From 14 to 16 September 2026, the 19th Federal Congress on National Urban Development Policy will take place in Cologne. The theme is “Act together, act faster, think further: shaping cities for everyone”. This event will bring together stakeholders from local governments, politics, public administration, academia and civil society to discuss innovative approaches to sustainable, resilient and forward-looking urban development.
For the first time this year, Connective Cities will have a stand at the event run by the Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW). The congress offers an excellent opportunity to raise the profile of the international city network and its services for facilitating professional exchanges between local authorities. We will be focusing on discussions with local authority experts from the fields of urban development, mobility, climate adaptation and sustainable transformation.
At the SKEW stand, we particularly want to show experts what Connective Cities has to offer and discuss potential opportunities for participation and cooperation. We will also present selected examples of good practice from the relevant specialist areas, as well as the Connective Cities Media Centre as a knowledge platform. We warmly invite network members attending the Federal Congress to take this opportunity to speak to the team at the stand. We look forward to exchanging ideas, making new contacts, and generating new impetus for municipal development cooperation.
We are pleased to invite you to our upcoming virtual Insight Session on ‘nature-based solutions for urban resilience’, which will take place on July 15, 2026 from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM CET.
Cities in sub-Saharan Africa, Germany, and other regions are increasingly relying on nature-based solutions to address flooding, climate risks, biodiversity loss, and the associated urban development challenges. However, integrating these approaches into municipal planning, management, and implementation remains a complex task.
This Insight Session brings together research, policy and community network perspectives to present practical approaches for planning, integrating and implementing nature-based solutions.
We invite the following discussion partners:
Andreas Wolter, President of Climate Alliance Presentation: From Local Action to Collective Impact: How Municipal Networks Advance Climate Resilience
Andreas Wolter will present the Climate Alliance network and highlight its role in supporting municipalities to strengthen local climate action. His presentation will provide important insights into how city networks learn from each other, promote knowledge exchange, advocacy, and collaboration, while simultaneously helping municipalities translate climate commitments into practical measures – such as nature-based solutions to strengthen municipal resilience.
McKenna Davis Senior Fellow and Coordinator for Nature-Based Solutions at Ecologic Institute, Berlin Presentation:Mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions: Insights and Practical Examples from the Urban Governance Atlas
McKenna Davis will share insights and practical examples from the Urban Governance Atlas and the Climate Adaptation Naturally project, highlighting how nature-based solutions can be integrated into municipal policy and planning.
Dr. Kirk B. Neu,Researcher in the fields of landscape architecture, landscape planning and urban resilience Presentation:Evidence-based Lessons on Planning Nature-based Solutions for Flood Resilience in Sub-Saharan African Cities
Drawing on research from Ghana and the wider Sub-Saharan African region, Kirk Enu will present practical lessons on how municipalities can use research evidence to plan and implement nature-based solutions for inclusive flood resilience.
The event offers participants the following:
practical examples of nature-based solutions for strengthening the resilience of urban flood zones;
Insights into the framework conditions for governance, policy and planning required for implementation;
Insights from the compatibility of research results with municipal decision-making processes;
Perspectives on the role of municipal networks in promoting climate protection measures; and
an opportunity to exchange experiences with practitioners and experts from different cities and regions.
The event will be held in English, with French translation provided.
We cordially invite municipal practitioners, urban planners, climate and resilience experts, researchers, development partners and other interested members of the Connective Cities network to participate.
We look forward to welcoming you to the event.
If you have any questions or require support, please contact: moses.munuve@giz.de
On July 8th, 2026, Connective Cities hold an online Insight Session to explore ways, by which urban forests can be cultivated under difficult climate conditions. Attempts to do so are notoriously difficult in dry regions with high temperatures and low precipitation, where the usage of scarce water resources has to be distributed between (urban) populations, local businesses, agriculture and industry. Planting and watering urban trees is regularly considered secondary under such circumstances, leading to unsuccessful attempts of urban afforestation due to a lack of financial support and maintenance work. The Insight Session was joined by 34 participants from 13 countries, representing a broad range of municipalities from Africa and the Middle East.
