Since 2002, the Municipality of the Metropolitan District of Quito has promoted the practice of urban agriculture within the city through the emblematic project “Participatory Urban Agriculture – AGRUPAR”. This multidimensional project works as a local economic development, social cohesion and urban resilience strategy that integrates agriculture, livestock production, solidarity harvest exchange, food processing, surplus marketing and local environmental management, contributing to food security and sovereignty, urban agro-ecology and nutrition. The project has technified its intervention through productive infrastructure, as low-cost micro-greenhouses, water harvesting and drip irrigation specially designed for small production units.
AGRUPAR seeks to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable population of the District, working with women (85,71% of participants) and female headed households, the elderly, children and youth, people with special needs or disabilities, refugees, migrants, unemployed people, shelters, health centers, schools, associations, addiction and social rehabilitation centers, and anyone who wants to be part of this innovative approach to food self-sufficiency.
The project seeks to strengthen the technical capacities of urban and peri-urban farmers and the formation of human capital, along with increasing sustainable and safe agricultural production and agribusiness, focusing on microenterprise management with access to different markets. AGRUPAR improves participants’ earnings by generating jobs, as well as helping them to save money by consuming their own production. The program has being a "seedbed" of agricultural micro-business of all kinds, such as production of organic vegetables, fruits, crops, medicinal and ornamental plants, animal husbandry, beekeeping and food processing (flour, bread, preserved or dehydrated food, snacks, dairy products and meats)
Urban agriculture is practiced in public and private vacant land, gardens, balconies, terraces, pots or containers, using recycled materials such as plastic bottles and tubes, tires, pallets and glass. There are 352,600 beneficiaries of the program (56,000 urban farmers with their families and 170,000 responsible consumers). AGRUPAR has trained 16,700 participants, opened 2,500 urban gardens and promoted 110 urban agriculture startups with 105 different food products; investing US$ per year.
Moreover, since 2006 the program has lauched 14 bio markets called "bioferias", special spaces located at strategic locations of the District for the weekly sale of products by urban farmers who are part of AGRUPAR. The bioferias have become an educational space of permanent offering of healthy, safe and qualified food (fresh surplus from garden production), fostering a direct relationship between producers and consumers, within a framework of fair price and weight and a welcoming atmosphere, providing a solidarity economy.
The organic food supply of urban agriculture increases Quito’s self-sufficiency rate, reducing carbon emissions. Its practice is an adaptation response to climate change and a way to build a more resilient District, by increasing biodiversity, recovering degraded ecosystems, promoting rational use of resources, water efficiency and revaluation of urban land for food production, as well as generating citizen participation and solidarity within local economic development. In addition to its scope and quantitative results, AGRUPAR is a solid and relevant strategy, which promotes occupational therapy, empowerment, solidarity, reciprocity, knowledge, spirituality and happiness.
The Metropolitan District of Quito (DMQ) is located between Andean and tropical landscapes within 490 and 4,950 m.a.s.l.; a highly complex topography, with different climatic zones in 17 ecosystems with a high level of endemism and biodiversity, distributed in areas of high mountains, valleys and foothills of the western and eastern flanks of the Western Andes Mountains.
According to the Vegetation and Land Cover map (2011) of the DMQ, the Natural Heritage covers an area of 256,407 ha, corresponding to 60.46% of the entire surface of the District; distributed in 17 vegetation ecosystems, 124,818 ha of rainforest (29.4%), 722 ha of dry forest (0.1%), 51,213 ha of wet shrubs (12.0%), 42,487 ha of dry shrubs (10%), 44,890 ha of wet grassland (10.6%) and 2,668 ha of dry grassland (0.6%). There are large areas of natural regeneration, subdivided into seven subclasses. Thus, the secondary Forest constitutes 3.66% of the DMQ, especially in the Northwest rainforest, marking the beginning of the Choco Bioregion.
Regarding the detected flora and fauna of the District, 21,490 plants have been recorded, of which 254 species are endemic; there are 111 mammal species registered (28.5% of the national total), including threatened species like the spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus), the endangered Ecuadorian capuchin (Cebus albifrons aequatorialis), the black howler monkey (Alouatta palliata) and the dwarf deer (Pudu mephistophiles); 540 bird species have been recorded (33.4% of the national total); and there are 139 herpetofauna species registered, 90 amphibians and 49 reptiles (33 Ecuadorian endemic species and 40 threatened species)..
