Inovação servicial em arborização urbana: desenvolvimento de uma rede cooperativa de plantio e cuidado das mudas em espaços públicos

Abstract

Urban afforestation is currently a challenge for the public administration in Brazil. In the municipality of Belo Horizonte of the state of Minas Gerais, the Nursery that supplies the seedlings for afforestation, landscaping, and recovery of degraded areas of the city, end up discarding seedlings that have lost their quality because they have not been removed by municipal agencies in due time. On the other hand, there are several public spaces that have a need for seedlings to be planted and cared for. Given this dichotomy, a better understanding of the intricacies and challenges regarding the execution of urban afforestation is needed before a solution can be identified. The initial objective of this research was to bring innovation to the process of seedling production to the Belo Horizonte Nursery. However, by using the principles of grounded theory (GT) as key a methodology of the research, it was possible to better understand the ongoing complexities, which included inefficiency in management, lack of planning, lack of specialized labor and seedlings that were past the point of planting, among others. As a result of the field study, a refined research question emerged: "how to promote the dispatch of seedlings from the Nursery of the City Hall of Belo Horizonte for planting and care for suitable seedlings in public places?". To answer this questions, other methodologies besides GT were used, including, case studies, technical visits, questionnaires, and published research. The case study was important to gain an understanding of the theory in learning and learned from the real-world applications to better design a practical model based on the case. Solutions to the central question of this dissertation developed through field work, permitting the application and examination of concepts grounded on networks innovation and on the functionality and cooperation economy with service innovation. From the case study of planting and care of seedlings in the Municipal School Professor Eleonora Pieruccetti, mobilized by the planting collective Bora Plantar BH, it was demonstrated that efforts to improve cooperation of networks is fruitful, but to work, it is necessary that the actors are in a territorialized societal dialogue and define a common political objective. They must be engaged, so that challenges and solutions are shared in a territorial performance. From this perspective, the focus shifts from the planted seedling being the product, to the care and planting of seedlings for the recovery of a public area that was dangerous and insecure and unappealing aesthetically. For success of the initiative, the actors mobilized intangible resources such as trust, competence, and pertinence. From a resource point of view, the planting fifty-four seedlings of native species and one exotic species was documented, cared for public school. Until the completion of this study, there was no documented loss, either of the planted seedlings or of the seedlings that were left for planting at a later time. The most successful outcome of this research is the cooperative management model presented, that in a micro dimension, serves as an example for future projects, contributing to sustainable development.