The COVID-19 pandemic the world is presently facing has changed most working methods in every professional sector. Traditional meetings seem to be something of the past and now we “meet” online, just as the ULG Coordinators of the RU:RBAN network did on 5th May to discuss the points of a pretty dense agenda: the calendar of each city’s next ULG meetings and the topics of their discussions, how the drafting of their regulations is progressing, the participation of ULG members and stakeholders to the bilateral meetings that will take place in May/June between Rome and each of the partner cities, what are the challenges ULGs are facing and how to make their involvement more effective.
Krakow’s ULG will hold their next online meetings in May and June, during which they will discuss the city’s Regulations and ULG participation in the bilateral meeting Rome-Krakow on 12th May. They are preparing a model of evaluation for the municipality and for gardeners, with indicators that should lead to more funds from the municipality but without an increase of paperwork for gardeners.
The ULG Coordinator of A Coruña informed participants that online meetings will also take place in May and in June to prepare and discuss the management of the Info Point and the enlargement of the ULG. They will also discuss the draft of the regulations which will include the professional figure of the Gardeniser. A very successful bilateral meeting Rome-A Coruña took place on 20th April.
The last ULG online meeting of Loures was held on 16th April and was very successful. Next meetings will be in May and in June, followed by another meeting after the Krakow Transnational Meeting. The Gardeniser toolkit, which was presented on 16th April, was considered by participants not “user friendly” enough and, therefore, the possibility of having it translated into Portuguese and adapted to their context is being taken into consideration in order to make it more usable for their gardeners. With regards to the Regulations, the bureaucratic process is moving forward and they should be ready and approved by the end of 2020. Some gardeners have put locks on the fences of their plots of land, an indication for more effort to be put into bringing the communities together to solve any issues that might emerge. ULG members will participate in the bilateral meeting Rome-Loures that will take place on 3rd June.
The Gardeniser training session to be held in CAEN in May, in French language, has been cancelled. ULG meetings online are difficult as most of their members are not confident in the use of digital tools. They keep in touch via newsletters/news sent via email. Hopefully an on-site meeting will take place in July. Works in the plots can restart on 11th May. The Regulation was written and the convention between the municipality and the stakeholders managing the plots was signed by the Mayor before the lockdown. Visits to the gardens have been planned to allow ULG members to become acquainted with each other. Stakeholders and ULG members will participate in the bilateral meeting Rome-Caen on 16th June. A relevant work is to be done to plan evaluation and sustainability after the end of the project.
Gardeners in VILNIUS are working in their plots of land. The legal framework leaves little room for the municipality to intervene in the regulations as there is little land available. The municipality can intervene only in the green spaces operated by the municipality, but owned by the state. Regulations should be approved within 2 months but they don’t change much in terms of promotion of urban agriculture in the city due to little land available. More help is needed from the Municipality to set up new urban gardens (to support facilities like greenhouses, etc.). The next ULG meeting will take place in June. They will participate in the bilateral meeting Rome-Vilnius on 26th May.
ULG members of THESSALONIKI have held many meetings, twice a week so far, in order to catch up after the pause resulting from the change of management at city level. The ULG Coordinator will take over on 11th May, making it possible to set up future ULG meetings from then on. ULG members are concentrating on how to ensure continuity of the works after the end of the project. They are also involved in the adaptation of the regulations for their approval together with Kedith. The Gardeniser Toolkit could be included in the regulations. The ULG’s wish is to obtain more land to be used for urban gardens and training activities as a legacy of the project. As of 4th May gardeners are able to go back to their plots of land to work in them. ULG members will participate in the bilateral meeting Rome-Thessaloniki planned for 30th June.
This meeting of ULG coordinators was considered by all participants as a very fruitful moment of reflection, an opportunity to take a good glance at what is presently going on in the other cities at stakeholder and ULG level, another step in the direction of the sharing and the exchanging of experiences.
