Urban agriculture, territorial governance and urban planning in an environmental protection area of Manaus – Brazil

Abstract

This article addresses the convergence of urban agriculture with the purposes of environmental protection areas (EPA), of the municipal urban policy and of the food supply chain. The objective was to evaluate whether it is possible to implement an urban agriculture project in vacant land inside the Tarumã-Ponta Negra EPA, in the city of Manaus, State of Amazonas, as an instrument for territorial governance and urban planning. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the target population and the Outranking and Card Sorting techniques were used. The results showed that the utilization of vacant land for urban agriculture is not perceived as a territorial governance instrument. The situation is aggravated by the action of the municipal government, which prevents the legitimation of bills dealing with the use of vacant lots for such practice.