European and Brazilian stakeholders working together on Nature-based Solutions (NBS) will enhance their collaboration thanks to a new partnership signed by ICLEI Europe, ICLEI South America and Brazil's Center for Strategic Studies and Management (CGEE).
The aim of the partnership is to set a common framework to mutually cooperate on both the NBS capacity-building UrbanByNature programme, run by ICLEI Europe, and on the Sustainable Cities Innovation Observatory (SCIO), hosted by CGEE with support of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication (MCTIC).
Both initiatives and the new partnership are underpinned by a shared, common vision: to give local governments, civil society and businesses the opportunity to co-create a sustainable and resilient urban future using nature’s innovative potential.
“Formalising our relationship with CGEE will help strengthen technical cooperation with NBS practitioners beyond Europe, and encourage joint work towards creating international NBS standards,” said Daniela Rizzi, Officer for Sustainable Resources, Climate and Resilience at ICLEI Europe.
UrbanByNature, run within the scope of the Connecting Nature project, brings established and aspiring urban nature pioneers together in facilitated capacity-building webinars and workshops to help them harness the potential of nature for sustainable urban development. The first phase of the programme was launched last year in Brazil, and has been followed by other regional kick-off events in Korea and the Caucasus. So far, eight webinars on different NBS-related topics have been conducted, resulting in around 30 videos that are available on the CitiesWithNature and Connecting Nature YouTube channels.
SCIO shall become a framework for shaping and implementing innovation policies in Brazil in the field of NBS, thereby fostering a socio-technical transition across cities and regions towards more sustainable pathways.
Joint activities on these two programmes will include concrete actions to establish and take advantage of synergies, technical cooperation, and joint support of long-term NBS initiatives in Europe and South America.
The partnership agreement was signed during the 3rd Nature-based Solutions International Seminar of the EU-Brazil Sector Dialogues in Brasília (Brazil) last March. UrbanByNature and Connecting Nature also hosted a session on Nature-based Enterprises (NBEs) as part of the event's official programme. The session was moderated by ICLEI and explored the social, economic and environmental benefits of NBEs in urban contexts. The event helped Brazilian city representatives, NBS practitioners, members of the scientific community and small and medium enterprises develop a better understanding of the concept of nature-based entrepreneurship, and explored ways to involve businesses in designing, planning and monitoring urban greening initiatives.
For more information on UrbanByNature, click here.