Here you can watch the video-interview with Tanja Barrett, nature conservationist, Municipality of Varberg:
'I am working in this project with the PROSPERA because it is a lot about planning different communities in an environmentally friendly way.
The most inspiring points of our last experience have been the vast amount of public engagement which has been used in Italy in the project where the public has both been engaged in planting trees, vegetables, even selling the vegetables, and one has also used public paths on private land as hiking paths. The usage of public in the vast amount is maybe not something we have done so much before and so, I think it has been very inspiring for us to see that maybe we think how we plan projects in the future by involving the public a little bit more. I think it is trusting to use the public because you both get experiences and form the public, you get new points and at the same time you can get also engaged in the project and a bit more effort and this is a very good way to work. It is also cost-efficient because you save the resources and can use instead of public workforce or even public land as they have done.
Another very interesting point of the recent project in Italy has been work they have done on climate adaptation in form of planting a lot of trees to give shade in the future when it is going to be hotter. And I think in Sweden we have a lot of trees that has a high density of trees and quite old trees but sometimes we do not value them enough when we participate in community planning and when we use land for building we take down these old trees and we put buildings and then we plant new trees but this is a lot more difficult because these young trees do not deal as well with heat and water loss, etc. So, I think it was a reminder for us to appreciate trees especially matured trees a little bit more and maybe to protect them more when we engage the future planning just for the usage of them for climate adaptation both for giving us shade and also for lowering the carbon impact and also to weather like the water flow, excessive water flow. So, I think it has been a very good inspiration in that way that we will think and value trees and try to protect all the trees a little bit more for all what they do during climate change.'
