Metropolitan area of Barcelona named ‘European Forest City 2022’

EFI met civil and scientific community in Barcelona on Wednesday 23 March to celebrate the European Forest City 2022 award.

The award recognizes the management of green spaces in the city, which occupy more than 50% of the metropolitan area.

European Forest City 2022 officially kicked off with a talk on the Role of Biocities, aptly hosted at the iconic La Pedrera, designed by renowned Barcelona architect, Antoni Gaudi.

Discussing Bioeconomy for Cities were Marc Palahí, EFI director, Ramon Torra, manager of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, Vicente Guallart, founder of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, and Marta Lacambra, director of the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera. Carla Conejo, Head of Scientific Programs in the Area of Knowledge, Education and Research of the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera, moderated the discussion.

The discussion revolved around four main themes: the renaturalization of cities, the circular bioeconomy, wood as the new material of the 21st century and public-private collaboration. There is a recording of the discussion available here (in Catalan).

Since 2014, the European Forest Institute has granted the title of ‘European Forest City’ to the city which hosts the EFI Annual Conference. The award to Barcelona recognizes the management of the city and metropolitan area which includes conservation, protection, and development of forest areas, as well as research into a new urban model that promotes nature-based solutions. In that framework, the city of Barcelona and its metropolitan area will encourage public participation in activities related to this year’s topic of reflection: Bioeconomy for cities. How can biocities transform the way we live on the planet?

The European Forest City 2022 is an initiative promoted by EFI with the support of the AMB, Barcelona City Council, Barcelona Provincial Council, the Generalitat de Catalunya and different research centers - the IAAC, the CTFC, the CREAF and the Parc de Belloch. The Organizing Committee of this project, made up of representatives of all bodies involved, will carry out a program of activities throughout 2022:

• Wednesday, March 23 at 19:00: Dialogue on biocities in Barcelona (La Pedrera)
• May 2022: Scientific conference on biocities
• May 2022: Conferences on the new African ecological architecture
• June 2022: Collserola Bioblitz
• June 2022: Visits to the EFI centers of Catalonia
• October 5-7, 2022: EFI Annual Conference, with a scientific seminar on biocities

Note that the recording of the dialogue is in Catalan.

^{Photo by Sarah Adams}