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Genova Kicks Off NBS EduWORLD: Advancing Nature-Based Solutions Through Education
25 July 2024
On 5th of July the Municipality of Genova promoted the local kick-off of the NBS EduWORLD project. The event, held at Genova Blue District, focused on Promoting knowledge on and mainstreaming of Nature-based solutions. The first session, Learning about NBS through projects with an educational value, hosted the presentations of 6 projects, promoted by different stakeholders (Municipality, NGOs, University) selected for their high educational value in promoting NBS - through different approaches and targets - as a new paradigm to address the challenges of contemporary cities. The projects were: NBS EduWORLD, presented by Carme Machi-Castaner (ICLEI Europe), Bauhaus of the Seas Sails, presented by Silvia Campailla (Municipality of Genova), Green Skills for Cities, presented by Katia Perini (University of Genova - Department of Architecture and Design), CCC-Catapult, presented by Sabrina Sposito (University of Genova - Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering), Urban Linneo, presented by Eleonora De Biasi (Alle Ortiche NGO) and the new geological parks of the Municipality, presented by Silvia Pesce (Municipality of Genova).
The second part of the morning, A Genoese network for NBS, was introduced by a brief presentation of the main objectives and activities of the Municipality as a tier 2 city in the NBS EduWORLD project. The Municipality especially underlined its intention to create a network on NBS and to monitor the training needs and/or the need to go deeper into certain topics, expressed by local stakeholders. A presentation by some of the students who participated in the NBS EduWORLD Hackathon, co-organized by the Municipality in March, followed. The students especially focused their speech on their learning experience with the hackathon; they also stimulated the debate that followed with some questions on how to better develop a wider and stronger NBS approach. In the debate, the public was also involved in sharing other local projects and actions relevant to the topic. For instance, GISIG intervened bringing the experience of the H2020 project Reconnect, while Dafne (third sector social cooperative) shared its commitment to improve marine NBS through the project Sunrise. The Ordine degli Architetti di Genova (Professional associations of architects) also shared their willingness to contribute to the organization of further events on the NBS topic, in order to spread a wider “culture of NBS” locally.
The main messages that were raised during the kick-off, and summarized at the end, are:
- Local awareness on NBS needs to be raised: we should start from strengthening the knowledge at a local level, considering the geomorphological context of the territory (its geological, hydrological, topographic natural etc. characteristics), and the actions that everyone can undertake; we should engage and raise awareness among different profiles of people, for which we need to understand what is beneficial for them in terms of NBS implementation in their local context (elderly, youngest, schools, associations, families, etc.). Understanding their needs and making them aware of the benefits that incorporating NBS will involve for them as a first step. Once they advocate for a change, we should co-create an action plan together. For that, it is important to think about what actions and tools will best assist a community-based co-creation plan for implementing NBS. And we need to pose to them a key question and help them to answer it: what can be done by each of us to promote NBS in our community/city?
- We should improve dialogue among different target audiences involved in NBS projects: for instance, to put in touch youngest and elderly people, as a way to listen and learn from old people past memories and bring in new solutions that the younger generation might like to offer, to overcome the current environmental problems, and bring back natural elements that existed before through implementing NBS. This way the former could influence the latter, and the other way around;
- A reflection must be promoted and shared on how to involve the most vulnerable groups/people in NBS education: these groups are often hardly included in environmental educational projects, for language barriers or other kinds of barriers; but it is crucial to involve, vulnerable people as, among other injustices, they are often affected by environmental injustices;
- Experts should feel responsible for sharing knowledge in a proper way: a lot of expert knowledge is produced today on NBS but we should reflect and elaborate solutions on how it can be shared and translated more effectively to civil society. We cannot work in silos, but support in translating scientific or technical concepts for the broad audience, and find the best communication, tools and places to do so;
- NBS community is a transdisciplinar community and this aspect should be potentiated: for their own character, NBS stimulate transdisciplinary work and we should foster this aspect when promoting NBS projects; innovative engaging tools and methodologies but also arts, soft skills and so on should be an active part of NBS educative projects as they stimulate students/practitioners to work together and interlace their competences.
The local kick-off was a first step towards the promotion of an NBS educational network in Genova. We experienced the success of involving young generation students with practitioners, public administration and educators, as the exchanges helped to identify the real gaps to overcome for mainstreaming the needs of transforming current planning approaches, raising social awareness, and addressing the environmental issues with a more out of the box, creative and multi-disciplinary mindset. Our aim is to continue raising social awareness and stimulating this transformational change at a metropolitan scale. If you wish to know more and stay in touch follow the NBS EduWORLD website and social media accounts.
If you work/study/live in Genova and you want to be part of this network? Please feel free to write an email to dcavallaro@comune.genova.it and emaranghi@comune.genova.it
Image (https://unsplash.com/photos/a-bridge-over-a-street-pomPRG7BxSU)
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