15 November 2021 the first stakeholder workshop in S-ITUATION was arranged.
One of the aims was to learn more about the stakeholders’ concept of Nature-based Solutions. The image above shows the result of a poll among the participants.
S-ITUATION is relevant for many stakeholders, and the stakeholder consultation group is an important element in our work to map NBS across the Nordic countries.
Stakeholder consultation
By consulting relevant stakeholders, S-ITUATION can ensure high relevance of the literature review process and the synthesis report summarizing NbS activities in the Nordic countries.
The stakeholders in the project are people from different organizations across the Nordic countries, with knowledge and experience covering the full breadth of Nordic ecosystems and all types of solutions. Several activities are planned in the future to include their and other stakeholders knowledge and perspectives throughout the project.
The first meeting was held digitally on Teams 15. November 2021. The stakeholders were from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. Most worked in various national, regional or local public bodies.
Group work
The participants were divided into groups according to what kind of ecosystems they are most familiar with and most interested in. The image below shows the ecosystems covered.
The aims of the workshop were to:
- Learn to what degree the concept of NbS is used across different disciplines and ecosystem types.
- Introduce the IUCN global standard for NbS and discuss its applicability in Nordic Countries and in Nordic ecosystems.
- Uncover implementation barriers and knowledge gaps for NbS.
- Find out how the S-ITUATION project can extract useful and usable knowledge for the stakeholders’ daily work with NbS.
- Give participants an opportunity to exchange experiences with other Nordic stakeholders working with NbS.
Need for more knowledge
The group discussions were good, and proceedings on the meeting will guide the work going forward.
It was especially interesting that several stakeholders highlighted the need for more knowledge and evidence on the costs, benefits and effectiveness of NbS to underpin arguments for why NbS should be preferred over traditional engineering solutions.
Thank you to all the stakeholders for valuable inputs in this workshop. We look forward to continuing working with many of you!
Nordic NBS 