3000.181 26-04-2013 12:00 Pagina 1 Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the driving force of 3000.181 SUSTAINABILITY PROMOTING IN PRACTICES STUDY: BENCHMARKING MACRO European economy, both in terms of job creation and MACRO BENCHMARKING STUDY: generation of entrepreneurial spirit and innovation which 3000.216 Metropolitan Agriculture and Nature-Based Solutions 3000.216 Metropolitan favour competitiveness, employment and socio-economic PRACTICES IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABILITY integration into the framework of European Union. As a result, SMEs will be facing two major challenges in the immediate future: to survive in an increasingly demanding economy and GAPS EXISTING AND ENTERPRISES MEDIUM AND SMALL THE IN IN THEMetropolitan SMALL AND MEDIUMAgriculture ENTERPRISES contribute to sustainable development in those regions where they are economic activities leaders. This book presents the AND EXISTINGand Nature-Based GAPS Solutions results of Desur project (Development Sustainable Regions through Responsible SMEs), whose main objective is sharing and spreading CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) culture among SMEs operating in seven European country partners (Spain,Linking Ireland, a new conceptGreece, ofItaly, agriculture Hungary, in Lithuania,the city and Slovenia), Marino Cavallo, Paola Parmiggiani throughthe circular a benchmarking economy, we analysis will be and able the to identification imagine a of CSR bestnew practices, way to design case studies the urban and environmentexcellent models, and boostmethodologies andnew localbusinesses sustainability focused onpolicies “Nature-Based aiming atSolutions” stimulating the Data Provided by DESUR Project Consortium collaborationapproach. Therefore, and replication we can identify of such new bestpathways practices for among differentgreen development, regions. smart cities and inclusive growth . At the same time, we can improve communication, social relations and quality of life in metropolises. The research has been carried out with the contribution of: Fundecyt – PCTEX (Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Extremadura), DESUR team, Spain Desur Team: Region of Western Macedonia, Greece. Vasileios Kotoulas, Dimitris Kouras Pannon Business Network Association, Hungary. Remo Savoia South West Regional Authority, Ireland. Claire Davis Province of Bologna, Italy. Tiziana De Nittis, Viviana Melchiorre, Umberto Mezzacapo, Roberta Paltrinieri Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. Zaneta Stasiskiene, Inga Gurauskiene, Antanas Staskevicius, Aiste Veliute, Milda Kamandulyte Labour fund Zasavje, Slovenia. Franci Ceˇˇ c, Dejan Poboljˇsaj edited by Marino Cavallo and Stefano Spillare FrancoAngeli La passione per le conoscenze FrancoAngeli FrancoAngeli 3000.216.indd 1 04/07/18 16:36 I lettori che desiderano informarsi sui libri e le riviste da noi pubblicati possono consultare il nostro sito Internet: www.francoangeli.it e iscriversi nella home page al servizio “Informatemi” per ricevere via e-mail le segnalazioni delle novità. COPY 15,5X23 1-02-2016 8:56 Pagina 1 Metropolitan Agriculture and Nature-Based Solutions edited by Marino Cavallo and Stefano Spillare FrancoAngeli Copyright © 2018 by Madre Project. Stampa: Digital Print Service srl – sede legale: via dell’Annunciata 27, 20121 Milano; sede operativa: via Torricelli 9, 20090 Segrate (Mi) Index Preface Mercè Boy Roura pag. 7 Introduction Marino Cavallo, Stefano Spillare » 9 Chapter 1 MADRE project and Metropolitan Agriculture in the territorial system of Bologna: a socio-cultural overview Stefano Spillare, Roberta Paltrinieri, Marino Cavallo » 13 Chapter 2 Sustainable innovation in Metropolitan Agriculture of Bologna: Good Practices and Innovation System Stefano Spillare » 33 Chapter 3 Urban agriculture and social innovation. The case of the “Salus W Space” project in the city of Bologna Giulia Allegrini » 61 Chapter 4 Cultivating nature-based solutions. Urban and peri- urban agriculture: a business opportunity good for cities and communities Valeria Stacchini » 87 Chapter 5 Metropolitan Agriculture and Social Involvement. An international debate Marino Cavallo, Giuseppe Rainieri » 101 Chapter 6 Manifesto for the new agro ecological city. Strategies for overcoming rural-urban cleavage in medium-size cities Alessandro Pirani » 111 Authors » 117 5 6 Preface MADRE project (Metropolitan Agriculture for Developing an innovative, sustainable and Responsible Economy) is one of the 14 projects under the umbrella of the MED Green Growth community, in the framework of the Interreg MED programme. The Interreg MED Green Growth Community is a community of projects that promotes a sustainable development in the Mediterranean area, based on the sound management of the natural resources