On 31 December 2020 the 2nd phase of the Building with Nature program, carried out by the EcoShape foundation, has formally ended. On that date the consortium agreement that EcoShape concluded with the participants in the innovation program ended. After December 2020 a number of activities will continue, including for example the preparations for the Climate Adaptation Summit 2021. Between January and March 1st 2021, the EcoShape office will continue to operate at its usual strength and remain accessible for questions, comments and ideas.
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Continuation in 2021
In recent years in various groups we have thought about a possible follow-up to the Building with Nature programme. The overall conclusion was that there is more momentum than ever for Building with Nature and Nature-based Solutions. However, this does not yet result in widespread large-scale applications. Apparently, the ‘enablers’ have not yet been adopted and put into practice sufficiently. In 2019, EcoShape’s partners stated that they would like to continue working on this beyond 2020. This year (2021) will therefore be used as a ‘transition year’ to create a new way of working, in which the associated partners will work to broaden the Building with Nature philosophy in pilots, (knowledge) programmes and projects, and to disseminate the knowledge gained as much as possible. We will come back to you shortly with more information on how you can be part of this new movement.
Acknowledgements on behalf of EcoShape 2.0
On behalf of all EcoShapers we would like to thank you for the great collaboration over the past years. The various pilot projects we have carried out attract international interest. Based on what we have learned, new guidelines for upscaling and replication have steadily been produced. These guidelines are available to everyone via our website www.ecoshape.org, which has recently been completely modernised. The Building with Nature book launched on 22 October 2020, which became available at the beginning of December 2020, is attracting a lot of positive attention. Last but not least, we have gotten to know each other better in recent years and coalitions have been formed across different sectors and disciplines. We need to hold on to the latter. After all, the challenges of our world call for a cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary approach. These are all results of which we can be proud! We hope to see you all again in the next phase of Building with Nature in new challenges in the coming years.