Building in China with green facade

The Programme

The Programme

UrbanByNature is a facilitated capacity-building programme promoting exchange among cities, researchers, SMEs and NGOs to build bridges with the Nature-Based Solutions communities across Europe, Asia, Latin America and other interested regions.

Participation is open and free of charge with new opportunities coming up regularly for other regions worldwide. 

Launched within the Connecting Nature Horizon 2020 project, UrbanByNature established hubs in Brazil, South Korea and the Caucasus. New hubs are planned in Spain, Scotland and Flandres. In parallel, Connecting Nature’s sister project CLEVER Cities is expanding UrbanByNature’s global reach by establishing hubs in China (jointly with Connecting Nature), Latin America and South Eastern Europe.

UrbanByNature is powered by ICLEI Europe, in cooperation with ICLEI’s regional offices across the world and ICLEI's World Secretariat. The programme is hosted by ICLEI’s Cities Biodiversity Center through its CitiesWithNature platform

How can I join? 

Once you fill in our registration form, you will get automatically subscribed to our UrbanByNature Digest and receive notifications about upcoming webinars, events and learning opportunities across our different hubs. You can choose to join one or more hubs, depending on your interests and the progress of the programme in each hub.

Can I join an active hub?

Yes. Each hub kicks off with a main webinar series covering the seven steps of the UrbanByNature methodology. All hubs remain active after the conclusion of their respective webinar series, with follow-up events and learning opportunities coming up regularly. In Brazil, the Caucasus and Korea, the UrbanByNature webinar series concluded in 2021, and the course content can be accessed on-demand via the hub pages of this website. The Chinese stream will conclude in February 2022, and the programme of our hubs in Latin America, South Eastern Europe, Spain, Flandres and Scotland is set to begin later this year. 

Park in Seoul. Korea

Image from Dreamstime by Chitsanupong Pengsalae

Vision

We aim to give local governments, civil society and businesses the opportunity to co-create a sustainable and resilient urban future using nature’s innovative potential. 

Mission

Together we want to lift the barriers to urban nature and set our cities and towns on a new green and blue course. 

Our approach

We have built the programme on a solid foundation taking into consideration relevant methodologies such as the Green Climate City programme and the Green City Action plan methodology for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), both developed by ICLEI, as well as the CitiesWithNature Initiative, designed by ICLEI, IUCN, and the Nature Conservancy. Furthermore, the International standard ISO 37101 “Sustainable development in communities” was also consulted to determine a holistic approach for the UrbanByNature programme. The integrated management cyclical approach has been set up in consultation with the mentioned relevant approaches to avoid duplication or reinvention of the wheel.

Furthermore, UrbanByNature’s concept also builds on the building blocks of the “Connecting Nature Framework” (Technical design, Indicators, Financing and Business Models, Entrepreneurship, Governance, Co-production and Reflexive Monitoring). The programme's integrated planning process, which has been used by local governments that are part of the ICLEI network and beyond, accounts for the complex combination of departments, sectors and organisations involved in sustainable urban planning. The programme is designed to be flexible and adaptable to the questions and expertise participants and contributors bring to the table from their diverse backgrounds and regions.

Keep in touch

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Our partners

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The UrbanByNature programme is funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union under Grant Agreements No. 730222 and No. 776604. The sole responsibility for the content of this website lies within UrbanByNature and in no way reflects the views of the European Union.