Cities around the world are facing multiple environmental challenges which, in turn, affect water security and human health. The sustainable restoration of urban ecosystems through nature-based solutions (NBS) can help address these challenges, while also providing wider social, environmental and economic benefits. The EU-funded INTERLACE project led by the Ecologic Institute, connected cities from Europe and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and equipped them to effectively restore and rehabilitate (peri)urban ecosystems for livable, resilient and inclusive cities. The project improved the knowledge of restorative NBS, promoted ecologically coherent city planning, and laid the foundation for lasting peer-to-peer interactions between EU and CELAC cities. A network for stakeholder exchange promoted cooperation for transformative impact and the project’s innovative methods enabled the co-production of governance tools for restorative NBS.
Image:
The Challenge
Urban areas are under immense strain from urban sprawl and the conversion of open spaces, as well as environmental pressures like climate change and pollution. This can harm natural habitats and put human health and well-being, biodiversity, and the provisioning of ecosystem services at risk. Applying nature-based solutions to restore degraded, damaged, or destroyed urban ecosystems can help to address such challenges. Such solutions can foster ecosystem recovery as a means to increase resilience and conserve biodiversity, while also benefiting society, the environment and the economy.
Cities are increasingly recognising the potential of nature-based solutions and striving to restore, protect and increase access to urban green areas. INTERLACE supports these ambitions, and utilises NBS to restore, rehabilitate and (re)connect ecosystems along the urban-rural interface. Further INTERLACE will advance the state of knowledge, build capacities for coherent urban planning, and foster exchange and collaboration on restorative nature-based solutions.
Objectives
INTERLACE brought together a uniquely positioned consortium to empower and equip European and CELAC cities to effectively restore and rehabilitate (peri)urban ecosystems towards more liveable, resilient and inclusive cities. The project applied an integrative, city-driven approach to address urban challenges through the restoration, rehabilitation and (re)connection of natural and social processes between places. A three-tiered mechanism for city and wider stakeholder exchange and learning – the City Network Accelerator – strengthened cooperation and peer-to-peer interactions on local, regional (EU and CELAC) and global scales. Innovative forms of inclusive participation optimised the collection of available knowledge, experiences, and the co-production of governance instruments and tools for restorative NBS.
Six committed EU and CELAC partner cities were central to this process, for providing and sharing experiences with other cities globally and building technical and procedural capacities. The international city network partners UNGL, Climate Alliance and UCLG facilitated a wide dissemination and application of project outputs through effective pathways to impact. The web-based Innovation Hub supported these efforts by disseminating INTERLACE’s City NBS Tool for urban ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation and promoting project result exploitation. Combining integrated assessment systems, a catalogue of policy and governance instruments, city impulse papers, business cases, guidance documents, and more, the tool supported decision-making processes for urban ecological restoration in EU and CELAC cities and beyond.
INTERLACE successfully advanced knowledge and awareness of restorative NBS, fostered more ecologically coherent and integrated city planning processes, and established a benchmark for sustained multi-directional cooperation and exchange between EU and CELAC cities for wider transformative impact.
Funding
This project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 869324.
Approach
Nature, People and Places
INTERLACE understands ecological systems as complex, integrated systems in which humans and nature are intrinsically linked. The project embraces this complexity through its ‘Nature-Places-People’ concept. This approach emphasises not only ecosystem connectivity, but connectivity of natural and social processes and places.
Guided by this central concept, the INTERLACE fostered the deployment of diverse nature based solutions that:
- Allow NATURE and biodiversity to thrive through the creation of new green areas and the recovery of degraded ecosystems
- Cultivate shared PLACES for dialogue and exchange between urban, peri-urban and rural populations and administrations.
- Strengthen connectedness between PEOPLE in urban settings - both to one another and to their natural environment
Agile Co-production process
Creating fit-for-purpose instruments in complex urban contexts is highly challenging and requires effective transdisciplinary approaches and cooperation with stakeholders and beneficiaries. INTERLACE used an agile co-production process to develop its tools, approaches, and guidance and to increase their relevance, legitimacy, and impact. To this end, local knowledge brokers and city partners jointly oversaw the co-production processes in each city and invited further beneficiaries to provide feedback, new knowledge and other perspectives. This approach will also accommodate new emerging demands to be taken into account during the entire development process of the INTERLACE outputs.
Inclusive participation
Fostering inclusive participation in INTERLACE was essential in capturing the wealth of knowledge, experiences, perceptions and values across the EU and CELAC regions and to generate relevant and equitable project outcomes. The project activities were designed with a sensitivity towards diverse cultural traditions, gender roles, access to power, and societal and political structures. Engaging with vulnerable, underrepresented and marginalised urban populations in addition to other stakeholder groups was also a key focus in the project’s collaboration and co-production processes. Through its inclusive participation, INTERLACE helped to build capacities, support learning and exchange, increase awareness and generate new knowledge on restorative nature-based solutions with the EU and CELAC regions and beyond.
Small and medium-sized cities
To represent diverse urban ecosystems and governance contexts of small- and medium-sized cities in EU and Latin America INTERLACE included four cities (Granollers, Envigado, Portoviejo, Chemnitz) and two inter-municipal associations (Metropolia Krakowska, Corredor Biológico Interurbano Río María Aguilar-San José). They represent diverse urban ecosystems and governance contexts of small- and medium-sized cities in EU and Latin America and share the challenge of restoring and preventing further degradation of urban and peri-urban ecosystems while pursuing sustainable development objectives.
Small and medium-sized cities can deliver ecologically coherent urban planning at a lower human and financial cost than large metropolises. Connected to their rural hinterlands or forming part of a wider metropolitan landscape, these cities are uniquely positioned to protect, restore and rehabilitate (peri)urban ecosystems while generating development opportunities in their region. Despite this transformative, high impact potential and their recognized importance for achieving sustainable development objectives small and medium-sized cities and the challenges they face remain under-addressed compared to global metropolises, a key problem that INTERLACE aimed to address.