As part of the Green City Initiative, 50 officials from municipalities, public institutions, and other representatives participated in a 6-week workshop to promote the Initiative and its tools among those involved in urban development in Greater Metropolitan Area.
The Green City (Ciudad Verde) is the result of joint work led by the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) and the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) with public institutions, municipalities, academia, the private sector, and society in general. – an .
Technical assistance is provided by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) through the Interurban Biological Corridors – Biodiver_City project.
“We want to strengthen the initiative to have strong participation, a strong commitment at different times, especially in cities and organized groups on how we can jointly implement this process to achieve ot cleaner cities, sustainable cities, cities that provide good living conditions for the Costa Rican population,” said Rafael Gutiérrez, Executive Director of SINAC.
In addition to raising awareness about sustainable development, it seeks to be an initiative involved in the daily actions of urban development in cities, improving services, enabling biological connections, giving nature back the space it needs to grow, and create the conditions for greater resilience to climate change.
By identifying vulnerable areas within cities, the project proposes to analyze which ecosystem services are affected and which nature-based solutions can improve their situation.
“For us, it is a great honor to be part of this training. At GIZ, we are developing the abilities. We are working on the Green City initiative and tools to build the green city we dream of, but that will remain does not end if we are not able to train the personnel who can implement it,” said Claus Kruse, Director of the BiodiverCity project at GIZ.
In one of the sessions, the participants learned about the efforts already made by private companies and local communities to implement measures that promote the development of green cities, such as Nature-Based Solutions and services in the urban ecosystem.
“We learned about many Green City concepts, such as Nature-based Solutions. Today we found a home office inside San José with green areas, which is interesting. We also visited other green space like the Spirogyra butterfly farm, where we want to achieve biological connectivity that takes advantage of the Interurban Biological Corridor of the Torres River,” commented Sergio Feoli, Forestry Engineer of the National Power and Light Company.