thanks to innovation, and who takes into account the effects on the labor market by promoting social justice and green jobs. The community acts as a dynamic network of key groups of the Quadruple helix of the green growth sector to support MED stakeholders and create a fruitful and collaborative environment for all implicated bodies. Moreover, results from all projects are unified to produce solid proposals for environmental policies and to communicate Green Growth to a larger audience in a more efficient way. One of the major themes on the MED Green Growth community is agrofood. The high density of population in cities is placing vast demands on urban food supply systems. At the same time, citizens are becoming more aware of the importance of a sustainable production and consumption of local food products, and therefore, its demand might increase in the near future. Then, urban and peri-urban agriculture becomes a key sector to rethink the food supply system in metropolitan areas. The importance of urban agriculture is increasingly being recognised by international organisations like UN- Habitat and FAO. As RUAF Foundation stated, urban agriculture not only provides fresh food and improves the urban environmental management and greening of the cities, but also contributes to local economic development and is an important strategy for social inclusion. MADRE project is therefore, a valuable example of transnational cooperation in the Mediterranean region to foster a change in the urban food supply model. MADRE is capitalizing on knowledge and best practices of metropolitan and peri-urban agriculture in 5 MED countries in order to optimize its environmental, economical, and social impact. The MED Green Growth community has facilitated synergies with other projects from the community in order to incorporate MADRE’s methodology, best practices on innovation in agrofood systems, and pilot actions as an example for them. Moreover, the MED Green Growth community supports the dissemination of results of MADRE project and awareness-raising activities on the topic of urban agriculture, such it was advertised during the 7 Interreg MED “MADE in MED” event in Rome (April 2018). In the near future, the community will integrate MADRE’s results with the findings of other projects in order to create policy recommendations on this topic. Mercè Boy Roura MED Green Growth community manager CT BETA – University of Vic, Central University of Catalonia 8 Introduction The aim of the book is to analyse the social and relational impact of agriculture into the city and the territory. In the last years, we can observe many initiatives devoted to introduce green gardens, local markets, proposals for quality food in urban contexts. The rural perspective invades the city but the metropolitan areas give another sense to the farmer’s traditional activities. The concrete work, the manual jobs represent a way to enter in a closer relation with each other, to built a new form of community, a different approach to the social issues and to the challenges of a globalized world. This book tries to present different points of view and methodologies to give suggestions and indications for the city and urban areas innovation, especially in the mediterranean european countries. The first chapter briefly describes the MADRE (Metropolitan Agricul- ture for Developing an innovative, sustainable and Responsible Economy) project, its theoretical premises and main objectives, as well as its opera- tive framework, highlighting the role of the urban and peri-urban agricul- ture (UPA) to face tomorrow’s challenges. Starting from this perspective, the authors introduce the specific point of view of the Metropolitan Agriculture (MA), considered as an “infrastructure” for the up-coming sustainable cities. This infrastructure needs to fit each specific environmental and socio-eco- nomic context. For this reason, the rest of the chapter delineates an overview on the specific territorial and socio-economic system of the Metropolitan area of Bologna, from the specific perspective of MA. In particular, they describe the background context of the Metropolitan area of Bologna con- sidering the possible development of the innovation capacity of the territory in the field of MA. The contribution in the second chapter aims to illustrate the preliminary re- sults concerning the Metropolitan area of Bologna (Italy) of the MADRE pro- ject, founded by Interreg MED Program. As the acronym suggests, the main purpose of this project is to explore the models of Metropolitan and peri-urban agriculture (MPA) in different Mediterranean countries, in order to better un- derstand and support its possible role in the sustainable development of the cit- ies. To pursue this purpose, the traditional conflict between “urban” and “rural” must