This great biodiversity is part of the District’s Natural Heritage, which must be preserved as a hope of life for present and future generations. The strategic lines for its management are summarized as follows:
• Management based on the conservation state of natural areas;
• Strengthening of management oriented to ensure natural ecosystem functionality;
• Categorization of sustainable rural land use;
• Integration of the Green Urban Network with the Metropolitan Protected Natural Areas Subsystem; and,
• Strengthening the functionality of roads as public green space and alternative mobility.
This set of policies are generating initial indicators to reverse the rate of deforestation in the DMQ, allowing to quantify greenhouse gases emissions from the land use and land use change sectors. According to the carbon content indicators of the current National Forest Assessment, there are 118,000 hectares of different forest types in the DMQ, with a stock of 10.4 million tons of carbon.
The Secretariat of Environment of the DMQ works in a Carbon Footprint Compensation Mechanism (greenhouse gases emissions), which aims to implement actions of local sustainability with a potential reduction of the carbon footprint, to be financed with resources from territorial actors interested in offsetting their emissions that are no longer feasible to reduce, in the context of their sustainability policies. One of the compensation options is precisely to maintain and manage forest areas where avoided deforestation is guaranteed.
Quito proposes people and goods’ sustainable mobility by implementing efficient, innovative, smart, affordable, accessible, inclusive, safe and comfortable transport systems, that adapt to the needs of all citizens, with reasonable travel times through pleasant public spaces, with special consideration to vulnerable population, giving coverage and accessibility according to land use regulations, and improving the productivity and competitiveness of the District. The hierarchy of users and transport modes according to their priority, vulnerability and costs is:
1. Pedestrians
2. Cyclists
3. Users of public transport
4. Users of light vehicles with high occupancy
5. Users of commercial vehicles and cargo
6. Users of light vehicles with low occupancy
Today, 56% of the city’s carbon footprint comes from the transport sector. The Municipality is working in several mobility actions that can potentially reduce 1,368,109 tCO2e over the next ten years:
• Public transport - Metropolitan Integrated Mass Transport System: Strengthening public transport is the main management proposal to improve sustainable mobility in the city (since there are nearly 4 million trips per day in Quito, of which 75% are by public transport). Besides saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, this initiative will reduce air pollution, improve road safety, reduce waiting and transport times, reduce maintenance costs of vehicles and therefore improve citizens’ quality of life. The specific actions are:
Quito’s Metro.- The first subway line is being constructed and it is expected to start operation by 2017, with an estimated of 450,000 passengers per day in the first year; with 22 km in length (19.3 km underground and 1.7 km in surface), 15 operative stations and 4 reserve stations (3 intermodal transfer stations), 8 trains with 6 wagons each (108 wagons in total), with an average speed of 37 km/h, transporting 1,500 people per train ride.
Metrobus-Q Subsystem.- Creation of new fast transport buses (BRT) and trolley bus corridors with exclusive lanes (electric and diesel articulated buses), and optimization of the existing ones, in consideration of the Metro system. 920,000 passengers are being transported with this mode.
"Quito Cables".- The first of four lines of an innovative cable car system is being constructed, allowing people to transport by air from the outskirts to the main stations of the Metropolitan Integrated Mass Transport System.
Fare integration of different public transport modes and adoption of technologies and information tools for users.
• Traffic management: Implementation of actions to reduce the use of individual vehicles, like the “Pico y Placa” system (each day vehicles with certain plate digits can’t circulate), the "Blue Zone" rotary and tariffed parking system (max. 2 hour of street parking with a fare of US$ 0.40/h), and a new centralized and adaptive traffic light system.
This project consists of the utilization of Quito’s sanitary landfill biogas for electricity generation, as part of the District’s zero waste policy, which promotes waste prevention, minimization and source separation, as well as a responsible and efficient waste collection, treatment and disposal.
The public Metropolitan Company of Solid Waste Management (EMGIRS) is in charge of Quito’s sanitary landfill “El Inga”, located 40km northeast of the city with an area of 58ha, where collected domestic solid waste of the city and 33 rural parishes is deposited since 2003 (approximately 1,900 tons per day, of which 57% is organic waste, 24% is recyclable waste and 19% are rejections). Several infrastructural and extension adjustments are being developed in this sanitary landfill, based on its rate of current disposal and the volumetric compacted weight (0.89 t/m3), increasing its availability for five more years.
