INTERnational cooperation to restore and connect urban environments in Latin AmeriCa and Europe

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INTERLACE (INTERnational cooperation to restore and connect urban environments in Latin AmeriCa and Europe)

Période du rapport: 2020-09-01 au 2022-02-28

Immense strain is being placed on the social-ecological systems of cities and their peripheries due to urban sprawl and the conversion of open spaces, coupled with environmental pressures such as climate change and pollution. These processes can in turn exacerbate the degradation and destruction of natural habitats, fragment ecosystems, and jeopardize ecosystem service provisioning as well as have consequences for human health and well-being, biodiversity, social cohesion and equity, and city resilience.
Such challenges are particularly relevant for small and medium-sized cities (SMCs), whose administrations often lack resources and tools to address the problem of ecosystem degradation while considering the needs of all social groups and ensuring that negative effect do not disproportionately affect already vulnerable populations. Given the significant proportion of urban populations living in SMCs of less than 300,000 people in the EU and CELAC regions, they are seen as playing a decisive role in ensuring widespread action to achieve the global sustainable development goals and thus receive particular focus in INTERLACE.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are particularly suitable for tackling the recovery of degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems, utilising nature to address societal challenges, build resilience and provide environmental, social and economic benefits. Cities are increasingly recognizing the multi-functional potential of NBS and – as identified by the six INTERLACE EU and CELAC city partners - have the ambition to: implement urban ecological restoration and rehabilitation through NBS; protect and increase access to existing green areas; create recreational areas; promote NBS as a conceptual basis for sustainable urban development; and develop environmental education.

Building on its overarching aim and these city-identified ambitions, INTERLACE has the following objectives:
1. Strengthen cooperation between European and CELAC communities of practice on (peri)urban ecological restoration and rehabilitation
2. Foster participatory engagement to co-produce and promote ownership of guidelines, decision support systems and tools for the design, construction and monitoring of cost-effective restorative NBS
3. Build on existing knowledge, experiences and good practices from EU and CELAC cities on urban ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation
4. Increase the capacity of local governments to implement integrated and ecologically coherent urban planning and governance approaches responding to their needs and challenges
5. Mobilise existing European and CELAC city and regional networks to inspire and support sustained multi-directional learning and exchange on restorative NBS
6. Raise awareness and understanding of the benefits of healthy (peri)urban ecosystems for social, cultural and economic wellbeing

In the first period the INTERLACE team set up the foundation for developing relevant, legitimised and easily applicable key products by establishing the agile workflow process, Impact Task Force, co-production platform and help desk, and developed tutorials, guidance and started with agile webinars to support the project team in the development of key deliverables and products. The needs regarding restoration of urban ecosystem and the existing policy and governance frameworks were assessed in all six INTERLACE cities to inform subsequent research activities such as, for example, the development of the Urban Governance Atlas and the NBS Pilot Assessment Framework, which both started in the first period. In addition, outcomes were made available in English and Spanish and the majority of meetings are being held with simultaneous translation to foster the understanding of results and enable an easy and effective communication and exchange within the team. Internal learning webinars were introduced to present in brief key products to the team and foster their uptake in research activities in the project and beyond. A specific focus in the first period was on providing practical guidance to facilitate a truly and inclusive stakeholder engagement in the project activities by developing a stakeholder engagement strategy and the guidance on gender, cultural, and ethics-related consideration for inclusive participatory processes for urban ecosystem restoration. By adopting an agile workflow, building on experiences in software development, INTERLACE made significant advances around co-creation methods, allowing for continuous learning experiences over the course of the project.

Facing the pandemic and different time zones represented in the project, an effective working mode across different time zones has been jointly developed and established. This includes the application of interactive and digital tools/approaches in meetings with the consortium and local stakeholders, active exchange between cities (especially in city pairings) and first rounds of Cities Talk Nature Webinars inviting interested stakeholders worldwide.
A Dissemination, Exploitation and Communication Strategy targeted to different audiences was developed as a living document, accompanied by a communication toolkit and material which can be flexible used by the partners. In addition to the project website, the Innovation Hub (as main ‘entry point’ into the project for external stakeholders and other interested parties) was established. An internal comprehensive monitoring system was set up to keep track of the project’s contribution towards reaching its impacts. INTERLACE also established a continuous exchange with the INTERLACE sister projects CONEXUS, Regreen, CLEARINGHOUSE (all funded under the same topic) to discuss joint interest and actions.

The project works towards achieving the following impacts:
• Impact 1: Foster restored and functioning (peri)urban ecosystems in INTERLACE and wider cities for enhanced service delivery and coherent planning
• Impact 2: Creation and application of novel guidelines, planning approaches and tools for restorative NBS
• Impact 3: Strengthened business and investment case for restorative NBS and engagement with business and financial community
• Impact 4: Increased evidence, exploitation and awareness of the impacts of restored urban ecosystems
• Impact 5: Sustained city network learning, exchange and cross-fertilisation on restorative NBS
• Impact 6: Enhanced policy mainstreaming of restorative NBS and implementation of EU and global environmental policies
• Impact 7: Improved consideration of social equity, gender and cultural issues in restorative NBS planning for increased political participation and inclusion

To achieve these impacts, the project will developing relevant, legitimised and easily applicable key products tailored to relevant stakeholder groups, such as city partners and researchers. Key outcomes include the Urban Governance Framework, the NBS Repository for Latin America and the NBS Assessment Framework. A distance learning course will help disseminate the project findings and enhance capacity building regarding restorative NBS. The involvement of different regional and global city networks further ensures effective dissemination. A more detailed assessment of how the project advances with regards to the impacts listed can be found in Part B of the Technical Reporting.

Person biking in Portoviejo Park

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INTERLACE (INTERnational cooperation to restore and connect urban environments in Latin AmeriCa and Europe)

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