The UrbanByNature hub in Genk is an initiative of the local authority and the Flemish authority, specifically the Agency for Nature and Forest and the Research Institute for Nature and Forest. The Hub will be a network node in the transversal Flemish learning network for Urban Nature which originated  from the innovation trajectory ‘Cities Thinking Like a Forest’. The goal of the network is to develop and distribute action oriented knowledge linked to creating urban nature tissue. The main focus lies on practices of co-creative collaboration with local communities, to make, maintain and secure, ‘life sized nature’ (social ecological perspective).

With the hub as base the Agency, the Institute and the municipality will experiment with the development of a concrete Nature Tissue Plan for the Stiemer region. We aim to create a process that can be scaled up to the whole territory of Genk and that can be a meaningful and inspiring example for other cities trying to strengthen the biodiversity, the social cohesion and the climate resilience of an urban environment. In parallel a local layer, named the Stiemerhub, is being developed as we speak.

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