Ideas, strategies and projects that give rise to pilot projects. They tackle the challenges raised by the stakeholders involved and which are found in particular places in Barcelona or Medellín.
The socio-environmental recovery of Morro Hill, El Morro de Moravia, in Medellín, is a driving force for the cultural, landscape, productive, associative and environmental development of the area. What used to be a hillside with a million and a half tonnes of rubbish 35 metres high is now a 30,000 m2 garden, thanks to the Moravia florece para la vida project, an example of urban transformation of run-down areas and citizen participation.
El Morro de Moravia is an informal human settlement in Medellín, in an area that was used as a municipal waste landfill site from 1972 and 1984. In the eighties, communities displaced by poverty and the country’s internal conflict, who lived on informal waste recycling, started to occupy the area. In 2004, the hill was home to almost 15,000 people on 7.6 hectares, and, in addition to serious environmental issues, the area presented problems of social exclusion and violence. In 2006, it was declared a public disaster area and work began on studies for the environmental recovery of El Morro, with the joint work of the local government, Colombian and Catalan universities, civil society and international cooperation agencies. The plan for the recovery of El Morro de Moravia is based on four areas:
The comprehensive landscaping and environmental recovery plan was developed by the Unesco Chair for Sustainability of the Upc and the Unescosost Colombia office at the TdeA, in coordination with other public organizations in Medellín, working at grassroots in an open participatory process as part of the Moravia Weeks. The plan proposes the implementation of alternatives that accelerate the socio-environmental transformation of El Morro to protect public health, regenerate the site and generate social and economic benefits for the population by creating spaces for leisure and conviviality, and cooperative gardening areas.
The flower-growing tradition in a country like Colombia is taken as the strategic focus of this project: turning a mountain of rubbish into a green mountainside, A MOUNTAIN OF FLOWERS. The process of socio-environmental and landscape transformation was carried out by women who are leaders in the community, trained in gardening by the Upc. These factors make the project a benchmark in the socio-environmental recovery of Medellín and the consolidation of historical memory.
