From 9-10 July, Brasília (Brazil) played host to an international seminar on Nature-based Solutions (NBS), which took place as part of the EU-Brazil Sector Dialogue on Nature-based solutions.

The event was co-organised by the ICLEI European Secretariat, ICLEI South America Secretariat, the Connecting Nature project and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, and on the Brazilian side, by the Center for Strategic Studies and Management (CGEE), the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication (MCTIC) and received funding from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The seminar brought together European and Brazilian stakeholders from different urban sectors to discuss, share experiences and learn from one another on how to better plan NBS for sustainable urban change.

During the seminar, the Connecting Nature project, which seeks to explore the potential of innovative NBS to promote urban resilience via nature-based interventions in European cities, launched its Academy for Nature-based Solutions.

The Academy will offer Brazilian cities a platform to express their needs, share their experiences on planning and realising NBS and learn with European cities on how to use the potential of nature-based interventions to create new jobs, foster economic growth and offer solutions towards more resilient cities.

Participants wanting to join the Academy will have the opportunity to exchange with each other online and in face-to-face meetings. The formats will include webinars and workshops to foster city-to-city exchange on good NBS examples, business-to-business capacity building for NBS-oriented portfolios and project partner-to-city support to develop NBS action plans.

The launch of the Academy in Brazil will be followed by other regional kick-off events around the world from the Caucasus to Korea and China in an effort to establish regional partnerships on NBS beyond Europe.

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