1. General information
Location and description of the intervention
City or FUA
Sintra
Region
Europe
Native title of the NBS intervention
Comemorações do Dia Mundial da Árvore
Short description of the intervention
As part of World Tree day celebrated on March 21, 2017 the Sintra Service for Protection of the Nature and the Environment (SEPNA) as well as the Sintra Branch Segura School carried out several education workshops for school children to inform about the importance of tress for our natural environment and carried out afforestation and reforestation actions inside the green spaces of Sintra. (1)
Address

Sintra
Portugal

Location
Point location, which indicates where the NBS takes place
Type of area before implementation of the NBS
Residential
Natural Heritage Area/Untouched nature
Website of the intervention
https://cm-sintra.pt/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=1006&catid=182&id=4697…
Timeline of intervention
Start date of the intervention (planning process)
2017
Start date of intervention (implementation process)
2017
End date of the intervention
2017
Present stage of the intervention
Completed
Goals of the intervention
- Educate about the importance of preserving the forest by playing a crucial role in combating climate change by absorbing and storing carbon in the atmosphere in its vegetation and soil.
- Help to ensure water availability, protect against landslides, prevent desertification and provide alternative livelihoods for people. (ref 1)
- Protect against landslides, prevent desertification and provide alternative livelihoods for people. (ref 1)
- Interactive learning through tree planting and maintenance (ref 5)
Quantitative targets
2 weeks of education sessions at elementary schools in the Sintra county. (ref 2)

