The meeting took place between Monday, 16 February and Wednesday 18 February 2026.
The training sessions for the six city pilot partners were the highlight of the meeting, opened with a welcome session and two focused interactive training sessions: Urban biodiversity (led by CREAF) and Participatory processes (led by IPoP). Both sessions helped partners strengthen their understanding of nature‑based solutions and community engagement.
Day 2 continued with hands‑on capacity building, including workshop sessions on: Urban forests (UNIZG), Urban Nature Plans and the importance of implementing data-driven measures (AMBIT), with a co‑creation workshop, refining local pilot concepts. We have also reviewed the progress on communication activities, and further planned activities, and concluded the day with a Steering Committee meeting.
On Day 3, participants joined guided site visit of a Parque de las Glorias, an urban transformation and regreening area, by Neda Kostandinovic and Juan Bernardo Martín Corral from Barcelona City Council, Sustainability Department, Urban Ecology. Special thanks to Coloma Rull Sabaté, the head of the Biodiversity department for sending us the experts to share their knowledge with us.
We were honored to have the mayor of the Municipality of Gjorče Petrov, Aleksandar Stojkoski, and the deputy mayor of Suzzara, Gianmarco Carra, attend the meeting. We were also delighted that Judith Cazas, the Interreg Euro-MED Programme project officer, was able to join us and present the guidelines and support available from the co-financers.
We are very thankful for the organizers of the CREAF meeting for their warm welcome, hospitality, and for making the meeting so pleasant, stimulating, and productive. The meeting strengthened collaboration across the partnership, enhanced knowledge and understanding of the wilderness as a new vision of urban public space, and provided inspiration for local actions within the UrbanGreenLeap project.
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