth Projections + Type of Growth

Sao Paulo was one of the fastest growing urban area on earth from 1950 to 1975, with a growth rate as high as 6.7% in the five year period from 1965 to 1970. The city continues to grow, adding more than 1 million people in the last decade. There is a strong tendency toward peripheralization, as population growth rate in the central city began to slow in the 1980s but the suburban growth rate has been on an upward trajectory since the 1960s. The growth predicted growth rate for the coming decades is predicted continue to decline but remain positive until 2030. ^[13]

About 14% of Sao Paulo’s residents live in informal settlements amounting to about 1.6 million people. The number doubles if the count includes illegal subdivisions and plots lacking infrastructure and documentation. ^[14] The city has been struggling to meet housing demand, in turn leaving 500,000 people homeless or in insecure housing. Paulistanos call informal settlements favelas or and abandoned buildings wh ere people squat cortices . ^[15] Areas considered “favelas – as de ned by the UN (precarious housing, lack of legal property tenure and infrastructure) – are an astonishing 1,643 communities of diverse sizes.” ^[16] It is not clear whether these numbers are based the percentages of people who live in areas that are of informal settlement but have since be regularized and upgraded.

The Guarapiranga programme led by the then Housing Secretary, Elisabete Franca, aimed to create links between the formal and informal city by legislating property rights and introducing public infrastructure. The majority of Sao Paulo’s informal communities are in remote lowlands at the city’s perimeter. This perimeter of makeshift houses stretches for dozens of kilometers.

Source: Raphael Lorenzeto, “The macrometropolis and its divisions” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Paulo_Macrometropolis#/media/File:Macrometr%C3%B3pole.png

LEGEND

Metropolitan Region of São Paulo

Metropolitan Region of Baixada Santista

Metropolitan Region of Campinas

Metropolitan Region of Paraíba Valley and North Coast

Metropolitan Region of Sorocaba

Jundiaí Urban Agglomeration

Piracicaba Urban Agglomeration

Regional Unit of Bragança Paulista city

Governance

In Brazil, cities are legally organized into Metropolitan Regions by State Governors; this is often done to “consolidate political support or access to national funds.” Inner city Regions are able to garner more funds and investments than peripheral municipalities thanks to their technical capacity regardless of the distribution of need.

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The Região Metropolitana de São Paulo was created in 1973. It is constituted by 39 municipalities that are organized into geographic subregions, which have a collective population of 21 million inhabitants. The greater metropolitan region, also known as the São Paulo Macrometropolis, includes the conurbation of Greater São Paulo, Campinas, Santos, Sorocaba and the Paraíba do Sul River Valley, and has a collective population of over 31.5 million inhabitants.

Because the of the extensive urban sprawl of the Sao Paulo metro area even beyond the delineation for the Região Metropolitana de São Paulo , for statistical reasons, the government also delineates the Complexo Metropolitano Expandido, which has a population of more than 27 million. ^[17]

City Policy/Planning

The Metropolitan Region of Sao Paulo passed the III Strategic Master Plan (PDE) in 2015, its most recent comprehensive urban development plan intended to guide urban growth and development until 2030. ^{[18] [19]}

The Metropolitan Statute (Law no. 13,089), a law passed at the national level in 2015, requires integrated metropolitan planning that includes coordination between cities and states. ^[20] The Metropolitan Region governments of the São Paulo Macrometropolis are currently developing the required Integrated Urban Development Plans or Plano de Desenvolvimento Urbano Integrado (PDUI) required of all Metropolitan Regions under the Metropolitan Statute. ^[21] This process is a joint effort between the Development Council of each Metropolitan Region, ^[22] the Secretary of the Civil House of the State of São Paulo (Secretaria de Casa Civil do Governo Do Estado Sao Paulo), ^[23] and the Paulista Metropolitan Planning Company (Empresa Paulista de Planejamento Metropolitao S/A; EMPLASA). The PDUI is expected to be the basis for public policy proposals for the Metropolitan Region, including allocation of budget resources. One of the main objectives of the plan in process will be  to reduce conflict between urban sprawl, especially informal settlement, and the preservation of the environment, especially of water-producing areas. ^[24]

