Fortaleza is a city in north-eastern Brazil that, like many other cities in developing countries, has experienced accelerated urban growth marked by social inequalities. Outdoor spaces have, since the beginning of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic until today, been identified by the scientific community as low-risk and strategic in the safe return to community life. In the City of Fortaleza, where access to public leisure areas is restricted and unequal, Urban Micro Parks have become a low-cost and fast implementation alternative to expand this offer in more vulnerable areas with high population density.

An Urban Micro Park is a combination of a Naturalized Park and a traditional square, with elements already known and demanded by the population, such as benches and garbage bins, sidewalks for walking, and improvement in public lighting, with the insertion of natural elements, such as using pruned wood to produce furniture and maintaining the permeability, vegetation, and topography of the terrain.

Urban Micro Parks can offer a diverse range of elements, such as spaces to play, sit, and gather, as well as trails, climbing elements, and community vegetable gardens, and more. Because they do not require major construction, their development is an inexpensive project which is fast to implement. The construction of natural parks has saved 60% of what would be spent on paved parks, according to the traditional model, and provides a more favourable environment for increased cognitive development in early childhood.

The Urban Micro Parks program is an initiative of the Municipality of Fortaleza, through the Innovation Lab of the Foundation of Science, Technology and Innovation, and the Municipal Secretary of Urbanism and Environment, in partnership with the Urban 95 Network.

The concept was presented by Alana Institute, a partner of the city of Fortaleza, through the Urban 95 Network, a global initiative that seeks to include the perspective of babies, young children, and caregivers in urban planning and in the programs and services offered by cities.

After the implementation of the first two urban micro parks between 2020 and 2021, three more locations were selected in diverse neighbourhoods to receive the pilot projects. Furthermore, the Micro Parks were also included as priority actions both in the revision of the municipal plan for early childhood and in the detailing of the walkability plan.

It is estimated that so far, 18,500 low-income people have benefited from the implementation of the first two Micro Parks. The project is designed to encourage leisure, outdoor learning, and physical activity, in addition to expanding the city’s green coverage. 10,400 m² of previously stigmatized areas have become a community meeting place. After the delivery of the Urban Micro Parks to local communities, a major transformation was seen in the way the area is used and perceived by the population. The population started to use the space for walking and physical activity, meeting, holding community events and fairs, being in contact with nature, taking care and maintaining the vegetation and the created spaces. There was an increase in adults, elderly and children in the areas.

Fortaleza is characterized by socio-economic and urban inequality, with access to public leisure areas being restricted and unequal. Aggrevated by the COVID-19 pandemic, low-income families and children are in an extremely vulnerable situation, lacking access to services and public spaces. There is also an emerging distance between children and nature, causing many health problems whilst cities are left with plenty of degraded and stigmatized public spaces, subject to waste disposal, violence and irregular occupation. Urban micro parks have thus become a low-cost and fast implementation solution, which also support the recovery of degraded areas.

The City has proposed a goal of expanding to forty micro parks implemented in various regions of the City of Fortaleza by 2024, with the feasibility of 30 of these already guaranteed through an External Financing Program with the World Bank. The Urban Micro Park Project is already a reference in Brazil, with other cities that are part of the Urban 95 Network seeking references and testing the model.

Furthermore, in the local context, there has been increased demand for sharing information about the project from private companies focused on early childhood, such as day care centres and construction company unions, all of whom have embraced the concept of micro parks or naturalized parks in their spaces.

The concept of micro parks will also soon be expanded to different initiatives within municipal management by formulating the creation of play gardens within the physical space, but also outdoors, of municipal schools.