Monitoring indicators defined
unknown
Sustainability challenge(s) addressed
Climate action for adaptation, resilience and mitigation (SDG 13)
Climate change adaptation
Climate change mitigation
Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
Green space creation and/or management
Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
Environmental education
Climate change adaptation: What were the goals of the NBS?
Reduce the impacts of climate risks events on urban places and communities
Climate change adaptation: What activities are implemented to realize the conservation goals and targets?
Implement measures that prevent/manage desertification, soil erosion and landslides
Increase or improve urban vegetation cover to help reduce outdoor temperature
Climate change mitigation: What were the goals of the NBS?
Sequester and store carbon
Climate change mitigation: What activities are implemented to realize the conservation goals and targets?
Increase green urban nature for carbon storage (wetlands, tree cover)
Implement sustainable forest management measures to increase carbon sinks/ improve carbon storage
Raise public awareness of behaviours, lifestyle and cultural changes with mitigation potential
Implementation activities
2 weeks of education sessions at elementary schools in the Sintra county. (ref 2)
Numerous different actions at individual schools from workshops to construction of small gardens or seed-bombs. (ref 4)
Tree planting by the Prime Minister to reflect the government's future plans for increasing the green cover. (ref 7)
Type of NBS project
Creation of new green areas
Knowledge creation and awareness raising
NBS domain and interventions
Ecological domain(s) where the NBS intervention(s) is/are implemented
Grey infrastructure featuring greens
Institutional green space
Parks and urban forests
Large urban parks or forests
Vegetation Type
Trees
Please specify how many trees were planted
Unknown
Amenities offered by the NBS
Unknown
Services
Expected ecosystem services delivered
Regulating services
Local climate regulation (temperature reduction)
Air quality regulation
Carbon storage/sequestration
Cultural services
Recreation
Intellectual interactions (scientific and / or educational)
Social and community interactions
Scale
Spatial scale
Micro-scale: District/neighbourhood level
Beneficiaries
Primary Beneficiaries
Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)
Citizens or community groups
Young people and children
Governance
Governance arrangements
Co-governance with government and non-government actors
Non-government actors
Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)
Please specify the roles of the specific government and non-government actor groups involved in the initiative
The local government donated trees and organized the schools that would participate, while public institutions organized their own programs such as the Sintra Living Science Center. This institution led several tree plantings and maintenance activities for children education in its surrounding. (ref 5)
Key actors - initiating organization
Local government/municipality
Public sector institution
Land owners
Public space owned by the city
Key actors - Other stakeholders involved (besides initiating actors)
Public sector institution
Citizens or community group
Land owners
Public space owned by the city
Participatory methods/forms of community involvement used
Taskforce groups
Dissemination of information and education
Policy drivers
NBS intervention implemented in response to an Regional Directive/Strategy
Unknown
NBS intervention implemented in response to a national regulations/strategy/plan
Unknown
NBS intervention implemented in response to a local regulation/strategy/plan
Unknown
Mandatory or voluntary intervention
Voluntary (spontaneous)
Please specify other type of voluntary intervention
The yearly celebration of World Tree Day is carried out in Sintra through education and environmental actions. Different sites carried out activities framed around the World Tree day initiative. (ref 1)
Enablers
Presence of specific city-level GI/NBS vision/strategy/plan - mentioned in connection to the project
Unknown
Presence of specific city-level GI/NBS section/part in a more general plan - mentioned in connection to the project
Unknown
Presence of city network or regional partnerships focused on NBS - mentioned in connection to the project
Yes
Please specify
The intervention is implemented as part of International World Tree day (March 21) which first started in Nebraska, USA in 1872 and gradually became adopted internationally. The first World Forest Day was celebrate in Portugal in 1974. (ref 3)
Presence of GI / NBS research project - mentioned in connection to the project
Unknown
Subsidies/investment for GI / NBS in the city - mentioned in connection to the project
Unknown
Co-finance for NBS
Unknown
Co-financing governance arrangements
Unknown
Was this co-governance arrangement already in place, or was it set up specifically for this NBS?
Unknown
Financing
Total cost
Unknown
What is/was the Cost/Budget (EUR) of the NBS or green infrastructure elements?
Unknown
What are the total amount of expected annual maintenance costs?
Unknown
What is the expected annual maintenance costs of the NBS or GI elements?
Unknown
Please specify cost savings
Unknown
Please specify total cost (EUR)
Unknown
Source(s) of funding
Public regional budget
Funds provided by non-governmental organization (NGO)
Type of fund(s) used
Direct funding (grants, subsidies, or self-financed projects by private entities)
Non-financial contribution
Yes
Type of non-financial contribution
Provision of land
Provision of goods
Provision of labour
Provision of expertise
Who provided the non-financial contribution?
Public authorities (e.g. land, utility services)
Citizens (e.g. volunteering)
Business models
Green densification model
Green education model
Green heritage model
Which of the involved actors was motivated by this model?
Public actor (e.g. municipality)
Private non-for-profit actor (e.g. NGO, foundation)
Citizens / local communities
Type of innovation
Social
Cultural innovation
Please specify social innovation
The series of actions are part of the World Tree Day, by celebrating this international day Sintra educates and engages its school kids on the importance of the natural environment and engages them in participating in several tree planting and natural maintenance actions. Thus, through education and participation the city strengthens its culture and awareness of the natural environment. (ref 1 and 3)
Novelty level of the innovation
The innovation is copied/derived from previous initiative(s) without substantial adaptation
Please specify novelty level of the innovation
Yearly celebration which draws from its previous years and the network of World Tree actions. (ref 6)
Replicability/Transferability
Ambiguous (e.g. multiple interpretations)
Please specify Replicability/Transferability
Yearly celebration which draws from its previous years and the network of World Tree actions. (ref 6)
Impacts, benefits
Environmental impacts
Climate change
Enhanced carbon sequestration
Green space and habitat
Increased green space area
Description of environmental benefits
This NBS is an annual event, happening every year on March 21st. No reports were found for the 2017 year, however before implementation expectations included carbon sequestration and an increase in green space through the no of trees planted (6). It is worth mentioning, for comparative purposes, that in 2018 one of the impacts mentioned was that 1000 adult trees absorb about 6000 kg of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and in 2018 they planted 284 trees (8)
Economic impacts
Unknown
Description of economic benefits
Unknown
Social and cultural impacts
Education
Increased knowledge of locals about local nature
Increased awareness of NBS and their benefits
Description of social and cultural benefits
This NBS did not reported impacts for the 2017 year. It is worth mentioning though that children were involved in the activities and the organizers hoped for an increase in environmental knowledge and education as well as an understanding of the connection and actions of people in regards to the environment (5 and 7).
Type of reported impacts
Expected impacts
Achieved impacts
Indicators
Number of planted trees and kg of CO2 (carbon dioxide) captured (8)
Environmental, social and economic impacts
Climate action for adaptation, resilience and mitigation (SDG 13)
Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
Environmental quality
Regeneration, land-use and urban development
Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
Analysis of specific impact categories
Job creation: The NBS created ...
Voluntary work opportunities
Negative impacts: Did the project cause any problems or concerns?
No information was found regarding negative impacts of the project
COVID-19 pandemic
Unknown as of August 2020. Given the current events it is probably wise to assume that the event was cancelled.
Methods of impact monitoring
Process of recording NBS impacts
No evidence in public records
Methods used to evaluate the impacts of NBS
Unknown
Evidence for use of assessment
Presence of an assessment, evaluation and/or monitoring process
Unknown
Presence of indicators used in reporting
No evidence in public records
Presence of monitoring/evaluation reports
No evidence in public records
Availability of a web-based monitoring tool
No evidence in public records
Impact assessment mechanism
Name of any specific impact assessment tools
unknown
Use of GIS in mapping impacts
No evidence in public records
Citizen involvement
Citizens involvement in assessment/evaluation
Unknown
Citizens involvement in the analysis of the assessment/evaluation
Unknown
Follow-up to the evaluation / assessment
Unknown
References
Web links relevant to the intervention
Dia Mundial da Árvore nas Escolas de Sintra.
Schools Tree Day
Costa planta uma árvore e lança a reforma da floresta
Sintra planta 284 árvores para celebrar dia mundial
List of references
1. Sintra Camara Municipal (2017), Dia Mundial da Árvore nas Escolas de Sintra, Available at http://www.cm-sintra.pt/dia-mundial-da-arvore-nas-escolas-de-sintra (Accessed 23-6-2020)
2. Sintra Camara Municipal. (2017), Dia Mundial da Arvore (Website not available in 2020)
3. EB1 de S. Pedro. (2016). Dia da Arvore (Website not available in 2020)
4. Uniao das Freguesias de Sintra. (2017). Dia Munidial da Arvore (Website not available in 2020)
5. Centro Ciencia Viva. Comemoração do Dia Mundial da Árvore (Website not available in 2020)
6. National Tree Day (2017) , Schools Tree Day Available at http://treeday.planetark.org/schools/index.cfm (Accessed 23-6-2020)

7. SAPO (2017), Costa planta uma árvore e lança a reforma da floresta. Renascenca, Available at http://rr.sapo.pt/noticia/78927/costa_planta_uma_arvore_e_lanca_a_reforma_da_floresta (Accessed 23-6-2020)

8.Sintra Camara Municipal (2018), Sintra planta 284 árvores para celebrar dia mundial, Available at https://cm-sintra.pt/atualidade/ambiente/sintra-planta-284-arvores-para-celebrar-dia-mundial (Accessed 9-8-2020)
Comments and notes
Additional insights
The Sintra Town Hall donated the trees and chose which school they will be planted in. (ref 1)
The World Tree network offers special resources for schools and institutions looking to participate, such as contact details to tree providers with discounts. (ref 6)
Pictures of the NBS
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