Portoviejo is an intermediary city and a capital of the coastal region of Manabi, with a population of around 250,000 and size of 54 km2. The city has a hot, semi-arid climate and is surrounded by silt soil mountains.
The urban expansion is putting pressure on the Portoviejo river which divides the city in two, while the informal settlements on the city’s hills contribute to increased landslide risk. In April 2016, the city was hit by a fatal 7.8 magnitude earthquake that destroyed most of the city centre.
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This case study was delivered as part of INTERLACE: an EU-funded project to strengthen urban ecosystem restoration in the European Union and Latin America.
Through its participation in INTERLACE, Portoviejo sought access to knowledge and networks that will help it realise its ambition of becoming a top city in Ecuador, and to turn its ideas into fully-developed projects backed by feasibility studies. It aimed to exchange experiences on urban ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation with other cities, co-produce assessment tools for restorative NBS, and receive support in the process of fostering participatory engagement.
Key aims:
- Develop a restoration project for the Mamey Park area
- Create an inventory of restoration projects related to the Portoviejo River
- Develop policy and governance instruments supporting nature-based solutions
- Explore options to incentivise investment in NbS
- Raise awareness of NbS amongst citizens, including young people
- Produce an impulse paper on NbS and ecosystem restoration
Through the INTERLACE project, the municipality of Portoviejo has carried out a number of actions linked to NbS. Importantly, the project has introduced new thinking around nature-based solutions and specifically the ecological restoration of sensitive ecosystems, with a focus on the Portoviejo river corridor, which suffers from isolation from the city and pollution. Over the course of the project, exchanges with other INTERLACE cities have helped to develop new ideas and establish new processes. The tools developed have challenged local teams' traditional practices, and reinforced the ecological ambitions of the two administrations in place during the project. Through INTERLACE, Portoviejo has strengthened its position as a leader in terms of sustainable urban development in Ecuador and on the topic of nature-based solutions within this context, and hopes to build on these successes going forwards. The following is a summary of some of the actions that were carried out.
Inventory of restoration projects and activities (2021). YES Innovation carried out an initial assessment of the potential for ecological restoration of the Portoviejo River using NbS. This revealed the existence of numerous initiatives and studies, past and present, which could provide information or opportunities for cooperation with INTERLACE. The team at YES carried out an in-depth survey of these studies to establish a knowledge baseline
Awards event - ‘Premio Habitat Ecuador’ (2022). Each year, this event recognizes projects by Ecuadorian cities that offer innovative solutions in terms of sustainable urban development. In 2022, the municipality of Portoviejo was awarded first prize for its Portoviejo River Corridor project, based in part on the knowledge and tools provided by the INTERLACE project.
Previas (2022). A two-day forum was organized in 2022 with the aim of better understanding the state of local players' knowledge of environmental and social issues linked to the Portoviejo river corridor, and detecting opportunities for cooperation with universities, NGOs, international organisations and the private sector. Held online due to the pandemic, the forum provided an opportunity to listen to a wide variety of analyses, ranging from the history of the river to environmental studies on water quality and local community initiatives to reclaim specific green spaces. The event demonstrated the diversity of initiatives relating to the river and the great willingness of local players to contribute to a larger-scale restoration project.
International Forum on Urban Planning: “Land management for sustainable urban development of Portoviejo towards 203” (2022). The Municipality of Portoviejo held a workshop on the topic of sustainable development, as well as dissemination and exchange of policies and new sustainable practices, which are essential to combat climate change. A two-day public keynote event was held, attended by urban planners, civil society, policy makers, media and the general public, with a total of approximately 130 participants.
International photography and drawing competition (2023-2023). A drawing and photo competition was held for children to depict the Portoviejo River. Through this activity, children and young people were made aware of the protection of natural resources and the application of NbS to enhance their local environment.
Workshop on ‘Tools for designing, implementing and evaluating NbS in urban architectural projects’ (2023). An event organised in collaboration with YES Innovation, where presentations were made about NbS and prizes were awarded to the winners of the "The River, the City and Me" competition. This was an onsite event attended by around 140 teachers and students. The event was followed by a meeting with professors from the associated universities to define cooperation pathways for the design of the Mamey Park restoration project.
Mamey Park restoration project (2023-2024). Portoviejo chose to develop a NbS rehabilitation project for the Mamey Park area; part of the network of parks bordering the Portoviejo River and one of the major vectors for the restoration of a better synergy between city and river. This process ran from July 2023 to September 2024. During the co-design process, several workshops were held involving various social groups, who provided their support and comments regarding the recovery of this public space. Two local universities provided support to establish a diagnosis of the park. Co-design workshops were held with multiple stakeholders including neighbourhood groups, youth and environmentalist groups and municipal departments. These co-creation workshops provided key information for the park restoration design process, which was developed in a cooperation effort between YES Innovation and the municipal team.
Minecraft activity with local schools (2023). "Creating footprints using the Minecraft tool" - an awareness raising workshop - was conducted in December 2023 with a total of approximately 60 students in two local educational units (Unidad Educativa Fiscal Uruguay and Unidad Educativa Fiscomisional Mercedes de María). The workshop emphasized the importance of protecting rivers, riverbanks, riverbeds, keeping this natural resource clean and how beneficial it could be if this space were publicly accessible and recreational, and could also be used for tourism purposes. Young people had the opportunity to raise ideas from creativity focused on the care and protection of nature, seeking the inclusion of students in this process.
Impulse Paper – ‘Introduction to NbS and Ecosystem Restoration’ (2024). A guidance document for stakeholders of the Portoviejo River Corridor, including local communities. Its main objective is to highlight the social function as a potential to articulate co-governance with urban planning processes.
The INTERLACE Portoviejo project has been successful in using nature-based solutions to restore areas of the Portoviejo river corridor and develop new thinking on the concept in collaboration with other cities across Latin America and Europe. The project has contributed to the development of new NbS tools and policy/governance instruments; and has increased the capacity of local communities to engage in NbS projects through a programme of education and awareness-raising.
Key impacts include:
- Public engagement in co-producing and promoting ownership of nature-based solutions
- Increased capacity of local government to implement integrated and ecologically coherent urban planning and governance approaches
- Raised awareness and understanding of the benefits of healthy (peri)urban ecosystems for social, cultural and economic wellbeing
- Strengthened cooperation between European and CELAC communities of practice on (peri)urban ecological restoration and rehabilitation
- Participation in European and CELAC city and regional networks to inspire and support learning and exchange on restorative NBS
Most if not all of the methods used in Portoviejo are transferrable to other cities working on the topics of river restoration, public engagement and participatory governance.
- Working with diverse stakeholders adds tangible benefits to the design and implementation of nature-based solutions in terms of ideation and planning, and notably in terms of ownership.
- Innovative approaches to engagement not only benefit education and understanding, but also empower communities to actively participate in shaping sustainable urban futures. These approaches have helped to foster a stronger connection between people, places and nature - and their interdependencies.
- Gamification and outdoor learning have proved to be powerful tools for working with young people. The quality of ideas from young people has been exceptional, varying with age but consistently innovative and imaginative.
- Significant value can be gained from EU-CELAC collaboration in developing local actions plans, policy and governance instruments on NbS. Many of the instruments and methods developed by the project are transferrable or otherwise easily adapted to other cities and regions.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 869324.