Between 2000 and 2008, Ecuador’s Northern Amazon region experienced a reduction in its deforestation rate. According to research from 2013, this was due to two factors: First, rural-urban migration tendency in the region favoured denser human settlements and reduced pressure to generate new farmland that would have replaced forests. Second, the more intensive and efficient use of agricultural land for some types of crops decreased the need to clear forests for new productive land.

In this lecture, Santiago del Hierro looks at the interrelationship between urban, agricultural and forested space through the lens of two higher education initiatives in Ecuador and Colombia. Learning from the synergies between diverse typologies of land use, these projects simultaneously address the architectural and territorial scales in search of strategies to mitigate forest disturbance and degradation in their zone of influence.