Over the past decades, the Miyawaki-method of planting tiny forests has become an outstanding success story around the globe. In this technique developed by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, a small dense forest is made from native trees and plants. The specifically dense way of planting a miscellany of indigenous plants accelerate the growth of flora and fauna, so that after around five years, micro forests may already be entirely self-sustaining. The forests improve air quality, reduce heat and bring back lost biodiversity, thereby stabilizing ecosystems and countering the environmental degradation as a result of the climate crisis. A videographic overview of the Miyawaki-Method can be found here.
Stefan Scharfe, speaking on behalf of Miya-Forest, a forest-planting/educating/researching NGO based in Eberswalde, Germany explained the success of the Miyawaki method through the instance, that planting trees is usually broadly accepted among a range of actors such as urban populations, housing providers and local administrations. However, the participatory approach of planting urban micro forests must be facilitated through a small group of core actors who take ownership of the project. Especially a thorough soil study can significantly increase the chances of the micro forests to become self-sustainable after an initial, intense phase of watering and caring.
Coming from the highly urbanized and biodiversically degraded context of Amman, Jordan’s Capital, Deema Assaf from the ecological research studio TAYYŪN joined the Insight Session as a second speaker, providing the participants with valuable hands-on insights from the MENA region. Mrs. Assaf elaborated on the tedious work with paleobotanists to collect evidence of indigenous species from the region, proven evolutionary resilient towards the local climate conditions. The seeds of these plants known to the soil form the base for a multi-layered ecosystem featuring canopy, sub-canopy, shrubs and ground cover tiers. Over the course of its growth, the micro forest attracts insects, mushrooms and birds. Also edible plants may be included, turning micro forests into sites of (urban) gardening.
In result, the Insight Session provided the participants with new inspiration for their own project development within the scope of the currently running Connective Cities learning processes on ‘Nature at the Heart of Municipal Resilience’ and ‘Green Corridors in the City and its Surroundings’. The potential of the Miyawaki Method to produce fast and self-reinforcing benefits through various ecosystem services and according to the local circumstances makes urban micro forests a tangible and fitting intervention in the current situation of intensifying climate crisis. However, forestry-related preparation – i.e. soil data and seedlings –, as well as institutional backing, secured funding and maintenance of the planting project are key elements for micro forests to thrive.
Connective Cities provides the network for future engagement on the topic and looks forward to share expertise among urban practitioners
Language: English – French simultaneous translation
How can forests be planted sustainably in urban areas with chronically low precipitation and/or heat waves?
The Miyawaki-Method is a reforestation technique which has become popular in recent years due to its efficiency in growing vegetation in small urban spaces within a very short time period. In order to accelerate growth, the method builds on three key principles: The exclusive use of native plant species that are used to the soil; which are planted in extreme density; and form a multi-layered ecosystem featuring canopy, sub-canopy, shrubs and ground cover tiers. A videographic overview of the Miyawaki-Method can be found here.
Not only can micro forests serve as cooling green corridors in urban geographies; they may also be classified as nature-based solutions, which are essential for various ecosystem services, not least disaster prevention. According to the method’s founder Dr. Akira Miyawaki, native forests are nearly thirty times more resilient and offer protection against natural disasters compared to non-native species.
While the Miyawaki-Method has been developed in Japan in the 1970s, it only recently has become to spread globally, with many applications in India but also growing popularity in Europe, North America and other parts of the world. However, as droughts become more frequent around the globe, watering-intensive Miyawaki afforestation may also face increasing difficulties in implementation. Can Urban Micro Forests therefore be considered a suitable intervention and nature-based solution in municipalities affected by frequent drought – for instance across Africa and the Middle East?
The MIYA-forest network from Eberswalde, Germany is one recent example of civil society-led practices to spread tiny forests according to the Miyawaki-method, both in Germany and the MENA region. In this ConnectiveCities Insight session, Board Member Stefan Scharfe will present the association’s best practices, which—in addition to planting more than 40 micro-forests since 2021—also include educational and scientific work.
As our second speaker, Deema Assaf from TAYYŪN, an Amman-based research and ecological design studio, will share her experience planting Miyawaki forests. The architect pioneered the Miyawaki method in the Middle East, planting the region’s first such forest in Amman in 2018 and going on to lead multiple native forest plantings across the city. Her work spans native seed harvesting and propagation, community planting workshops, and regenerative, permaculture-based design.
