Nine cities from IPA beneficiary countries, in the Urban Nature cluster of the URBACT Pioneers Accelerator (UPA), share a specific set of environmental challenges: loss of urban green areas and biodiversity, increasing vulnerability to climate change, and declining quality of life and social cohesion all threaten their long term sustainability. Cities included in the Urban Nature Cluster are:
- BIH: City of Sarajevo, City of Banja Luka, City of Bijeljina, Doboj Municipality
- Serbia: City of Nis, City of Kragujevac, City of Zrenjanin
- North Macedonia: Vinica Municipality
Montenegro: Niksic Municipality
In October 2025, the Urban nature cluster cities travelled to Utrecht (NL), the first of the 3 EU city expeditions (thematic study visits), led by the Thematic Expert, Kerri Farnsworth, where the UPA Pioneers had the opportunity to improve their knowledge and skills through immersion in transferable & scalable best practice. It was an intensive 2-day investigation of the journey Utrecht has taken to address these challenges, and how it has become a European leader in an integrated and long-term approach to urban nature.
Maximising learning and impact
The itinerary for Utrecht - designed with support from Gitty Korsuize, a validated URBACT expert, Specialist in Urban Ecology and former Senior Ecology Advisor to the city of Utrecht - to focus on 2 key city challenges that the Pioneers had self-identified during the development of the cluster’s State of the Art report in summer 2025:
- How to design and deliver integrated urban greening, which also enhances placemaking; quality of life; climate change mitigation; and biodiversity preservation & restoration
- How to use urban greening as a tool for long-term citizen engagement and social inclusion
Through a wide range of presentations, site visits and hands-on activities, the Pioneers learnt how Utrecht were applying EU and city-level policy & strategy via initiatives such as Urban ReLeaf and Healthy Urban Living in an integrated approach which simultaneously addressed a range of other urban challenges. One example was the visit to the Urban ReLeaf project at Kanaleneiland, an initiative where smart technology is being used by residents and city stakeholders to collect data on temperature, air humidity and heat stress, which is then used to co-create localised climate change adaptation measures (https://samenmetenutrecht.nl/project/koele-buurt/). Another visit which stimulated a lot of interested discussion was the new residential area of Rijnvliet - Utrecht’s first ‘edible neighbourhood' - which has integrated urban food forest of community orchards, edible hedgerows & verges, etc, which has been carefully designed to enable the participation of everyone of all ages and all mobilities (https://www.eetbarewoonwijkrijnvliet.nl/).
Pioneer-led activities, such as quizzes and workshops, saw active testing & application of this learning to their own cities, and encouraged them to problem-solve together as peers. Utrecht’s openness in sharing the lessons they had learned gave invaluable insight into the ‘real world’ challenges in urban greening, the importance of reflection and the drive for continuous improvement - as illustrated by Albin Hunia, Senior Strategic Urban Nature Advisor to the city of Utrecht, who shared that:
“The UPA visit has made me realise for the first time that citizen participation is now so embedded in the city administration’s collective DNA we don’t have to think about it as an ’extra’ for - we automatically include it in every project and programme. It has taken 40 years to get to this point, but it demonstrates you can do this too!”
From Utrecht to the Western Balkans: putting this into practice
The continuous thread of reflection that had been woven into the visit itinerary culminated in a final ‘wash-up’ session, where Pioneers were asked to sum up their key takeaways from the visit, and challenged to share how they would put these into practice in their own cities. Key points & challenges shared included:
- “Nature is an essential part of the city, not an addition - we need to live alongside it, not displace it” (Ivana Jovović, city of Bijeljina). How do the Pioneers get their citizens to understand that urban nature is important to them, both as individuals and collectively as a community? How do they change mindsets about becoming actively involved in urban greening, climate change, biodiversity, etc, over the longer-term?
- The long timescales required to deliver urban green transformation. As Milena Ilić, from the city of Doboj, commented, “I understand now that city administrations and politicians need to be patient and persistent to get the community - and other stakeholders - to trust in them and buy-into their plans”.
- The need to do, and not just talk, or be worried about making ‘mistakes’. ”Even if it is only small projects & interventions to start with, just do something!” (Tijana Pavicević, city of Kragujevac)
- “Can we be green, healthy, and still grow as a city and as a community?” (Bojana Pejčić, city of Niš)
But the most heartening thing to hear from the UPA Pioneers was that, by the end of the study visit, they all realised that what they saw in Utrecht was not an unobtainable dream - it was something all of them could, in time, achieve, and that they could support each other as peers in that journey. As Aleks Kapetina, from city of Bijeljina, reflected:
“We have the potential and the assets, just as good as Utrecht has - we just need to learn from each other and put them into action”.
Next steps of the Urban Nature journey
The Urban Nature Pioneers are now moving into the ‘Develop’ stage of the UPA methodology, which includes the ideation and co-creation process to refine & define their pilot action ideas into more definitive plans & designs. To support this process, the Pioneers will be visiting another European city in spring 2026 to see ‘live’ operational examples of small-scale initiatives and solutions, including community involvement in long-term urban nature management, that can act as inspiration for this process. The visit will also include a thorough exploration of the implementation risks of such initiatives and associated mitigations, along with a deep-dive into how to transfer these ideas into different contexts and re-scale up/down as appropriate.