At the national level, commitment to urban planning and data collection has been compromised since the political and economic crisis of 2016. In that time, a network of organizations have come together to form a civil society network called the Metropolitan SDG Observatory (METRODS) in order to create and monitor SDG 11 indicators. ^[25]

Prefeitura de São Paulo provides access to urban mapping layers through the GeoSampa system. ^[26] Further environmental municipal data is made available through the infocidade system. ^[27] Finally, SMUL releases a monthly newsletter with analysis of urban spatial and demographic developments. ^[28]

Zoning

In 2016 the City of Sao Paulo (one of the 39 cities in the Sao Paulo Metropolitan region, which houses the CBD) the passed the a new zoning law-- Lei de Parcelamento, Uso e Ocupação do Solo (LPUO )--which identifies three distinct territories: territories of transformation (targeted for increased density of population, economic activities, and public services), territories of qualification (targeted for the maintenance of non-residential/productive uses and the diversification of uses including increases of population to moderate densities), and preservation territories (targeted for the preservation of current population levels and land uses as well as the promotion of sustainable economic activities as well as environmental and cultural preservation). ^[29]

Biodiversity Policy/Planning

NBSAP

Brazil’s NBSAP (2016) names five objectives that are detailed with specific targets. The first objective is to mainstream biodiversity across the government to address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss. The second is to reduce the pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use. The third concerns improving the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity. The fourth is to enhance and share the benefits of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The fifth is to improve implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building. The plan proposes many targets for the year 2020, including the reduction of the rate of habitat loss by at least half, the control of pollution and invasive species, the restoration of 15% of degraded ecosystems, and the protection of 30% of the Amazon and 17% of other terrestrial biomes. ^[30] The plan acknowledges that the Cerrado is where most Brazilian land is converted for agriculture and livestock production. ^[31] However, the document does not mention urban sprawl as a major threat to biodiversity.

National

The Brazilian Panel on Biodiversity (PainelBio) is a national biodiversity working group formed during the development of the most recent NBSAP in order “to promote synergy between institutions, disseminate knowledge, conduct training and support decision-making for the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.” It includes the representatives from CEPAN, IPÊ, JBRJ, SCMamirauá, WWF-Brasil, FUNDHAM, Fundação Neotrópica, FVA, CEBDES, ISA, CNI, Aprender, Fio-Cruz, IUCN, Fundação Boticário, Fórum do Mar, SBF/MMA, ICMBio. ^[32]

The Ministry of the Environment is tasked with the preparation of the NBSAP. The following departments within the Ministry were involved in drafting the

• Secretariat of Biodiversity
• Department of Ecosystems Conservation (DECO)
• Department of Protected Areas (DAP)
• Department of Species Conservation and Management (DESP)
• Department of Genetic Heritage (DPG)

Other National Ministries, Agencies and Institutions that contribute to the monitoring and conservation of biodiversity:

• National Commission for Biodiversity (CONABIO)
• National Environmental System (SISNAMA)
• Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio)

City

In 2011, Sao Paulo City adopted a Subnational Biodiversity Strategies and Actions Plan; the plan identifies documentation and monitoring of biodiversity within the city as a crucial step for delineating priority areas for conservation and restoration. It does not include a spatial component.

It was also a participating city in the Local for Biodiversity Pioneer Program, a founding member of the Durban Commitment, and a participant in the 2018 citizen science program City Nature Challenge.

The City of Sao Paulo has identified the following as the primary threats to biodiversity in the city: poverty,  migration into environmental protected areas, illegal occupation of the land, illegal deforestation, illegal hunting, sewage disposal in natural into water courses, illegal collection of forest species, lack of knowledge about biodiversity, protected areas without economic value.

Protected Areas

The Cantareira Range Complex of Protected Areas

A third of the Cantareira Mountain range to the northwest of Sao Paulo was designated as a forest preserve in the late 19th century; today the reserve is a state park that provides and protects half of the urban area’s water supply. The Cantareira State Park is 79-square kilometers, and is adjacent to the Alberto Löfgren State Park which has an area of 174 hectares.