Kisumu, a port city on the shores of Lake Victoria and one of Kenya’s largest cities, is becoming increasingly important for the movement of goods and trade between Kenya and its neighbouring countries, Tanzania and Uganda. With an annual population growth rate of just under 4 per cent, the population has more than doubled in 15 years, rising from around 205,000 in 2001 to at least 422,000 in 2025. This has led to a series of major infrastructure projects, which, however, have primarily focused on motorised transport, even though 53 per cent of residents’ daily journeys are made on foot.
One project under the ‘Kisumu Sustainable Mobility Plan’ is the ‘Walkable Triangle’: the pedestrian-friendly redesign of the three main streets—Oginga Odinga, Ang’awa Ave and Jomo Kenyatta Ave—in a commercial district in the city centre. These streets form a triangle around a sports and park area and are used by over 2,200 pedestrians every day. The aim is to promote non-motorised transport along the 1.5-kilometre stretch, making it safer, more pleasant and accessible, whilst preserving and integrating the existing tree population.
In addition, the city is promoting e-mobility in public transport through a battery-swapping system for motorcycle taxis, known as ‘boda-bodas’, and three-wheeled taxis, known as ‘tuk-tuks’.
The documentation describes the approach as well as the outcomes achieved by this good practice.
International Community of Practice for Sustainable Municipal Development
NEWSLETTER – ISSUE NO. 94, May 2026
Dear Readers,
‘Resilience’ lies at the heart of our current learning processes and discussion forums. In materials science, it refers to materials that return to their original state even after being subjected to extreme stress. Just as trees bend supple in the wind and, after the storm has passed, resume their natural form as if untouched.
What does building climate-resilient infrastructure mean for municipalities? We discussed this question with experts, financial institutions and local authorities at the Africa Urban Forum, and it yielded interesting insights into coordinated approaches from technical, financial and participatory perspectives.
Nature-based solutions – as a possible answer – are at the heart of our new learning process in Sub-Saharan Africa, which began in April with 20 municipalities.
What role can AI play in this context? At the World Urban Forum on 21 May 2026 in Baku, AI-based visualisations will form the basis for critical discussions on affordable and climate-resilient housing.
And during a virtual insight session on 9 June, we will explore how digital twins can be used as a tool both for rapid responses in crisis situations and for long-term, risk-informed planning and resilient governance
Strengthening the resilience of municipalities to extreme weather events, urbanisation pressures, and technological and hybrid threats is also a central theme of our new learning process in South-Eastern Europe. This will launch in mid-June with a diverse range of local authorities from ten countries.
We would also like to invite you to apply for the 2027 Goerdeler Prize. Here too, outstanding examples of resilience in the context of cross-border local authority cooperation will be recognised.
We hope you find this an inspiring read and look forward to your participation!
Your Connective Cities Team
REVIEW
Technical Support for Climate Resilient Infrastructure
Connective Cities at GIZ Side-Event at the Africa Urban Forum
Climate-proofing the built environment: what does it take? At the African Urban Forum (AUF), Connective Cities organised a side event in collaboration with two GIZ partner projects: the Covenant of Mayors Sub-Saharan Africa (CoMSSA) and the Resilience Initiative Africa (RIA). Bringing together experts, financial institutions and local authorities, the event highlighted practical experiences from Embu (Kenya) and eThekwini (South Africa). The discussions focused on how collaborative governance, technical expertise, and innovative financing models can work together to promote climate-resilient infrastructure.
From Challenges to Pathways: Advancing Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Contexts
Recap of the Connective Cities Learning Process Kick-off Workshop in Naivasha, Kenya
The Connective Cities learning process on “Nature at the Heart of Urban Resilience” was officially launched through a three-day kick-off workshop held in Naivasha, Kenya from 21 to 23 April 2026, bringing together 20 municipalities and cities from across Sub-Saharan Africa and Germany, alongside over 40 urban practitioners, technical experts, and institutional partners. The workshop marked the starting point of a long-term commitment aimed at supporting local authorities in developing nature-based solutions to their municipal challenges through structured exchange and technical assistance.
