Chapter 34: Boosting relations between the Amazon forest and its globalizing cities

Abstract

By providing a brief and non-authoritative analysis of the physical and cultural relations between rural (forest) and urban areas in the Amazon, we identify several points for improvement, such as economic incentives to encourage healthcare professionals to serve the countryside, implementing peri-urban agricultural belts to improve urban food security, increasing access to urban green spaces, and investing in innovation around the “smart cities, smart forests” concept. Perhaps most importantly, this would include mobilizing human, financial, and institutional resources to restore cultural, spiritual, and affective bonds between urban and forest inhabitants.