Recently, health and wellbeing and NBS and co-creational experts; researchers; and city representatives met in Barcelona, Spain to further discuss the work going on in the 6 GoGreen Routes Cultivating Cities.

The reunion took off swiftly, as people from diverse occupational backgrounds sat together for dialogue in a fishbowl exercise. This activity was meant to stimulate spontaneous discussion among the participants on a number of emerging topics including: Gender, Diversity and inclusion, citizens voice and engagement, innovation in Nature based Solutions, finance and the mobilisation of local knowledge on the ground.

Along with progressing with outcomes from the 6 Seedbed Interventions in the cities, participants took the chance to reflect on how synergies could be created to ensure meaningful collaboration towards the values and objectives of the project. Such collaboration is essential to provide further benefits to health and well-being to citizens in the target areas of NBS implementation and to replicate these initiatives in other cities down the line. The three days in Barcelona were an incredible opportunity to explore these topics further.

Day one remained mainly focused on the work in cities and its connection to the general NBS policy landscape. City leaders took time to relay their experiences in strategic initiatives such as the Green City Accord, 100 climate neutral and smart cities by 2030 and the EU Green Leaf Award. The day finished with an in-depth discussion on co-creation in the respective GoGreenRoutes Cities.

The following day was a dynamic array of workshops, providing tools to mobilise GoGreenRoutes collaborators to increase their capacities on the work they are currently undertaking in their respective workplaces. For example, the Gender, Diversity and Inclusion panel gave training to partners on how inclusion and engagement with citizen stakeholders can improve our reach and achievement of our targets in urban greening initiatives in cities with environmental justice at the core. Training was also made available for young career researchers on how to put their best foot forward with media collaborations such as interviews.

The city of Barcelona gave an inspiring presentation regarding the developmental processes and outcomes of Barcelona’s famous Superblocks, which young researchers had a chance to visit in person the following day. The tour led by IS Global’s Evelise Pereira Barboza, gave wonderful insight into the potential for Urban Planning to shape Environment and Health impacts for the residents.

The value collaboration and creative solutions attained at this gathering in Barcelona escape full description. Partners continue working hard to build on outcomes obtained from recent Seedbed Interventions and make results accessible to the public. It is essential to bring forth learnings from our city partners and experts to contribute our part to the wealth of knowledge concerning the intersections of public health, green space and biodiversity ahead of the United Nations Biodiversity (Conference COP15) taking place in December 2022.

Learn more: https://gogreenroutes.eu/