The local residents who were previously excluded from the various cultural tourism activities and festivals centering on the World Heritage property started to independently host village activities and built up their capacities for delivering and managing events. 

The initial residents group started to participate in the operations of the Suwon Heritage Night Walks in 2017 as traffic control staff. As the number of festivals that were hosted to celebrate Suwon Hwaseong as World Heritage increased, such as the Hwaseong by Night, World Heritage Festival, and Media Art Shows, the number of jobs available for the residents also increased. 

The Haenggung Village Cooperative Association was established on 31 May 2021 and it consists of 46 members. The main line of work is creating content and activities for visitors. 
The association is composed of 4 sub-groups each named “jigi”, which in the Korean language means friends: 

• Haenggungjigi, who focuses on providing event support, information, sanitation and the operation of activities; 
• Donghaengjigi, a group that creates the content and stories of the village tours; 
• Surajigi that promotes and shares research and education on food; 
• Cheongnyeonjigi, the group that monitors and conducts evaluations of activities. 

The local residents who were previously excluded from the various cultural tourism activities and festivals centering on the World Heritage property started to independently host village activities and built up their capacities for delivering and managing events. 

The initial residents group started to participate in the operations of the Suwon Heritage Night Walks in 2017 as traffic control staff. As the number of festivals that were hosted to celebrate Suwon Hwaseong as World Heritage increased, such as the Hwaseong by Night, World Heritage Festival, and Media Art Shows, the number of jobs available for the residents also increased. 

The Haenggung Village Cooperative Association was established on 31 May 2021 and it consists of 46 members. The main line of work is creating content and activities for visitors. 
The association is composed of 4 sub-groups each named “jigi”, which in the Korean language means friends: 

• Haenggungjigi, who focuses on providing event support, information, sanitation and the operation of activities; 
• Donghaengjigi, a group that creates the content and stories of the village tours; 
• Surajigi that promotes and shares research and education on food; 
• Cheongnyeonjigi, the group that monitors and conducts evaluations of activities. 

Dissemination and communication of the interventions took place through local press conferences organized by Colectivo Tomate as implementing partner, together with local governments, COMEX, GIZ and other strategic allies.

In addition, microsites were created on Google Sites that serve as hubs of accessible and updated information on the project. These microsites provide details of the interventions, methodologies employed, results obtained and next steps. They also offer educational resources such as guides and tools relevant to urban tree management and reforestation.

To strengthen the technical and operational capacities of key stakeholders in the management of urban trees and green areas, three face-to-face workshops and one virtual course were held. These events were aimed at local governments, academics, private companies, non-governmental organizations and members of civil society with the capacity and interest to influence decision-making on the urban landscape of each city benefiting from the project.

The main objective was to increase capacities in the diagnosis and management of urban trees, providing knowledge and essential tools for efficient and sustainable management of green infrastructure. The following topics were addressed in each face-to-face event, with variations according to the participants' level of knowledge:

• Presentation of the Sembrando Ciudades project
• Green Infrastructure and Children Toolkit, results for each city.
• Integrated Tree Management Plan.
• Macro and micro diagnosis.
• Inventories and censuses.
• Regulations.
• Zoning of greening needs.
• Intervention area, strategies and objectives.
• Selection of species and nursery plants.
• Community involvement.
• Pilots that inspire: execution of interventions.
• Critical steps in urban reforestation.
• Evaluation and measures of success.
• Air quality and its relationship with green infrastructure.
• Appraisal and management recommendations for urban trees.

The virtual course has the same objective as the workshops, so they complement and reinforce each other. However, in this event it focuses on:

• Calculate and economically value the ecosystem services provided by urban trees.
• Generate information to promote an informed urban management, through the identification and characterization of trees, as well as the identification of plantable spaces.
• Know the regulations, the entities involved in urban tree management, as well as funding opportunities and resources to promote reforestation in urban areas.
• Develop a comprehensive urban tree management plan to ensure the conservation and sustainable development of the urban environment.

Once the areas with the greatest need for urban reforestation had been identified, schools with the potential to develop school reforestation interventions were selected. Subsequently, the project was shared with the corresponding Ministry of Education to verify the viability of the chosen schools. Thus, the Alfonso Arroyo Flores elementary school, located in the municipality of Boca del Río, was selected for this activity. A visit was made to the institute to present and socialize the initiative before the school authorities, ensuring their collaboration and support in the implementation of the reforestation activities.

The next step was the preparation of a diagnostic study of the intervention area to analyze soil fertility, complemented by a drone flight to generate the design of the interventions. This design, validated by the school community, was based on the Miyawaki Method, a high diversity and density afforestation approach that accelerates the development of vegetation and other ecological processes.

The implementation of the reforestation activities was divided into two stages. The first stage focused on environmental awareness and education. An explanation was given to the student community, including children, youth and teachers, about the importance of trees in urban environments and the principles of Miyawaki forests, as well as the critical points in the reforestation process. The language used was accessible and appropriate for the age group, promoting active participation to facilitate meaningful learning. In the second stage, the knowledge acquired during the previous stage was put into practice and the school reforestation was carried out together with the children.

This experience not only allowed for the tangible improvement of the green infrastructure, but also provided the opportunity to raise awareness among the students and allow them to experience the reforestation process in a sensory way.

The objective of this phase was to generate a compendium of tools to guide informed decision making on urban reforestation needs in five Mexican coastal cities (Boca del Rio, Veracruz; Merida, Yucatan; San Mateo del Mar, Oaxaca; Tepic, Nayarit; Tijuana, Baja California).