More recently, in 2010, the State of São Paulo designated an additional 28,600 hectares, quadrupling the area of this protected areas complex, by creating Itaberaba and Itapetinga state parks, as well as Pedra Grande Natural Monument and Guarulhos State Forest (the latter two allow some compatible land uses to continue). ^[33]

The São Paulo City Green Belt Biosphere Reserve

This 2,331,700 hectare reserve was created in the 1990s, and integrated into the much larger UNESCO Mata Atlantica (Atlantic Forest) Biosphere Reserve in 1993. Biosphere reserves are by definition areas designated as study zones that link sustainable development and biodiversity conservation, and while they include core protected areas, they also include important buffer areas where the majority of their inhabitants live.

The Atlantic Forest South East Reserves

Located about 50 miles from the center of the Sao Paulo metropolitan region, the Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves are the closest of three exemplary reserves of Atlantic Forest.  The South-East Reserves have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site and include some of the most extensive and most intact examples of Atlantic Forest. The reserves includes a lot of the region’s inherent geographic variety spanning from mountain ranges to the sea and including ecosystems shaped by its estuarine, riverine, coastal, and karst. Although the rich ecosystems of this region extend to the periphery of the city of Sao Paulo, these reserves and most of the protected areas in the state exist at a significant distance from the city, creating opportunities for more conservation closer to the city both to protect diverse ecosystems from urbanization and to provide better access for city residents to extensive, protected near nature.

A series of much smaller national parks just to the south of the city:

• Parque Natural Municipal Itaim  (IUCN Category II)
• Parque Natural Municipal Bororé (IUCN Category II)
• Parque Natural Municipal Varginha  (IUCN Category II)
• Parque Natural Municipal Jaceguava (IUCN Category II)
• Parque Estadual Da Serra Do Mar (IUCN Category II; Managed by Fundação para Conservação e a Produção Florestal do Estado de São Paulo); Long park between sao paulo and the coast...
• Parque Estadual Da Cantareira (IUCN Category II; Managed by Fundação para Conservação e a Produção Florestal do Estado de São Paulo); smaller park to the north east of the city
• Parque Estadual Do Jaraguá  (IUCN Category II; Managed by Fundação para Conservação e a Produção Florestal do Estado de São Paulo)

Biodiversity/Landscape Initiatives/Projects

Serra do Mar and the Atlantic Forest Mosaics System Social and Environmental Recovery Program is a partnership between the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the São Paulo State Government.It serves as a successful example of resettlement of informal settlements from disaster-prone, ecologically sensitive areas within the Serra do Mar State Park. The Mosaics of protected areas managed toward diverse goals promote integrated and participatory management of their components. In the first phase of the project, more than 5,000 families living in precarious or protected areas were resettled and assisted with housing and upgraded infrastructure; the project cost US$470 million. The second phase aims to resettle or assist 25,000 households through infrastructure upgrading. ^{[34] [35]}

Program Biota of São Paulo State is a joint project by a collective of academic institutions charged with conducting a broad biodiversity study of Sao Paulo and adjacent areas.

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz / Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto Agronômico de Campinas, and Grand Valley State University:  A consortium of Universities that invested in biodiversity studies of Atlantic Forest fragmentation in the Camanducaia Basin in Minas Gerais, leading to increased knowledge of local flora and socioeconomic factors of this region, located in the western of Serra do Mar Corridor.

The Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact ^[36] is a coalition of 266 organizations working to restore the Atlantic Forest.

The Nature Conservancy launched the Plant a Billion Trees Campaign in Brazil in 2008, and has planted more than 29 million new native trees in the Atlantic Forest in 28,000 acres that they have restored. ^[37]

The Corredores Ecologicos na Mata Atlantica is a large scale connectivity project that was initiated in 1996. It is not clear how much of the vision for this corridor was achieved or whether the project is currently being supported. ^[38]

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