2025 Reports

Multispecies Well-being: Placing Pollinators at the Center of Urban Planning and Design in Curridabat (Costa Rica)

Wolch, Jennifer; Gonzalez, Maria Fernanda; Houston, Donna

The city of Curridabat, Costa Rica, transformed when the national government allowed local political parties to field candidates for elected municipal offices, and a local party, siglo XXI, was established in 2000. Every mayor since has been from siglo XXI, enabling a continuous process of urban evolution. Edgar Mora, elected mayor in 2008, emphasized ideas of ‘sustainable human development’ and a desire to provide residents a high quality of life and happiness. Then, in 2015, Mora and his innovation team conceptualized a novel vision for the city – Ciudad Dulce (Sweet City) – that embraced the idea of multispecies well-being, using pollinators as a way to introduce a less anthropocentric framework for equitable urban planning and climate-resilient design.