There is a pipeline network to capture biogas within all the sanitary landfill “El Inga”, which leads to a fireplace where biogas is incinerated, performed at 4 hours per day.
With an investment of about US$ 7 million, at the end of 2015 there will be a biogas power plant assembled inside the “El Inga” sanitary landfill, beginning to generate 2MW/h, and expecting to generate 5MW/h for late 2016. The generation of electrical energy through Quito’s sanitary landfill biogas contributes to the national grid, as a source of non-conventional renewable energy, supporting the new national energy matrix, and mitigates environmental impact caused by the emission of greenhouse gases, in this case, methane. This action will reduce 144,000 tCO2e per year.
In fulfilling its mission of promoting a culture of good environmental practices and footprint reduction, and further encourage citizens’ active participation, the Municipality has designed the Metropolitan Environmental Distinction - Sustainable Quito (DAM-QS). This initiative seeks to publicly distinguish the best environmental practices undertaken in 3 categories (Individuals, Entities and Neighborhoods), towards the achievement of reducing the carbon and water footprints of the District. The distinction is given based on an assessment of indicators classified in the following environmental dimensions: smart and sustainable mobility, sustainable building, carbon and water footprints, natural heritage, waste management and good environmental practices. The Municipality is working on an incentive system in recognition of the initiatives worked in each of the categories.
The DAM-QS seeks to distinguish natural persons, civil society, institutions, schools, companies and neighborhoods that demonstrate willpower and leadership for implementing good environmental practices and reducing carbon and water footprints through creativity, innovation or management. The Municipality evaluates and determines activities with environmental responsibility, assessing the degree of contribution towards reducing the city’s carbon and water footprints and promoting the citizens’ commitment to achieve relevant impacts with voluntary good environmental practices.
Determining sustainability leadership and distinguishing the accomplishments to reduce the carbon and water footprints of the District, support a participative local environmental management with mitigation of climate change results.
This project consists of the modernization, replacement and expansion of the public lighting system of the Metropolitan District of Quito (DMQ), replacing conventional luminaires (about 223.000) for efficient public lighting, promoting energy efficiency and citizen security, towards reducing the city’s carbon footprint and generating savings for citizens and the municipal government. A total replacement of conventional luminaires could mean lowering to half (0.5%) the contribution of public lighting to the carbon footprint of Quito, which is relevant in the framework of the city’s proposed reduction target of 5% compared to the tendency scenario, beginning in 2018. It is considered that almost all of the current lamps (metal halide, sodium vapor and mercury vapor) are susceptible to replacement for LED lamps. Taking a referential cost of US$ 700 per luminaire, the replacement investment would be about US$ 137 million over 5 years. Within 20 years, which is the lifetime of LED luminaires, the accumulated electricity consumption savings based on current electricity prices would be of US$ 137 million, and 10 million of accumulated savings in maintenance, giving a total savings of US$ 147 million.
The project promotes energy security, by reducing electricity consumption in public lighting (6% of total electricity consumption in the city; twice the regional average), and possible replication in other major cities, energy demand is reduced, increasing the margin between electricity supply and demand in the country. Also, installation of LED lamps, which have better efficiency rates (conversion of energy into luminous flux) than conventional lamps, improves lighting levels within public space and reduces visual pollution and light waste. Because of their physical strength and technology, LED lamps have a much higher life time (up to 40 times) than conventional incandescent lamps, and they can be recycled. Therefore its final disposal is less common, besides being less polluting, since they don’t contain mercury or sodium, which means lower extraction and environmental exposure of these minerals, as well as economic savings. The project improves electricity access, since saved energy can be distributed to users who do not currently have access to electricity services at homes, businesses and industries. Moreover, a suitable lightning design improves light levels, increasing security and the aesthetic appeal of the city for residents and visitors.
