José de Alencar Forest

Like much of São Paulo, the far east of the city is increasingly exposed to the impacts of climate change, from prolonged heat waves to drought and flooding that affect both people and ecosystems. Those pressures are intensifying right now: a strong El Niño is developing in the Pacific and is forecast to strengthen through late 2026 and into 2027, which for São Paulo means a higher likelihood of more frequent and prolonged heat waves.

Brazil's Atlantic Forest, which once stretched along most of the coast, has lost around 90% of its original cover, and many of its species are now threatened. In response, formigas-de-embaúba will plant a pocket forest at EMEI José de Alencar, a public early-childhood school in Jardim Silva Teles, a densely populated, low-income neighbourhood where public green space is scarce. As part of an educational programme that turns schoolyards into outdoor classrooms, formigas-de-embaúba will plant 360 trees across roughly 180 m², including many native fruit trees.

Over two semesters, groups of young children will move through six hands-on outdoor classes, together with their families and the wider school community, so that every child can take part in planting, caring for and learning from the forest. By bringing back native Atlantic Forest species, the forest will restore habitat, revive local wildlife such as birds, native bees and small mammals, cool the surrounding area, ease the urban heat island, improve air quality, and build soil health and water retention to strengthen resilience to heat, drought and flooding.

As the youngest residents plant and tend it, they will reconnect with their region's flora and fauna and with their own neighbourhood, linking this community intervention to the global effort for ecological restoration and climate resilience.