CARDIMED - Policy memos with barriers and enablers

Mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions for fostering climate resilience in the Mediterranean is challenged by persisting barriers while at the same time, opportunities from new forms of formal and informal institutions in the making are formed. We identified how barriers to the uptake and mainstreaming of Nature-based Solutions interrelate into institutional traps that require transformative shifts in ways of thinking, organizing and relating. The barriers and opportunities were identified from a three-tiered analysis: (a) a policy analysis of regional and local policy documents from every DEMO case study (b) on-line interviews with regional and local policy stakeholders (n=12 interviews) and in-person workshops with regional policy stakeholders and (c) literature review of barriers and opportunities. This deliverable reports on the four identified traps and the ways to overcome for every DEMO and across all the DEMOs. The deliverable is in the form of policy briefs and the included recommendations have been co-produced between the researchers and regional and local policy stakeholders of the CARDIMED consortium. How to read the policy briefs? The policy briefs are neither binding policy documents nor prescriptions. Instead, they are results of a co-production between researchers and policy officers as part of the CARDIMED research project. As such, these policy briefs aim to inspire and inform policy action in every DEMO area/ region and across the Mediterranean regions as well. Specifically, we include 10 policy briefs. The first 8 policy briefs are DEMO-specific, meaning the included recommendations are to provide guidance and inspiration for action to navigate and spring out of the traps. The cross-case study policy brief (cross-DEMO policy brief) offers recommendations for navigating and springing out the traps that apply to all the participating regionsDEMO. Specifically, the cross-DEMO policy brief offers a suite of recommendations that aim to progress policy and planning approaches beyond the “usual” and to elicit more collaborative, integrative, and cross-sectoral actions to mainstream Nature-based Solutions for climate resilience. The “questions to consider” policy brief presents a set of questions per trap that aim to trigger transformative thinking for springing out of the traps. These questions can be used by policy stakeholders to reflect on proposed or under-formulation actions and also in discussions between policy stakeholders and other societal stakeholders involved in the planning with and for Nature-based Solutions in the DEMOs.