AI-based Visualisation for Affordable Housing and Informal Settlement Upgrading
World Urban Forum 13 | Connective Cities Academy Event on 21 May 2026, from 09:30 to 11:30 Baku time (UTC+4)
At the World Urban Forum 13 (WUF13) in Baku, Connective Cities will contribute to the official WUF Academy programme with the interactive event “AI-based Visualisation for Affordable Housing and Informal Settlement Upgrading” on 21 May 2026, from 09:30 to 11:30 Baku time (UTC+4). The event is organised by the German Association of Cities in cooperation with Connective Cities and participating cities. Building on the recent Connective Cities working group exchange on affordable housing, the event works with real city cases from Nairobi, Huye, Mariental, Cairo, Hebron and Berlin. AI-generated visual scenarios will serve as a starting point for peer exchange and critical discussion on affordable housing, informal settlement upgrading, land use, density, public space, infrastructure, climate resilience, inclusion, financing, and implementation responsibilities.
Insight Session – Digital Twins for Risk-Informed Municipal Development
Call for participation to the online exchange on AI-driven urban innovation on 9 June 2026, 14:00 – 15:00 CEST (tbc)
How can digital and AI applications help municipalities become more resilient and prepared for future risks? As urban areas face growing climate and infrastructure-related risks, municipalities require digital tools that support rapid emergency response, long-term risk planning, and resilient urban governance. This Insight Session will present the concept of ‘digital twins for risk-informed urban development’ using practical applications and international best practices, including those from the Turkish municipality of Bağcılar.
Kick-off in Tirana: Strengthening Municipal Resilience Together
Dialogue Event launching the regional learning process in Southeast Europe/ South Caucasus from 16 to 18 June 2026
This dialogue event brings together municipalities of different sizes and structures, as well as representatives from various local public service sectors. Participants include local authorities from Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine, as well as Germany. This diversity enables practical discussions about different framework conditions, institutional structures, and the challenges of local development in the context of growing risks from extreme weather events, urbanisation pressures, and technological and hybrid threats. The kick-off event marks the beginning of a multi-stage learning process and lays the groundwork for future collaboration. It also serves to identify key areas of action and initial concrete steps. Join the discussion – online too!
Resilient Municipalities: Municipal Partnerships for Civil Protection, Critical Infrastructure and Crisis Preparedness
Connective Cities is pleased to once again support the call for applications for the Municipal Award 2027 of the Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation Fund (CAG), following its integration into the Leipzig Foundation. The award recognises outstanding achievements in local governance and administration. It highlights innovative and transferable good practices
on the theme of ‘Resilient Communities’ developed through cooperation between municipalities — particularly in an international context. The award therefore seeks cross-border municipal partnerships. A prerequisite for application is the involvement of a German municipality or a municipal alliance.The prize includes a high-profile award and is endowed with 2,000 euros. The deadline for applications is 31 August 2026.
Engagement Global gGmbH
Service Agency Communities in One World
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 40, 53113 Bonn | Deutschland
Contact: Sibylle Loyeau
Email: sibylle.loyeau@engagement-global.de
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 32 + 36, 53113 Bonn | Deutschland
Contact: Ricarda Meissner
Email: ricarda.meissner@giz.de
Connective Cities invites municipal and regional authorities from Sub-Saharan Africa and Germany to participate in a new international Learning Process on Nature-Based Solutions (NbS).
Local and regional governments are increasingly at the forefront of addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. Intensifying floods, droughts, heatwaves, and land sealing are placing growing pressure on urban systems and governance capacities. Against this backdrop, Nature-Based Solutions offer a cost-effective, multi-benefit pathway to strengthen climate adaptation while also delivering mitigation co-benefits such as carbon sequestration, stormwater management, and urban heating and cooling regulation.
About the Learning Process
The one-year Learning Process will convene municipal practitioners, technical experts, and policymakers through three in-person workshops and continuous virtual collaboration. Participants will progress from problem identification to solution co-development and implementation readiness, supported by peer learning, technical input, and targeted coaching.
