Uploaded on 2015-11-12 by Allurbano

Indigenous and Natural Food: In the past decades, a large number of Bolivian people migrated from rural areas to work in cities. Many of them still maintain both rural and urban identities, especially in the area of La Paz-El Alto. With strong connections to their family’s farm on one hand, and playing a key role in buying and preparing food in urban households on the other, many women occupy a strategic position within food systems. For example, a well-organized union of domestic workers as SITRAHO empowers their members and educates urban consumers about indigenous foods, healthy diets, agroecology and the importance of supporting the small farm economy. The image bellow shows SITRAHO members preparing food together using natural and indigenous ingredients. ![enter image description here][1] b. Regulating Services. Local Climate and Air Quality: As we learned, trees and plants are very important to regulate cities´ temperature, provide shade and improve the air quality by removing pollutants from the atmosphere. The city of La Paz has several traditional neighborhoods with landscapes containing different kind of trees and indigenous vegetation in certain streets as well as plazas that act as good examples of regulating services. However, there is much to be done when considering the city as a whole, particularly in terms of increasing green areas per inhabitants, controlling vehicular pollution more effectively and strengthening natural hazards´ risk management. The photograph bellows belongs to “El Montículo” Square. ![enter image description here][2] c. Habitat or Supporting Services. Close to La Paz city, we can get to the Bolivian Yungas. This ecoregion forms a transition along Andean slope between Amazonian and highland Puna habitat (Mee 1999, Olson et al. 2000). Habitats range from montane forest and cloud forest, to lowland forest. The high levels of biodiversity and endemism characterizing this unique ecoregion are attributable to its transitional position between highly contrasting habitat, as well as extremely heterogenic topography (Foster et al. 1994). Much of this region is under the protection of national parks; however, slash and burn practices threaten most of the unprotected habitat. ![enter image description here][3] d. Cultural Services. Recreation and mental and physical Health: The Urban Central Park is an area of approximately 39 hectares located in the heart of the city of La Paz. It is the largest recreation space for the city´s inhabitants, which main objective is to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of La Paz Municipality, transforming the way of inhabiting public space and constructing the future identity of the city. This park has an open-air theater, sport´s facilities, an aerial walkway and cycling routes, among other public services. The picture bellow depicts one of the entrances to the Urban Central Park. ![enter image description here][4] [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14473505443755256.jpg [2]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14473506305217162.jpg [3]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14473507056058031.jpg [4]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14473507836387285.jpg