The third LDnet webinar in this series is coming up on Thursday 22 April 2021at 18:00 CEST on “New exclusions: How communities are combating digital, food and health exclusions”.
Registration is open. To register click HERE
The second event in the new series of webinars was held on Thursday 15 April 2021 on “Communities in circles: new forms of development”. The recording of the event and main points will be published shortly.
Thursday 15 April, 18:00 – 19:00 CEST
Communities in circles: new forms of development
Series coordinator: Peter Ramsden, LDnet vice president
Webinar leader: Maria João Filgueiras Rauch, LDnet board member
Interest in the circular economy was building up before the COVID-19 crisis and a variety of initiatives were taking place in urban, rural and fisheries areas. They are now called to play a much bigger role in local development in the post-COVID-19 recovery. This session will look at how local initiatives based on the circular economy are improving usage of resources by creating virtuous circuits in different fields.
Daniela Patti, Director Eutropian will discuss food circularity, Rome’s food markets and Maribor’s soil project from the Cooperative City project. ‘Rethinking Food Markets’ elaborates strategies to revitalise declining marketplaces in Rome. The project explores the possibilities to renew markets as public spaces, by connecting them to new agriculture initiatives, by inviting various actors to play a role in their renewal, and by creating viable economic models for their maintenance and vitality, by including new social and cultural functions. ‘Urban soil 4 food’ in Maribor (SI) starts from the challenge of using cities‘ waste (biological and mineral) to produce a useful product (soil), which could be later used for meeting different cities‘ needs, such as food production, parks and construction. As main innovative output of the project, project partners will develop a safe and certified soil with by-production of energy (through using technology of fermentation and pyrolysis).
Fiammetta Curcio, Independent Expert will present the experience of Ru:rban – practices and networks of urban resilience. Urban agriculture is becoming a great tool for renewing social communities, ways of life, usage of abandoned areas and for increasing inclusion and food safety. It helps to avoid the territorial decay and to develop a sense of belonging and all these aspects are much more than simply food production for needy people, that has, anyway, a very relevant meaning. In Rome the phenomenon of urban gardens had a silent birth many years ago, but nowadays it is a relevant key of success of participatory and bottom-up process. The transfer of this experience in other countries is a great challenge, due to the prevailing different socio-cultural, historical and economic conditions of the cities where the good practice has been applied. Fiammetta will illustrate this point with reference to Krakow and other partner cities in the Ru:rban network.
Richard Freeman, Research Officer, FARNET Support Unit will talk about reuse of fishing nets in coastal areas, including the example of the ‘Fil & Fab’ project. ‘Fil & Fab’ was established in Brest, France when two young entrepreneurs realised the potential for recycling the discarded fishing nets in the region’s harbour. Across France, old fishing nets are typically sent to landfill, incinerated, or shipped abroad for recycling. Funded by the Brest Fisheries Local Action Group (FLAG), the project takes a territorial approach to the circular economy. Working with local partners, ‘Fil & Fa’b organises the collection of discarded fishing nets before processing the plastic locally into nylon pellets which are then used to develop a series of new products. To date, over 100 tons of fishing nets have been recycled and sold by the start-up, all within the Brest region.
Célia Laranjeira, Project Coordinator, Águeda Municipality (PT) will talk about the case of the town of Águeda (PT) in mobilising the art and culture sectors in local actions aimed at reducing CO2 emissions and recycling. This action is part of the C-Change project of URBACT which emerged from the successful experience of the Manchester Arts Sustainability Team (MAST) network. Its main objective is to replicate the model developed by MAST, mobilising the art and culture sectors in Águeda to contribute to local actions aimed at reducing emissions CO2 emissions and raising the awareness of the rest of the community to climate change.
The full programme – “Recovery through community-led approaches” – 8, 15, 22 & 29 April 2021
What can communities do to spur the recovery from Covid-19?
How can local action complement governmental and EU actions?