The process aims to:
Strengthen municipal and regional capacities to plan and implement NbS
Facilitate structured peer-to-peer learning between Sub-Saharan African and German authorities
Co-create actionable NbS project concepts ready for piloting, financing, or integration into planning frameworks
Generate knowledge products to support replication and scaling across city networks
Thematic Focus Areas
Participants will collaborate within demand-driven thematic working groups, including:
On April 7, 2026, the new Connective Cities learning process on “Green Corridors in the city and its surroundings” was officially launched. The event was organised by Connective Cities in cooperation with the GIZ project Capacity Building through Urban Infrastructure Development (CBUID II) and was offered simultaneously in Arabic, French and English
The workshop was attended by around 70 representatives from eight countries: Algeria, Egypt, Germany, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia. Municipalities and partner institutions from the MENA region as well as the German city of Erlangen were represented. In addition to the official participants of the learning process, an extended circle of municipal representatives was further involved in the virtual exchange.
The kick-off served as technical and methodological introduction to the learning process. The aim was to set initial thematic priorities, to make municipal challenges visible and to create a common basis for further cooperation. At the same time, the event served to prepare the next steps in the process, in particular the in-depth phase and the planned face-to-face conference in Egypt.
AI-supported Visualization as Innovative Tool for Urban Planning
A central element of the kick-off was the joint AI visualization exercise on green corridors and green neighborhoods, implemented via the CoPlan AI platform. Based on images from urban contexts in the participating cities, spatial development future scenarios for climate-resilient, greener and more usable urban spaces were developed.
Around 550 images were produced as part of the exercise. The visualisation served not only to illustrate spatial changes, but also as a methodological tool to stimulate discussion about the feasibility of green corridors. In this sense, the exercise proved to be a suitable introduction for bringing together perspectives from administration, planning and local government practice.
Key Workshop Findings
The kick-off showed that green corridors and green neighborhoods in the participating cities are envisioned predominantly in urban districts and less in the cities’ surroundings. The focus is accordingly not on planning in undeveloped areas, but on the gradual further development of existing urban spaces in which housing, mobility, public use and social functions are already closely intertwined.
In that sense, it also became clear that green corridors have to fulfil several functions at the same time. They contribute to climate adaptation, for example through shading, cooling, better air circulation and water absorption. But they also contribute to the upgrading of public spaces by improving the quality of life and encounters within the city. Especially in dense neighborhoods, green corridors must therefore always be considered as social spaces of mobility and connection.
Another central aspect was the importance of participation and local acceptance. Since identified spaces are usually already intensively used, the involvement of the population is an essential prerequisite for successful implementation. This applies to the usability for distinct groups such as children, families and residents as well as the question of how green measures can be integrated into the everyday urban life.
Contribution from the Urban Development Fund (UDF)
The Urban Development Fund (UDF) underlined the importance of institutional approaches for integrated and climate-resilient urban development in Egypt. The examples presented showed how strategic urban development, upgrading of existing districts, heat reduction and public space can be more closely linked. The UDF thus not only contributed concrete experience from Egyptian practice, but also an important perspective on scaling, institutional anchoring and long-term implementation capability.
Contribution of the City of Erlangen
The city of Erlangen’s contribution illustrated that green corridors must be implemented in conjunction with traffic, accessibility and conflicts over the use of urban space. In their presentation of the local project ‘From two quarters to one campus’, Erlangen representatives demonstrated how a green boulevard, tram, bicycle, pedestrian and motorised traffic, and an existing pedestrian bridge could be brought together within one coherent planning task. Thus, the contribution from Erlangen provided important impetus for an integrated planning approach to green corridors.
Example Cities and Good Practices
During the kick-off, several municipal and institutional examples were presented that are of particular relevance for the further learning process:
Erlangen (Germany): integrated planning approach to green corridors in existing urban space, with a focus on Green Boulevard, multimodal mobility, land use and conflicts of use.
Aswan (Egypt): Development of the Heat Action Plan for El-Sail Elgadid, including cooling stations, shaded recreation areas and specific offers for children and women.
Port Said (Egypt): Approaches to climate-adapted urban development and the upgrading of urban spaces under the specific climatic conditions of a Mediterranean city.
Telal Al-Fustat Park, Cairo (Egypt): large-scale greening approach in historic Cairo with positive effects on cooling, air quality and biodiversity.
Reviving Historical Cairo (Egypt): Upgrading historic urban areas as a combination of urban renewal, public space and historical identity.
Al-Asmarat (Egypt): Participatory upgrading of public spaces in the residential environment as an example of the linking of green and social functions in existing neighbourhoods.
