Swarming with the activity of 12 million people, exposed to rising sea levels and an anarchic urbanization that is gradually eating away at the mountains, the Brazilian megalopolis lives today under the permanent threat of floods and deadly collapses. The Atlantic forest, richer in biodiversity than the Amazon, has been largely destroyed and the waters that water the city have reached such a level of toxicity, due to urban and industrial pollution, that the fauna and flora are significantly depleted. How did we get here ? Deforestation began at the time of the first settlers, who gave in to what José Padoua, professor of environmental history, calls the "myth of endless nature". The city then grew by weaving between natural obstacles, until the runaway of the 1970s, marked by the eruption of skyscrapers and the expansion of favelas.

City-Nature Can we still go back? Even before the pacification of the favelas, which enabled the poorest to have access to health services, citizens mobilized to ensure that nature regains its rights: development of shared gardens, recycling of waste, production of solar energy, restoration of the mangrove... At the city level, when six million trees have already been planted, the "green corridors", a program promoted by the Ministry of the Environment, aim to restore exchanges between the different ecosystems in order to to regenerate animal and plant species. Humanist architects like Jorge Mario Jauregui, at war against social inequalities, see further, dreaming of transforming Rio into the planet's green capital by 2020...

The Serie : “Naturopolis” will dive into the heart of some of the most original urban ideas, those that might ensure the success of a human-created ecosystem. Here lies the great challenge of the 21st century.