To Be a Brazilian City Dweller, Sometimes We Must Learn to Say Enough!

SOUZA, FRANCO L.; FENOGLIO, MARÍA S.; ANGEOLETTO, FABIO

Sustainability

MDPI

Lugar: Basel; Año: 2023 vol. 15

In several Brazilian localities, a local-scale problem can be detected regarding an absence of citizens compromising that is negatively associated with a greater engagement in public policies that could reflect, in the end, a better understanding of the importance of ecosystem services for their lives. Whatever the governance initiatives, by considering the neighborhoods’ boundaries and their particularities, they should be accompanied by a strong informative commitment to encourage the local population to break away from their harmful attitudes that result in bizarre idiosyncrasies associated with human–nature connections. The conservation agenda, sustainable developmental goals, or other similar targets seem to be unconnected with social demands at a more local scale, while local stakeholders find it difficult to spread some specific and important ideas at a wider governmental scale. Without these connections, also fomented by weak or absent proactive academic initiatives and governance, most citizens will continue to live in cities that, instead of offering a better quality of life, will only bring environmental problems, such as smoke from burning forests and vacant lots, public areas filled with domestic garbage, polluted rivers, animals killed on the roads, and zoonosis. It is time to change the idiosyncrasies of these Brazilian cities, acting as if they were only part of the urban landscape and as if society has nothing to do with their actions. It is time to say enough!