In cooperation with the national government, the local electricity public company (Empresa Eléctrica de Quito - EEQ) and private stakeholders, in recent years the municipality has rehabilitated and optimized public lighting, focusing efforts in the historic center of Quito, where 2,940 conventional bulbs have been replaced with efficient lighting systems (LED), with an investment of US$ 3 million, implying reduction in consumption equivalent to US$ 128,000 per year, which represents the displacement of 715,000 tCO2e.
The next step of the project is to replace ornamental street lighting in Quito, located in urban parks and green areas, meaning the replacement of 1,756 luminaries mostly concentrated in posts (77%), the ground (17%) and facades (6%), with a budget of approximately US$ 1 million. Furthermore, all of Quito’s conventional lightning will be replaced.
The Metropolitan Environmental Distinction “Sustainable Quito” (DAM-QS) is a strategy to publicly recognize the best environmental practices undertaken by public and private companies, collectives, individuals, neighborhoods and education institutions in order to reduce the environmental footprint ( carbon and water footprint) of the Metropolitan District of Quito.
Determining sustainability leadership and distinguishing the accomplishments to reduce the carbon and water footprints of the District, support a participative local environmental management with mitigation of climate change results.
In the 2016 edition, the Distinction ha three categories: natural persons, legal bodies and neighborhoods. The category of natural persons is divided into 12 different sub-categories: Large Productive Companies, Large Business Enterprises, Medium Productive Enterprises, Small Business Enterprises, Microenterprises, Municipal Institutions, Municipal Enterprises, Higher Education Institutions, Other Educational Institutions, Civil Society Organizations and Markets.
The participation process is carried out through the DAM QS IT platform, in which stakeholders record and respond to DAM QS indicators, rating their environmental performance in the range of 1 to 5. The indicators are classified in 5 environmental dimensions: Sustainable Mobility, Good Environmental Practices to Reduce Footprints, Natural Heritage Protection, Adequate Waste Management and Sustainable Construction. The system determines the finalists, whom receive a visit from the technical judges. Finally the winning participants receive the Metropolitan Environmental Award Quito.
The development of the DAM QS considers the formation of an Honor Board and Technical Jury for support and environmental strategy to motivate the participation and disseminate results. These were the results obtained from the 2015, 2016 and 2017:
DAM QS 2015
• Registered participants: 129
• Final participants: 21
• Recognized participants: 11
• Environmental Distinction Participants: 4
• Honorable recognition participants: 7
DAM QS 2016
• Registered participants: 179
• Final participants: 44
• Recognized participants: 35
• Environmental Distinction Participants: 16
• Honorable recognition participants: 17
• Honorable recognition “Juntos Cuidamos el Ambiente”: 2
DAM QS 2017
• Registered participants: 257
• Final participants: 29
• Recognized participants: 42
• Environmental Distinction Participants: 18
• Honorable recognition participants: 7
• Honorable recognition “Juntos Cuidamos el Ambiente”: 8
• Environmental mentors for a Sustainable: 6
This project consists of the use of biogas from the Quito landfill for the generation of electricity. This activity is framed in the District's zero waste policy, which promotes waste prevention, minimization and separation in source, as well as responsible and efficient collection, treatment and disposal.
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This project proposes to carry out a full and proper management of Quito’s liquid waste generated by the population (domestic discharges) and productive activities (industrial discharges), by the interception, conveyance and treatment of the city’s wastewater, decontaminating 246 km of Quito’s rivers ((Machángara, Monjas, San Pedro and Guayllabamba) and streams, minimizing the impacts that are currently derived from direct discharges, improving the quality of life of the population. Infrastructure consists of building main sewage pipes and secondary marginal collectors, which convey wastewater to water recovery plants by a gravity system, saving electricity by avoiding the use of an electric pumping system. Interceptors will be installed, making bad odors disappear, improving the air quality and allowing peaceful citizen coexistence near the now polluted rivers.
The project will also improve the population’s quality of life, promote peaceful coexistence and generate job opportunities, as it proposes to transform the rivers’ degraded influence zones into usable areas for irrigation and hydropower, as well as green areas for recreation and landscaping, potential ecological corridors for biodiversity protection.
In addition, the project proposes renewable electricity generation by building three hydropower plants spread across waterfalls along the path of the main sewage pipe of 34 km long that runs through the city, generating an installed capacity of 40,3 MW/h of clean energy. Besides turning the project self-sustaining, the generated electricity will allow the sale of excess production (28 MW/h) to the electricity distribution system within the city or the country. This will avoid thermoelectric generation, leading to economic savings by avoiding the use of fossil fuels and at the same time reducing greenhouse gases emissions into the atmosphere.
