The Naturethon initiative, part of the NATURANCE project, has recently concluded its second call for citizen-led projects on Nature-based Solutions, after a positive engagement process featuring experts’ talks and advice. The Naturethon committee has completed the evaluation of submitted proposals and is pleased to announce the awarded projects for the 2025 edition titled “Seeds of Change: Citizens Growing Nature-Based Futures“.
The winning proposals, which stood out for innovation, feasibility and environmental and social impacts, are: “Explore Sustainable Financing Strategies to Scale Up Nature-based Solutions for Cool Milan” (COOL MILAN team), “Johannesburg’s Biodiversity Restoration” (Green City Champions team), and “C.A.R.E. – Community Action for River Ecosystems” (RisorGivers team).
A representative of each awarded team (the so-called “Champion”) will be hosted by the NATURANCE project at the upcoming Finance Innovation Festival in Brussels (3–5 February). The Naturethon Award Ceremony will be held during the session “Seeds of Change: Citizens and Cities” on February 5, 2025.
Finally, the committee has unanimously decided to award a special mention to Dominic Terhile Uchi (Champion of the “Greener Tomorrow” team, winner of the 2024 Naturethon edition) for his tireless and enthusiastic participation during the initiative’s webinars and workshops.
Program
The Naturethon initiative aimed to engage citizen groups with the universe of Nature-based Solutions by mobilising and channelling compelling and productive dialogue among European communities and beyond. The second and final call for ideas of the initiative ran from September 5 to December 8, 2025. Throughout the call, a meaningful engagement process was conducted to ensure that citizen groups were supported in developing their solutions with the expertise generated within the NATURANCE project.
Three high-level webinars were hosted by the project in October and November to provide an overview of the range of available Nature-based Solutions, effective citizen engagement tools, and strategies for financing their implementation. The webinar series reached 274 attendees. Additionally, four hands-on training sessions were organised, during which researchers from the NATURANCE project guided participants step by step in developing their ideas using collaborative boards. They assisted participants in defining challenges, nature-based solutions, stakeholders, and financial strategies. The final outcome of this process was a logbook, which served as the basis for the final submission.
Participation and engagement
The latest edition of the Naturethon generated significant interest among participants. Overall, 16 local groups registered to take part. Unlike the previous edition, Naturethon 2025 also allowed individuals to participate, which led to the formation and active support of 5 additional international groups, sharing an interest in specific hazards and bringing the total number of participating groups to 21. Among these, 19 groups successfully completed the interactive process and submitted their projects for final evaluation.
The proposals covered a wide variety of topics, ranging from flood risk to wildfires, biodiversity loss, and habitat degradation, and came from 14 countries across Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, and South Africa), Asia (Jordan, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines), and Europe (Italy, Georgia, Portugal, and Romania). Altogether, 103 people actively participated in this edition by submitting a final project. The quality of the proposals submitted was generally high, making it challenging to select only three. However, the committee found that the following proposals, in particular, stood out from the rest.
Awarded ideas
“Explore Sustainable Financing Strategies to Scale Up Nature-based Solutions for Cool Milan“, developed by the COOL MILAN team, consisting of Yanchao Wang (Naturethon’s Champion), Barbara Di Micco, Stephen Asare Ntow, and Mari Chakryan.
The project offers a clear and well-structured, data-driven analysis of urban heat waves in Milan, Italy, effectively describing the geographic context, climate risks, and impacts on vulnerable populations. The portfolio of Nature-based Solutions, developed around the 3-30-300 approach, is ambitious and thoughtfully designed, with interventions clearly explained and illustrated through compelling “before and after” narratives. A major strength of the proposal lies in its innovative and comprehensive discussion of financing options, which successfully combines existing mechanisms with new instruments tailored to both the Milan context and NbS implementation. Stakeholders are well identified, and the project demonstrates a strong level of engagement and commitment. Overall, the proposal is coherent, innovative, and well aligned with the case study. The main areas for improvement concern feasibility, as the scale and number of proposed interventions would require substantial coordination among multiple actors and strong political support, as well as greater clarity in distinguishing NbS from governance and coordination measures.
“Johannesburg’s Biodiversity Restoration” proposed by the Green City Champions, consisting of Francesca Mazza (Naturethon’s Champion), Forgive Maluleke, Saba Mirzahosseini, and Borhan Sepehri.
The proposal is focused on Johannesburg, South Africa, which faces biodiversity loss, habitat fragmentation, climate risks, and social challenges like food insecurity and limited green spaces. Green City Champions proposes a community-led, nature-based approach combining vertical farming, urban greening, and habitat restoration. The project empowers residents to manage farms and restore ecosystems, creating green jobs and building climate resilience. Stakeholders include local communities, municipal departments, NGOs, private investors, and research institutions. Economic sustainability relies on a mix of public and private funding, community reinvestment, and grassroots initiatives like crowdfunding and community-supported agriculture. The proposal is well structured and clearly presents the region’s main challenges, highlighting disconnections across communities, ecosystems, and policies. Its community farming and urban NbS are well designed, backed by a strong business model with good scalability potential. Stakeholder engagement and financing strategies are appropriate, and the project shows high innovation and commitment. Improvements could include clearer geographical context, stronger links between biodiversity loss and solutions, more coherence among NbS concepts, and a more focused selection of financing strategies to enhance feasibility and clarity.
“C.A.R.E. – Community Action for River Ecosystems“, submitted by the RisorGivers team, led by Fabio Tullio (Naturethon’s Champion), representing the environmental NGO Legambiente Treviso.
The proposal tackles the degradation of spring-water ecosystems in Treviso, Italy, threatened by urbanisation, concrete encroachment, and invasive species – especially in the Montello hill–Sile river corridor. The team implemented Nature-based Solutions such as ecological corridors, renaturalized spring heads, peri-urban reforestation, and urban “Pocket Parks” to enhance biodiversity, recharge aquifers, and mitigate heat islands. The initiative engages over 1,500 citizens, schools, universities, local authorities, and farmers, and relies on a hybrid financing model combining community fundraising, private partnerships, grants, and EU funding to scale up and enhance ecosystem services. The project effectively addresses biodiversity loss and environmental degradation in a high-value ecological area, combining environmental solutions with strong citizen engagement. Its governance and financial strategies support piloting, scaling, and long-term viability, while the Nature-based Solutions are well-documented and feasible. The financial approach is robust, although it relies mainly on public funding and donations. In the end, the project is solid, credible, and impact-oriented, with room for improvement in geographic focus and stakeholder details, and innovation depending on future implementation.