Is engaging local actors the way forward to a more sustainable future?
Following positive feedback from participants in LDnet’s 2020 series of webinars, we are launching a new series of four webinars in April 2021, in partnership with the RSA, ELARD and AEIDL, on “The Contribution of Community-based Initiatives to the Covid Recovery”‘ with a focus on community-based initiatives for sustainable development.
The webinars will be streamed via Zoom and will follow the same format as last year: through short late afternoon/early evening sessions relying on short/sharp presentations and lively contributions from participants and discussion, to look at how the lessons from local responses and the longer-term changes in the social and economic landscape are reshaping the CLLD-type approaches to local development and post-Covid recovery.
The full programme comprises 4 webinars, to be held on consecutive Thursdays at 18:00 CEST.
1. New opportunities and challenges for local development in a post-Covid world
Thursday 8 April, 18:00 – 19:00 CEST Webinar leader: Urszula Budzich-Tabor
While it is too early to measure the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions, it seems clear that society and economies will be profoundly affected. Can local communities find sustainable solutions to loss of markets or incomes from tourism, increased precarity and sense of isolation of the most vulnerable groups, while capitalising on emerging opportunities such as increased demand for local food, remote working arrangements or urban-rural flight? Discussion around this question will be illustrated with short case studies from rural, urban and fisheries areas.
Confirmed speakers include Monica Veronesi Burch, team leader at FARNET (the European network of fisheries areas implementing CLLD), Giuseppe Pace, researcher at the Institute for Studies on the Mediterranean in Naples, and Lola Fernández Perpiñan and Fausto González Egido from the LEADER Local Action Group (LAG) ADAC in Guadalajara, Spain.
This webinar took place successfully on 8 April 2021. For the recording of the event and summary of main points click HERE.
2. Communities in circles: new forms of development
Thursday 15 April, 18:00 – 19:00 CEST Webinar leader: Maria João Filgueiras Rauch
Interest in the circular economy was building up before the COVID-19 crisis and a variety of initiatives were taking place in urban, rural and fisheries areas. They are now called to play a much bigger role in local development in the post-COVID-19 recovery. This session will look at how local initiatives based on the circular economy are improving usage of resources by creating virtuous circuits in different fields.
Confirmed speakers include Daniela Patti from Cooperative City/URBACT discussing food circularity, Rome’s food markets and Maribor’s soil project, and Richard Freeman from AEIDL and FARNET who will talk about reuse of fishing nets in coastal areas. The example of the town of Águeda (PT) in mobilising the art and culture sectors in local actions aimed at reducing CO2 emissions and recycling will be presented by Célia Laranjeira. Fiammetta Curcio (Rome, IT) will present the experience of Ru:rban – practices and networks of urban resilience.
3. New exclusions: How communities are combating digital, food and health exclusions
Thursday 22 April, 18:00 – 19:00 CEST Webinar leader: Peter Ramsden
The economic and social problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have hit particularly hard some of the most vulnerable groups in urban and rural areas. This has manifested itself in new forms of poverty and exclusion. The session will explore how communities are responding by addressing specific forms of exclusion. Other contributions will focus on digital inclusion and issues around health. These responses will be illustrated with short case studies from urban and rural areas.
Confirmed speakers include Rui Franco, who will look at the integrated approach for Boa Vista as part of BIP/ZIP Lisbon including its digital inclusion strategy, Rosalba La Grotteria (social market and other initiatives, Turin) and Enrique Nieto, from AEIDL who will present examples of smart villages of Lormes in France and in Germany.
4. Conclusions and lessons learnt
Thursday 29 April, 18:00 – 19:00 CEST Moderated by Peter Ramsden
Participants in the previous webinars will be invited to join this final session to discuss cross-cutting themes and draw lessons. Key questions are expected to include: how can community-based solutions be spread more effectively? How can communities work at transnational level to innovate without reinventing the wheel? What support is needed at local, national and EU level?
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