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03 July 2018
Sustainable Land Use

5th meeting of the Sustainable Land-Use and Nature-Based Solutions Partnership, 23-24 April 2018, Vilnius

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5th meeting of the Sustainable Land-Use and Nature-Based Solutions Partnership, 23-24 April 2018, Vilnius

The 5th meeting of the Sustainable Use of Land and Nature-Based Solutions Partnership took place at the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania in Vilnius on 23-24 April.

Giovanni Fini, on behalf of the Co-coordinator Bologna, kicked-off the meeting by presenting the work plan. He gave the floor to representatives of the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania who presented the new national spatial development plan. 

Earlier in 2018, partners had started identifying key action areas following the five cross-cutting themes (reducing land take, functional urban areas, raising awareness, greening the cities, funding models) that were adopted during the 3rd meeting in Zagreb. The tentative action areas are as follows:

  1. Including land take in impact assessment procedures
  2. Financing models for brownfield development
  3. Mapping of under-developed land
  4. Cost of urban sprawl
  5. Indicators of land take
  6. Cooperation in functional urban areas (FUA): stock-taking
  7. Guidelines for the new Territorial Objective under cohesion policy 2020+ on the coordination of strategic and spatial planning in functional urban areas
  8. EU-level incentives for FUA
  9. Better regulation to boost nature-based solutions at EU and local level
  10. Better financing of nature-based solutions
  11. Awareness raising
  12. Developing common standards and indicators

All presentations were followed by group discussions on the content of the action area and on how to move forward.  

On the second day, ESPON presented several research programmes that provide territorial evidence to inform policy-making. 

The meeting concluded with a final discussion on the actions and the next steps in view of the 6th meeting which is to take place in Stavanger from 18 to 20 June 2018 and which will provide a platform for the partners tofurther discuss the draft Action Plan. 

The draft actions will be open for a Public Feedback in summer 2018. Based on this input and further discussions and consultations, the final Action Plan is planned to be presented by the end of the year.