Furthermore, the project proposes capacity building in communities through the implementation of an education program to carry best environmental practices such as the use of biodegradable detergents and an adequate use and disposal of fats and oils. A Plan of Industrial Pollution Control will also be implemented, which will allow monitoring and controlling emissions of the industries located in the area of influence, whose discharges should be free of toxic substances that could alter the processes of the water recovery plants.
It is a project of great importance with transboundary impacts of water sanitation and electricity generation, benefiting in 2040 about 4.7 million people living in three of Quito’s neighbor Cantons (Rumiñahui, Mejía and Pedro Moncayo), which will not only treat the wastewater of 99% of the region’s population, but will generate a potential reduction of 148,271.46 tCO2e per year and a 85% reduction of the water footprint of the city of Quito. The use of clean technology for domestic and industrial wastewater sanitation, through methane recovery processes and hydroelectric generation, will allow environmental and financial sustainability of the project.
Only one water recovery plant has been constructed at the south of the city, the Quitumbe plant, with an investment of 12.5 million dollars, which will start operating at the beginning of 2016, benefiting 69,000 people. The budget of this project is US$ 800,000 million.
Since 2002, the Municipality of the Metropolitan District of Quito has promoted the practice of urban agriculture within the city through the emblematic project “Participatory Urban Agriculture – AGRUPAR”. This multidimensional project works as a local economic development, social cohesion and urban resilience strategy that integrates agriculture, livestock production, solidarity harvest exchange, food processing, surplus marketing and local environmental management, contributing to food security and sovereignty, urban agro-ecology and nutrition. The project has technified its intervention through productive infrastructure, as low-cost micro-greenhouses, water harvesting and drip irrigation specially designed for small production units.
AGRUPAR seeks to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable population of the District, working with women (85,71% of participants) and female headed households, the elderly, children and youth, people with special needs or disabilities, refugees, migrants, unemployed people, shelters, health centers, schools, associations, addiction and social rehabilitation centers, and anyone who wants to be part of this innovative approach to food self-sufficiency.
The project seeks to strengthen the technical capacities of urban and peri-urban farmers and the formation of human capital, along with increasing sustainable and safe agricultural production and agribusiness, focusing on microenterprise management with access to different markets. AGRUPAR improves participants’ earnings by generating jobs, as well as helping them to save money by consuming their own production. The program has being a "seedbed" of agricultural micro-business of all kinds, such as production of organic vegetables, fruits, crops, medicinal and ornamental plants, animal husbandry, beekeeping and food processing (flour, bread, preserved or dehydrated food, snacks, dairy products and meats)
Urban agriculture is practiced in public and private vacant land, gardens, balconies, terraces, pots or containers, using recycled materials such as plastic bottles and tubes, tires, pallets and glass. There are 352,600 beneficiaries of the program (56,000 urban farmers with their families and 170,000 responsible consumers). AGRUPAR has trained 16,700 participants, opened 2,500 urban gardens and promoted 110 urban agriculture startups with 105 different food products; investing US$ per year.
Moreover, since 2006 the program has lauched 14 bio markets called "bioferias", special spaces located at strategic locations of the District for the weekly sale of products by urban farmers who are part of AGRUPAR. The bioferias have become an educational space of permanent offering of healthy, safe and qualified food (fresh surplus from garden production), fostering a direct relationship between producers and consumers, within a framework of fair price and weight and a welcoming atmosphere, providing a solidarity economy.
The organic food supply of urban agriculture increases Quito’s self-sufficiency rate, reducing carbon emissions. Its practice is an adaptation response to climate change and a way to build a more resilient District, by increasing biodiversity, recovering degraded ecosystems, promoting rational use of resources, water efficiency and revaluation of urban land for food production, as well as generating citizen participation and solidarity within local economic development. In addition to its scope and quantitative results, AGRUPAR is a solid and relevant strategy, which promotes occupational therapy, empowerment, solidarity, reciprocity, knowledge, spirituality and happiness.
Mayor Jorge YundaMunicipality of the Metropolitan District of Quito, Ecuador
