LIST OF PANELS

The Biodynamic Medicinal Agroforestry Gardens (Hortos Agroflorestais Medicinais Biodinâmicos – HAMB), created in 2018 in Brazil’s Federal District (DF), emerged as territorial initiatives aimed at integrating health, environment, and care (Moreno et al., 2025). Today, the Network of Biodynamic Medicinal Agroforestry Gardens (RHAMB) comprises 42 units distributed across the seven health regions of the Federal District. In 2025, Administrative Ordinance No. 137 of the Federal District Health Secretariat institutionalized the RHAMB within the State Health Department (Distrito Federal, 2025). The ordinance defines HAMB as technical and care-oriented health facilities dedicated to research, innovation, health and environmental education, strengthening community ties, and promoting comprehensive health.

The institutionalization of RHAMB reflects a shift in the way public policies are produced. Territorial agroecological practices developed through bottom-up processes are being recognized and incorporated by the state, revealing an epistemological, political, and ecological transformation in the field of health.

Health policies have historically been structured through technical-bureaucratic, centralized approaches strongly influenced by biomedical models, which tend to fragment care and overlook its territorial, cultural, and ecological dimensions (Merhy et al., 2019; Morin, 2007). Grounded in instrumental rationalities, such approaches reduce the complexity of health and illness processes to technical-clinical interventions, limiting the incorporation of knowledge and practices emerging from local territories.

In contrast, Agroecology has increasingly established itself as a field that articulates scientific, practical, and political dimensions, proposing a reconfiguration of the relationships among society, nature, and health (Altieri, 2012). More than a set of productive techniques, Agroecology constitutes an epistemological framework that values biodiversity, traditional knowledge, territoriality, and the collective construction of solutions, thereby expanding understandings of care and the production of life (Porto et al., 2014; Shiva, 2003).

Within public policy, the incorporation of Agroecology into health remains limited, as healthcare systems continue to be dominated by approaches centered on assistance and medicalization. Nevertheless, recent experiences indicate the emergence of initiatives that connect care, environment, food systems, and social participation, pointing toward broader forms of health production.

It is within this context that Administrative Ordinance No. 137/2025 of the Federal District Health Secretariat established the Network of Biodynamic Medicinal Agroforestry Gardens (RHAMB) (Distrito Federal, 2025). By recognizing agroforestry gardens as spaces of care and explicitly incorporating principles of agroecology, social participation, and the valorization of local knowledge, the ordinance introduces elements that challenge the prevailing biomedical and technical-bureaucratic rationality of health policy.

The overall objective of this workshop is to share and gather feedback on the RHAMB experience as a form of insurgent democracy, while reflecting on how processes of this nature can become embedded within public policies. Participants are especially encouraged to share experiences that resonate with this perspective or that provide insights into the institutionalization of community-based and territorial initiatives.

Guiding questions:

• How can initiatives that emerge from local territories achieve scale while preserving their community roots when institutionalized as public policy?
• How can community participation within SUS be strengthened to foster cultures of care at the territorial level?
• What challenges and opportunities arise in the articulation between community initiatives, public institutions, and democratic processes of social transformation?

All people interested in this topic who wish to discuss, promote, and engage in insurgent experiences of Biodynamic Medicinal Agroforestry Gardens (HAMB) are welcome. We are aware that there are important experiences around the world, especially in the Global South, that seek emancipatory forms of knowledge, including in contexts of more integrated public policies in health. This workshop aims to foster these exchanges, as well as to present the Brazilian experience.

For the selection of participants in the workshop (maximum of 20), we ask for a short text (maximum of 500 words) including the following information: place of work, description of your expertise, and a brief account of your participation in interventions and/or studies in initiatives of insurgent democracies or in public policies related to the SDGs, with strong engagement in territorial contexts.

To select participants for the workshop (maximum of 20 participants), applicants are invited to submit a short statement (maximum 500 words) including:

• Their geographical and institutional context of action;
• A description of their expertise and professional or academic background;
• A brief account of their involvement in initiatives, interventions, or research related to insurgent democracies, territorial governance, or public policies connected to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and strongly grounded in local territories.

Language

The workshop will be conducted in Portuguese and English, with translation support available when necessary.

References

Altieri, M. A. (2012). Agroecologia: Bases científicas para uma agricultura sustentável. Expressão Popular.

Distrito Federal. (2025, April 15). Portaria SES-DF nº 137, de 15 de abril de 2025. Diário Oficial do Distrito Federal.

Merhy, E. E., Feuerwerker, L. C. M., Santos, M. L. M., Bertussi, D. C., & Baduy, R. S. (2019). Rede básica, campo de forças e micropolítica: Implicações para a gestão e o cuidado em saúde. Saúde em Debate, 43(Special Issue 7), 70–83. https://doi.org/10.1590/0103-11042019S606

Moreno, X. S., Trajano, M., Peneireiro, F. M., Barros, R., & Barros, N. F. (2025). Rede Hortos Agroflorestais Medicinais Biodinâmicos: Interfaces com as emergências climáticas e a promoção da saúde no SUS em territórios do Distrito Federal. Revista Brasileira de Agroecologia, 20(4), 718–731.

Morin, E. (2007). Introdução ao pensamento complexo. Sulina.

Porto, M. F., Rocha, D. F., & Finamore, R. (2014). Saúde coletiva, território e conflitos ambientais: Bases para um enfoque socioambiental crítico. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 19(10), 4071–4080.

Shiva, V. (2003). Monoculturas da mente: Perspectivas da biodiversidade e da biotecnologia. Gaia.