The consortium used the opportunity to assess the project’s progress based on experiences from the participating cities; evaluate various deliverables, such as the valorisation guide; discuss different outputs; and plan activities for the final year of the project, such as the closing conference in Barcelona in May 2024.
CONEXUS is a 4-year European Union Horizon 2020 project aimed at producing an evidence-based framework for strengthening international cooperation across Europe and Latin America in the application of nature-based solutions (NBS) and ecosystem restoration in cities for climate adaptation. The CONEXUS project has 33 partners, including city administrations, universities, non-profit organizations, and think thanks from Europe and Latin America.
As the project kicked off in the middle of the COVID pandemic in 2020, most consortium meetings were held online. The meeting in Torino was only the third in-person meeting, despite the importance of in-person exchanges for building trust among partners in such large international projects.
Some key messages from the meeting were:
- Several funding mechanisms exist that cities can access in the interim, even though advocacy needs to increase to close the investment gap in NBS for meeting climate goals by 2030.
- Political commitment demonstrated through policy and resources allocation for increasing nature in cities is critical for the uptake of NBS.
- Uptake of NBS require professionals on different levels of degree and with a broad array of knowledge and skills sets, which require rethinking of current curricular.
TUM presents preliminary results on NBS governance, knowledge transfer, and monitoring and assessment
As part of work package 4 “Frame – Analyse – Synthesise”, the chair collected data through interviews, surveys, and document analyses on NBS governance challenges and opportunities, NBS monitoring and assessment, knowledge transfer, and the needs of practitioners related to these topics. Preliminary results were presented to the CONEXUS partners by Martina van Lierop, research associate of the chair, and Camilla Flores, who conducts a Master’s thesis on practitioners’ need for guidance on monitoring and assessment.
The shared results showed that the main knowledge needs for practitioners are still on the NBS concept and its challenges as well as co-governance. Nevertheless, results from a survey on good NBS governance indicate that the acceptance and uptake of NBS is relatively well in comparison with other governance aspects. Financing mechanisms, and monitoring and assessment seem the biggest challenges. Monitoring and assessment is also seen as one of the least relevant aspects for NBS governance, although interviewed practitioners do see the relevance of monitoring and assessment as a means for providing them knowledge and agency for NBS implementation. However, support for monitoring and assessment in practice is lacking in current guidance material. Another challenge is the limited acknowledgement and understanding between NBS and gender and equity. This non-prioritization of these issues may underscore how NBS can be implemented unfairly, leaving vulnerable communities behind.
Nature-based solutions in Torino
Field trips to different projects across the city of Torino allowed partners to see the efforts being made by the city to increase nature in the city. Many of the implemented NBS had been funded, besides the city’s budget, by European Union funding mechanisms, such as the European Regional Development Fund, European Structural and Investment Funds, and Horizon 2020. The NBS included the implementation of bioswales, green roofs, urban and avenue trees, permeable pavements, and community gardens. The city’s commitment to increase nature to mitigate the impacts of climate change was evident, while also considering the impacts on the quality of life in the more socially vulnerable and densely built neighbourhoods. Torino demonstrated that every effort counts and every opportunity and space should be considered for implementing NBS, including at the micro-scale.