Green Cities | Seeds for communties 2021 | Pollinating green communities 2022

«Green Cities» – is a program for anyone who is involved in developing their initiatives related to urban greening, river protection, and ecology in the context of the city and is willing to build sustainable horizontal connections within their projects and communities.

We see the value of the program in expanding the direct participation of citizens in the creation of a blue-green framework throughout Russia and in individual cities

Initially, the Green Cities were St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Saratov, and Perm. Later we were joined by Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Yerevan and the province of Ararat. For two years, activists from urban greening communities participated in internships and educational trips to St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, and Perm and developed their environmental projects. Six of the proposed initiatives received grant support from Green Cities.

As part of the program, we:

• Explored sustainable solutions in urban greening, with invited experts and among the participants in a horizontal format
• Learned about the environmental practices of activists in Perm, Nizhny Novgorod, and St. Petersburg link
• Studied the context and agenda of landscaping and environmental initiatives in Yerevan and the provinces of Armenia
• Created spaces for dialogue and collectively collected practices and useful resources for urban gardeners, resulting in a knowledge base that is accessible to all
• Learned how to work remotely ー using [Pollinating.space] (https://www.pollinating.space/), a platform specially created for this purpose. It is aimed at the cooperation of experts and activists who care about natural systems in Russia and Armenia

Principles of working in the Green Cities online space A SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENT: We provide a safe and welcoming environment for activists, communities and civil society to work together in the future PURPOSEFUL COLLABORATION: We support community leaders and provide them with professional tools and knowledge to conduct online discussions. TRACEABLE PROGRESS: We capture community goals and measure our progress to make sure we are creating a meaningful process for community members. TRANSPARENCY: We act publicly and share our results for free, and we want to encourage others to do the same. Videos of online meetings of Green Cities members are available at the link. ACCESSIBLE KNOWLEDGE: We try to overcome language barriers between our members to use the collective intelligence of our community.

What did we realize during the program?

Green community leaders are not alone, there are many of us. We have support from different cities in Russia. We can learn from each other, combine horizontal and vertical team management systems, and we can use IT-tools to increase the efficiency of our work. We can network and work together A video of landscaping practices and tactics to promote civic initiatives can be viewed here

Project organizers: Mensch Raum Land e.V., Bridges (St. Petersburg), World Independent Youth Union (Armenia) with the support of the German Foreign Ministry.

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