The future of the Amazon Rainforest depends on the health of its cities. In this episode, released as Belém, Brazil prepares to host COP30, we convene several experts on Amazonian cities and urbanisation to explore what needs to stop, change or begin to ensure that the Amazon, including its cities, will thrive forever. 

There is no single policy, solution or fix that can be deployed to secure or safe-guard the health of the cities, the forest and the rivers. An urgent mindset shift is needed to first acknowledge the existence of the rainforest's cities and then to embrace original Amazonian ways of city-making, allowing contemporary cities to be redefined and remade as champions of the forest. 

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We were honoured to be invited by the Inter-American Development Bank (the IDB) to work with them on a series of The DNA of Cities episodes about Amazonian cities. This is the first time that we have taken the idea of The DNA of Cities to look at a group of cities and we were really excited to do this in such an important part of our world.

Over three episodes, we convene seven experts on Amazonian cities, archaeology, anthropology, indigeneity, history, political economy and political ecology. We are incredibly grateful to Dr Adrian Lerner Patron, Professor Eduardo Góes Neves, Ana María Durán Calisto, Dr Tatiana Shor, Professor Felipe Correa, Isabel Peñaranda Currie and Professor Saint Clair Trindade Jr for joining us to decode The DNA of Amazonian Cities. 

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Bass Vibes - Rollin at 5 by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100462

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Sound design by Dainius Kacinskas.