The 2nd Local Stakeholder Workshop for JUSTNature Project in Szombathely
The second part of the 2nd Local Stakeholder Workshop of JUSTNature Project was held in Szombathely on the 18th of July. The city is one of the six city practice labs (CiPeLs) of the EU-funded project, which aims to activate nature-based solutions for a just low carbon transition in our cities.
The first Local Stakeholder Workshop, held on 14 February 2023 in Szombathely, leveraged the common knowledge of the city’s residents and that of the stakeholders, including the local municipality. The event proved to be invaluable in designing new functions for the areas around Gyöngyös stream and Dési Huber István Primary School – two of the locations of the city practice lab.
Before the second workshop, commissioned landscape designers prepared three different scenarios for both the Hunyadi public park and the Dési Huber István School yard, based on the result of the previous workshop series. During the workshop, they briefly presented their plans, through highlighting the most important intervention areas regarding nature-based solutions.
This was followed by a long interactive session, where the participants had the opportunity to evaluate the alternative scenarios based on their expected impact and potential risks. It is important to emphasize that the participants of this workshop were local experts, who have the power and knowledge to influence the planning and maintenance of the sites. For example, the city’s head gardener, people from the local water authority, people from the local school district, and other interested parties. The aim of their inclusion was to make sure that the planned nature-based solutions and other functions are feasible to realize and to maintain.
JUSTNature project builds on the principle of co-governance: civil society and private domains are collaborating to achieve a positive change in their local environment.
Fair societal and structural changes can only be achieved through working together for our common interests: for humans and nature alike.
ABUD is one of the 20-member consortium with the main role of lifecycle, distributional modelling of ecosystem services, demonstrating the nature-building community model, gender mainstreaming, and stakeholder engagement.
Photos: Zoltán Bonyhádi / Municipality of Szombathely (Szombathely MJV Önkormányzata)
