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CityZen News | 02 2020

Welcome to the second CityZen newsletterwe are pleased to inform you about our recent activities in the Interreg Europe project Find

out how we enhance various regional policies on green innovation and resource efficiency

like low-carbon food waste management urban revitalization as well as adaptation of

cities to climate change with CityZen

Due to COVID-19 a lot of plans had to be adjusted eg our international meetings could

not be held on site but we found great online alternatives and could still move forward with

our projects in all our regions

We invite you to share your experiences on urban farming or any feedback and to stay in

touch through our social media channels Enjoy reading and stay safe

The CityZen team

PS You can now meet our regions and us in person - check out our brand new CityZen

promo videos below

CityZen is implemented by seven partners (see below)

Applied Research and Communications Fund (Lead Partner) - Bulgaria Regional DevelopmentFund of Central Macedonia - Greece Municipality of Beja - Portugal Higher Technical School of

Agrarian Engineering amp University of Valladolid - Spain Institute for Rural Development Researchat Goethe University FrankfurtMain - Germany Baixo Alentejo Intermunicipal Community

(CIMBAL) - Portugal Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y Leoacuten - Spain

Highlights

A view into our regions

Let us take you on a journey to all of our regions and cities from Sofia toThessaloniki Valladolid Beja and Frankfurt Find out what we are doing there with

CityZen and get a glimpse of how diverse (and beautiful) they are

Peer to peer workshops

Our first CityZen peer-to-peer workshopwas supposed to take place on-site in thearea of the Regionalpark RhineMain nearto Frankfurt (Germany) on March 31st andApril 1st Instead we moved our livelydiscussions online During the workshopwhich focused on good practices fromBulgaria and Germany participantslistened to the presentations made byARC Funds (Bulgaria) and IfLS(Germany) teams and shared their ownexperiences and ideas

Similarly our second peer-to-peerworkshop which would have been in Beja(Portugal) had to be organised onlineWith a focus on the Portuguese (CIMBALand Municipality of Beja) and Spanish(University of Valladolid and NaturalHeritage Foundation of Castilla y Leoacuten)CityZen cases we discussed how to bestpromote and support urban farming in ourregions

Regional spotlight

Urban farming in PortugalBaixo Alentejo Strategic Development Plan (PEDBA) 2014-2020

Municipality of Beja and CIMBALThe Municipality of Beja is located in the Alentejo region (NUTS II) and Baixo Alentejo(NUTS III) extending over an area of 114648 kmsup2 It borders the districts of Setuacutebal(North-West) Eacutevora (North) the province of Huelva (Spain East) the district of Faro(South) and the Atlantic Ocean (West) and has 33579 inhabitants (year 2019) Beja has acommunity urban farming project integrated in Beja Eco POLIS Program which wasdeveloped with the support of a regional research center As a follow-up project Bejawants to further involve the research community and transfer knowledge for a critical massof SMEs that innovate in urban farmingCIMBAL is a regional association of municipalities and an intermunicipal public authority Ithas high competence and experience in developing and implementing policies andinstruments for regional sustainable development especially in environmental protectionand resource efficiency It is financed by regional and local public authorities As themanaging authority of the Baixo Alentejo Strategic Development Plan (PEDBA) CIMBALhas full and direct empowerment for design and implementation of PEDBA priorities andactions It is also a bridging link between municipal and regional policies and isexperienced in cooperation designing and implementing action plans

Picture CIMBAL

Urban farming in Castilla y LeoacutenERDF Regional Operational Programme of Castilla y Leoacuten

Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y Leoacuten amp Higher Technical School ofAgrarian Engineering - University of ValladolidIn Spain the phenomenon urban agriculture is increasing exponentially as demonstratedby data from a study led by Gregorio Ballesteros from the Studies and Alternatives ofMadrid Polytechnic University Urban agriculture areas have increased from 9 in 2000 to508 in 2015 and the number of urban orchards currently exceeds 20000 In some regionsurban farming is strongly supported by authorities while in others city councils are thesupporters In Castilla y Leoacuten city councils encourage the creation of urban gardensmainly with an educational leisure social and environmental functionIt is necessary to study local initiatives share good practices and promote policies andaction plans for a sustainable development of this new sector In this sense CityZenexplores the ecosystems associated to urban agriculture and promotes local policies thatsupport new business models improvements for local products innovative value chainsand changes in the styles of life with the overall goal to increase the sustainability of townsand regions

Picture University of Valladolid

Latest CityZen News

Why regional and urban agriculture is more important than everCityZen strengthens regional and urban farming ndash which could be one answer to dealingwith the consequences of threats like the COVID-19 pandemic in the future The partialcollapse of global supply chains empty supermarket shelves panic buying and therestrictions to stay at home raised the desire for self-sufficiency and healthy food Theresult is an increasing number of people looking for local (and regional) alternatives tomeet their food needs ndash and a global growth of urban farming activities

Picture credit Martin Winkler Pixabaycom

Bulgaria International conference on urban farmingARC Fund presented CityZen at the international conference Urban agriculture as astrategy to increase the quality of life of urban communities organised by the Institute forthe study of societies and knowledge at the Bulgarian Academy of SciencesConference participants made their presentations in the form of self-recorded videos andARC Fundrsquos team highlighted goals activities partners advantages and challenges ofurban farming in Sofia

Meacutertola Covid-19 and the challenge of self-sufficiency in foodIn an online seminar in June CIMBAL presented the CityZen project and its relevance forthe region The main focus lay on the Portuguese city Meacutertola as an inspiring city to learnfrom in terms of resource efficiency and self-sufficiency in food productionIn recent years Meacutertola has launched several initiatives like local food networks schoolgardens or a training programme that also makes land available to (new) farmers that havestarted the needed transformation process of the local food system

Germany Regional Stakeholder MeetingsAt the end of March and May the Institute for Rural Structural Research (IfLS) andthe Regionapark RhineMain (RP) held two workshops on Cooperation with AgricultureRegional actors from the tourism agricultural and food sectors exchanged ideas andexperiences specifically on possible synergies between conventional agriculture and theobjectives of the RP (eg flowering areas along the RP routes) cooperation withalternative agricultural models and projects for the conservation and development of thecultural landscape (with a focus on orchard meadows)

On Social Media

You can now also find us on YouTube - if the first video above raised your interestthis is the perfect opportunity to meet our partners in person and let them explain

what exactly they are trying to achieve in their regions during the course of CityZen

Recommended Content

CityZen is built on exchange and sharingexperiences among European partners tolearn from each other and grow Findingdigital alternatives (GoToMeeting amp Zoom)to our on-site meetings was crucial Thefollowing site contains a list of accessibletools and resources for online projectmeetings including a helpful comparisonof platforms to use remotelyhttps4pdihcomenremote-productivity

INTERREG Europe also shared tips forsuccessful online meetings in an onlineseminar that you can find here

Following the outbreak of Coronavirusfarmers and producers are facingdifficulties and increasing pressure tomaintain food security Find out whatactions the European Commission hastaken in close contact with EU countriesand sectoral organisations to support allactors involved herehttpseceuropaeuinfofood-farming-fisheriesfarmingcoronavirus-response_en

Whats next

2020August 20 - Regional Stakeholder Meeting in Frankfurt Cultural Landscape ampOrchardsSeptember 23-25 - 3rd peer to peer workshop in Thessaloniki Greece online

CityZen is a four-year long projectsupported by the INTERREG EUROPE2014-2020 programme

If you want to know more about eachpartner follow the links below

Copyright copy 2020 CityZen All rights reserved

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