International cooperation to restore and connect urban environments in latin america and europe
INTERLACE brings 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 applies 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 – will strengthen cooperation and peer-to-peer interactions on the local, regional (EU and CELAC) and global scales. Innovative forms of inclusive participation will optimise the collection of available knowledge and experiences and the co-production of governance instruments and tools for restorative NBS. Six committed EU and CELAC partner cities are central to this process, providing and sharing experiences with other cities globally and building technical and procedural capacities. The international city network partners UNGL, Climate Alliance and UCLG will facilitate a wide dissemination and application of project outputs through effective pathways to impact. The web-based Innovation Hub will support these efforts by disseminating INTERLACE’s City NBS Tool for urban ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation and promoting project result exploitation. Comprised of integrated assessment systems, a catalogue of policy and governance instruments, city impulse papers, business cases, guidance documents, and more, the tool will support decision-making processes for urban ecological restoration in EU and CELAC cities and beyond. INTERLACE will advance knowledge and awareness of restorative NBS, foster more ecologically coherent and integrated city planning processes, and lay the foundation for sustained multi-directional cooperation and exchange between EU and CELAC cities for wider transformative impact.