This year, we assisted Cultivating City Partners in organising inviting seedbed interventions (i.e. public engagement events). With our support, Cultivating City Partners carried out the canvas and photovoice methods of engagement with citizens who attended these events alongside surveys. It was wonderful to see how these methods encouraged citizens to provide their insider knowledge on what should be incorporated in the final Nature Based Solution1 in their area. Although the methods used in each city were the same, it is interesting to see the difference in site specific needs of the residents and other stakeholders. Some of the ideas suggested included natural woodland, increased biodiversity, yoga platforms in nature, permanent chess boards in nature etc.
Umeå’s Seedbed Intervention
Umeå’s Seedbed Intervention
Our work with the cities enabled our collaboration with David Buckley, another partner in GoGreenRoutes. We have designed a ‘Community Champion Engagement Guide’ that seeks to increase the level of public engagement with nature-based citizen science by providing guidance to those carrying out a nature-based citizen science project. This Facilitation Guide shares the expertise we have gathered through seven years of hosting, facilitating and supporting community engagement – we are very excited to soon see it hosted on an innovative web platform!
Presentations by Dr. Matilda Van den Bosch
We organised a workshop allowing Cultivating City Partners to share their plans for their NBS with all other partners in the project. This allowed for the sharing of knowledge and expertise across the project, supporting the city partners in brainstorming innovative solutions for their identified area.
EU Commission definition of NBS: “Solutions that are inspired and supported by nature, which are cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits and help build resilience. Such solutions bring more, and more diverse, nature and natural features and processes into cities, landscapes and seascapes, through locally adapted, resource-efficient and systemic interventions.”
We are now two years into the project, and we are reflecting on our involvement and the citizen engagement so far. We want to ensure this engagement is meaningful and continues beyond the project, so we are now creating a guide for city officials who are managing a public consultation and engagement process through natural or built environment projects. Do not hesitate in reaching out to us if you are interested in hearing more about this guide or our involvement in the project.
Architect from Barcelona City presenting on the Barcelona Superblocks
Photo: Example of NBS in Barcelona
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