Outlook
Some of the participants at the launch event
The digital kick-off has created a reliable technical basis for the next steps of the MENA learning process. It became clear that the added value of the format lies particularly in synergy effects betweenconcrete municipal examples, institutional perspectives, inter-municipal exchange and visual methods. In the coming phases, the identified topics will be further deepened, approaches between the cities will be further developed and jointly concretized during both online and face-to-face exchanges.
24 March 2026 was the big day! The in-depth learning process “Water Resilience: Strengthening Municipalities against Drought and Heavy Rainfall Events” kicked off shortly after the World Water Day. Droughts, heatwaves, heavy rainfall and flooding are on the rise, putting a strain on infrastructure, public health and municipal budgets. At the same time, urbanisation is intensifying competition for water.
Many major cities are already experiencing severe water stress, and the global demand for water could significantly exceed the available supply by 2030.
Water scarcity has long been an obstacle to development for countries in the Global South, but in the future, all regions worldwide will have to adapt to fluctuating water availability and growing conflicts over its use. Water is set to become the defining strategic resource of the 21st century.
Key solutions are emerging at a local level. Although the broader circumstances vary greatly, local authorities face similar structural challenges, making exchange and collaborative learning particularly valuable.
As part of our ‘Deep Dive’ on the topic of ‘Water-Resilient Municipalities’, we are bringing together experts from eight municipalities in Benin, Germany, Kenya, India, Serbia and Sri Lanka. Over a two-year period, they will discuss innovative approaches, such as sponge city concepts, blue corridors and integrated blue-green-red infrastructure, and develop and implement locally tailored solutions to their respective challenges.
During the initial virtual meeting, the municipalities presented their local challenges, identified initial similarities, and prepared for the first in-person working meeting in Wuppertal in early May. Further updates from our ‘Deep Dive’ project will follow from May 2026.
The participating cities are: Natitingou (Benin), Dresden, Wunstorf and Wuppertal (Germany), Homa Bay (Kenya), Hyderabad (India), Niš (Serbia) and Akkaraipattu (Sri Lanka).
Kick-off Event: 7th – 9th April 2026 (TBC) in Egypt
Local authorities in Germany, North Africa, and the Middle East face similar challenges in the face of climate change. They are called upon to translate general strategies for climate change adaptation and climate protection into concrete local measures. One option is to develop green corridors – e.g., as green walkways in city centers or as green corridors in the surrounding areas and new neighborhoods. These enable improved fresh air supply, quality of life, and more efficient water management. Green corridors can also be used for local recreation and heat protection in municipalities.
Against this backdrop, Connective Cities offers experts from local governments in Gemany, North Africa and Middle East the opportunity to develop concrete solutions for their own contexts and exchange ideas with each other as part of a one-year learning process.
Main areas of Work
The structured learning process will focus on:
Green corridors as fresh air corridors between cities and their surrounding areas
Green paths in cities and old city centers
Green new and existing neighborhoods
The methodology
The learning process follows a modular approach with the following objectives:
Supporting participating municipalities in developing solutions through peer learning and tailored technical advice to promote green corridor solutions.
Developing the participants’ skills so that they are better able to implement organizational changes and improve procedures and methods in their own municipalities.
Supporting participating municipalities in their methodological approach and the development of financially viable solutions.
As part of the learning process, best practices for green corridors and climate-friendly urban planning will be presented. Participating municipalities will engage in peer learning with others to develop concrete solutions for their individual contexts. These solutions can bring about organizational changes to improve procedures, methods, and data availability, as well as the concrete implementation of pilot measures.
Using a co-creative approach, participants will be involved in a structured creative problem-solving process. This includes
observing and understanding current municipal practices to identify challenges and gaps,
brainstorming and developing concrete solutions, and
testing the solutions with a group of stakeholders, including citizens and experts, to obtain feedback.
Duration
The learning process will span a period of one year, beginning with a kick-off workshop in Egypt in April 2026. A total of two German and approximately 10 municipalities from the MENA region will participate in the learning process.
Participation and contact
We are looking for experts from local governments in Gemany, North Africa and Middle East (district offices, city administrations, municipal companies, etc.) who can contribute a project or idea for a solution for green corridors to the learning process. Ideally, two experts from one municipality will apply and be able to anchor the change process in the administration in the long term. The participation costs (accommodation and board) are covered. The conference language is English and French.