1. A compendium of landscape-scale tools was prepared with the products:

• Economic valuation of ecosystem services provided by urban trees.
• Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) map.
• Green View Index Map (GVI)
• Fixed Pollution Sources Map (FFC)
• Children's Access to Nature Equity Index Map.
• Urban Heat Islands (UHI) Map.

2. The baseline for the efficient management of urban trees was elaborated through the street-by-street detail component of a high-resolution digital inventory, representative of the axes and road islands of each city. This inventory not only recorded the existing trees and their maintenance needs, but also identified plantable spaces, identified and catalogued the available plantable spaces, specifying the appropriate characteristics of each area, as well as the type of tree that can be planted in each site. This integrated approach ensures more accurate and sustainable planning, optimizing species selection and improving the health and biodiversity of the urban tree stock.

3. In addition, educational and design tools were prepared. A practical guide for urban reforestation and two plant palettes for climate-smart reforestation were developed.

The Environmental and Climate Change Program, through its axes revegetation and rescue of rivers and water bodies, directly contemplates Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) actions, since revegetation implies contributing to the regeneration of the city's own nature: revaluing and using native species, revegetation with different strata to regenerate resilient plant communities; rehabilitating, conserving and restoring water bodies and their associated biodiversity; restoring soil fertility and promoting technologies such as technosols that allow water infiltration, integrating the principles of circularity, since they are developed based on waste such as PET and silt from dredging; as well as promoting technologies that allow the integrated management of vegetation pests and diseases. This makes it possible to address the effects of climate change, since the recovery of vegetation cover and the presence of wetlands act as buffers against extreme weather. It also improves the connectivity of natural spaces in the city to increase the available habitat for flora and wildlife, reestablishing the components of ecosystems and their resilience.

The programs integrate a vision of rights and environmental justice. This involves working to reduce inequalities, integrating nature in and around our city, for which we worked with a Nature-based Solutions (NBS) approach in different areas of the city, recovering natural spaces and restoring them for the benefit of the population, improving and increasing access to nature and ecosystem services.

In order to address social challenges and support human well-being, through the Altépetl Program, we support producers with economic aid, technical assistance and training to promote agroecological practices, sustainable production systems that integrate and protect biodiversity at the local level, and short marketing chains. On the other hand, by improving public spaces through the improvement or creation of green and blue areas, the public has been able to take ownership of public spaces, improving safety, mainly in areas of high marginalization and vulnerability. Additionally, through the Women Pollinators program, women have been trained as leaders in the creation of pollinator gardens, reinforcing the society-nature relationship and making visible the work of women as a pillar in the social structure; and through the Rainwater Harvesting program, rainwater harvesting systems are installed, distributing in a fairer and more equitable manner the work of water provision, which generally falls on women.

The perspective on how to address the environmental problems facing the city was modified, integrating the following principles:

• Improve accessibility to natural spaces and the distribution of environmental benefits, prioritizing areas of the city with high marginalization and vulnerability.
• Prioritize social participation and people whose livelihoods depend on nature.
• Increase investment in environmental restoration.

As well as strengthening legal frameworks, such as in the Political Constitution of the CDMX where investment in conservation land is guaranteed; the modification to the Environmental Law for the Protection of the Land of Mexico City, where the term biodiversity is considered in its provisions; the adoption of the Law for Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change and Sustainable Development of Mexico City and the Law of Circular Economy.In addition to the Environmental Climate Change Program, strategies and action plans were developed in a participatory manner to articulate public policies to address climate change and conserve biodiversity. The planning and execution of these instruments has involved the participation and coordination of multiple sectors in addition to the environmental sector and citizen participation, taking into account the generation of environmental, social and economic benefits.

The Ministry of Land and Environment (MTA), in partnership with IUCN Mozambique, launched three Knowledge Hubs as part of its efforts to centralise and streamline conservation and restoration training and knowledge exchange from the central to local levels and from public administration to communities. These hubs serve as essential training tools, particularly for mangrove restoration and protection, and for the broader application of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for both communities and policymakers.

Located within government premises in Maputo, Maputo National Park, and Pemba, the hubs function as open-access centres where conservation manuals, tools, and courses, including those from the IUCN Academy, are shared. These resources, (e.g. on NbS, Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs), mangrove restoration) translated to Portuguese and tailored to local projects and communities, help expand the reach of conservation knowledge, especially to rural communities, women, and youth. By offering systematic online and in-person training, the hubs provide a space for both tailored learning and socio-economic development, incorporating important dimensions of governance, gender, and youth engagement.

The Knowledge Hubs empower local communities, especially those in buffer and coastal areas, to become active agents in conservation and climate adaptation by providing tools on topics such as mangrove restoration and NbS. This initiative not only promotes sustainable practices but also nurtures a culture of learning and participation. 

The Knowledge Hubs have proven to be a cost-effective solution for training, using existing infrastructure and only require internet connectivity. The program includes in-person training, such as the “Blue Training in Practise” program, which successfully trained over 20 professors and MTA staff to integrate coastal and marine management into local development plans and projects This approach is designed as a long-term, cross-sectoral process, ensuring that biodiversity, climate, and development considerations are incorporated into local development strategies. Where possible, the program also facilitates personal exchanges with local communities to enhance engagement and knowledge transfer.

Furthermore, the Knowledge Hubs have also served as a model for other development and conservation actors, attracting in-kind and financial support, which further strengthens partnerships and raises awareness.