INTERREG EUROPE

PROGRESS project – PROmoting the Governance of Regional Ecosystem ServiceS – is an interregional cooperation project and its’ overall objective is to initiate a process of policy change in the partners’ regions improving the implementation of the policy instruments under Structural Funds programmes and other regional strategies dedicated to the conservation of biodiversity and the maintaining nature’s capacity to deliver the goods and services that we all need, through policy learning and capacity building activities. The policy instruments tackled by the project are the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) operational programme at regional or national level and other regional strategies dealing with the protection and valuing biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Project is made possible by the financial support from the Interreg Europe programme that helps regional and local governments across Europe to develop and deliver better policies. This project relates to the category “environment and resource efficiency”.

PROGRESS project involves six EU regions with the common goal of providing more sustainable ecosystem services and improving the well-being of European citizens. PROGRESS project is launched by six partners from Italy, Ireland, Hungary, Romania, Latvia and Spain. This partnership is led by the National Association of Italian Municipalities Tuscany from Italy. This 4-year project (August 2019 – July 2023) was approved within the Interreg Europe programme financed by the ERDF. Project implementation from Latvia is provided by the Institute of the Civil Engineering and Real Estate Economics of Riga Technical University.

The approach proposed by the project is firmly based on policy learning and capacity building of the partner organizations and relevant stakeholders of the concerned policy subsystems, as it stimulates a collective multidimensional and dynamic exchange of experience. The project brings together local authorities and their associations, local development agencies, universities and research centers with a balanced mix between more and less developed regions and thought to assure geographical balance. Exchange of experience is built on the partners’ competences and experience in the design and implementation of policies protecting and valuing biodiversity and ecosystem services.