Inclusive governance

Danang, a prosperous port city in Central Vietnam, is home to a population of 1.2 million inhabitants. Throughout the years, the city went through several boats of urbanization, which allowed its economy to thrive but its environment to be negatively impacted. The city's green areas were reduced, leading to socioeconomic and environmental impacts, including loss of landscape and more energy consumption. (4) Furthermore, the city became vulnerable to natural disasters, which caused destruction and uprooting of trees and vegetation and aggravated soil erosion. (3,4)
To counteract many of these issues, the municipality of Danang initiated several greening activities that included the creation of parks, the greening of street alleys, and the greening of schoolyards as a supporting mechanism for one of Vietnam's nationwide programmes "Plant 1 billion trees in the 2021 - 2025" (5). Recently, the municipality planted 900 Than Mat trees (one of the typical flowering plants of Son Tra Peninsula and scientifically known as Millettia nigrescens Gagnep) along the route from Green Lake to Bai Bac, in the Tho Quang ward, in February 2023. The activity also aims to have an educational role as tree protection is highlighted and build a clean and green city environment (6).
So far, as of February 2023, as part of the 1 billion tree programme, 15,000 trees have been planted in Danang. (2)

Kota Malang is a city for which urbanization coupled with climate change caused an increase in its vulnerability to the urban heat island effect. One of the solutions found to address this issue has been urban farming which has been recognised and acknowledged as a top strategy to improve cities' resilience associated with social and economic co-benefit. Nevertheless, urban farming inventory in Indonesia is still limited (1). Currently, there are 21 urban farming plots throughout Kota Malang, with 210 active urban farmers involved. The city has adopted this trend since 2013 as part of an initiative called Kawasan Rumah Pangan Lestari (Sustainable Food House Region) and the Initiative of Urban Farming Malang. Alongside the local government, the major stakeholder groups are the Department of Agriculture and Food Security of Malang, Family Welfare Empowerment (PKK) Malang and Bank Indonesia (BI) (Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, which supports the local government in construction and development in Malang.
In Kota Malang, urban farming comprises five types of urban farming: nursery, allotment, residential, institutional and rooftop farming based on its characteristics (1). A recent report showed that urban farming could contribute to community resilience for feeding potential and nutrient sufficiency, especially for targeted populations with the highest risk during emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In the case of Kota Malang, the cultivation of specific vegetables could feed up to 50,000 inhabitants aged 60-64 years old (1, 2).

The frequent and severe floods that many cities in Lao PDR have been experiencing are causing a significant impact on the livelihood of local and vulnerable communities. To address the issues of flood and climate events, the Green Climate Fund has provided funding for the Lao DPR government to initiate the 'Build Resilience of Urban Populations with Ecosystem-Based Solutions in Lao DPR' project. The Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment of Lao, in collaboration with other related departments, universities, and provincial governments, is leading this project. The funding was approved in 2019, and the project is set to conclude by 2025. The project consists of four sub-projects, which will be implemented in four cities, including Paksan, Vientiane, Savannakhet, and Pakse. One of the sub-projects involves rehabilitating the Nong Peung wetland in Paksan city, which currently has no management plan and is negatively impacted by human activities and has been degraded in certain aspects. Natural vegetation has been lost in parts of the wetland, invasive alien plants are encroaching, and the natural water flow has been disrupted in places. The objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive management plan for Nong Peung wetland and implement various nature-based solutions to improve the ecosystem. This will involve removing invasive alien plant species, eliminating human-made barriers that obstruct natural flow, and planting appropriate native species. Currently, the project is in the planning stage with relevant stakeholders to determine the physical implementation site. (Ref.1,2,3)

The Project 'JIWA Community Garden' is a place to gather, garden, and learn and is located in Canggu, closer to Denpasar City in Bali (1,2,3). The project was founded in 2020 by three friends (citizens) and was developed on about 4500m2 of previously unused land (1,2,3). Jiwa Community Garden has set an example of how unused land can be turned into a fully functional composting facility, productive organic gardens, and a learning center for Permaculture gardening practices, all under one roof (1,2,3). It also welcomes all workawayer/volunteers and other local groups and expats to participate and contribute to activities for community engagement and learning (1,2,3). This project has created a positive impact, and still further plans to develop sub-projects like Permaculture gardening schools and a co-working space cafe open to the public (2,4).

Revitalizing Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE) is one of the pilot projects carried out in the Batua neighbourhood (1.9 km2 area) of Makassar City (119 km2 area), province of South Sulawesi in Indonesia, which was commenced in 2017 and concluded in 2022 (1,2,3). Batua neighbourhood (six settlements of around 1,600 people) was the first demonstration site for this project which was completed in 2019 (3,4,5). The main challenge was that many households who lived in informal settlements lacked access to centralized urban infrastructure and faced threats from climate change (3,4). The project was proposed to reduce the impact of climate change on marginalized communities in Makassar by providing localized, water-sensitive interventions that addressed issues related to sanitation and water management (1,2,3,4). The introduction of water-sensitive solutions enabled targeted communities to recycle wastewater and rainwater, restore natural waterways, improve water quality, and reduce vulnerability to flooding (3,4). The RISE program initiative integrated nature-based solutions like wetland restoration, bio-filtration gardens (the process of using beneficial bacteria to clean water on a molecular level to remove contaminants), stormwater harvesting, filtration paths and new sanitation structures to improve wastewater management and diversify water resources through community-driven development (1,2,3,4).

Indonesia’s peatlands are among the most vulnerable ecosystems on Earth and also have significant potential as carbon sinks (1,2). Fire risk in Sumatra's peatland areas is high due to canals that were dug for logging and plantation development (1,2). The Sumatra Merang Peatland Project was thus launched to restore the area as the massive forest fire in 2015 destroyed thousands of hectares of biodiverse tropical forest (1). This project includes restoring more than 22,900 hectares of peatland rainforest in the Merang region, located within Musi Banyuasin Province, South Sumatra in Indonesia (1,2,3). The project targets the Merang biodiversity corridor, one of the largest and deepest peat swamps in South Sumatra, which protects an area more than 3.5 times the size of Manhattan (New York City) (1,2,3). This project is a part of the Althelia Climate Fund and was implemented on the ground by Indonesian Companies named PT Global Alam Lestari (GAL) and Forest Carbon (1,2,3,4,5). The project aims and contributes to climate change mitigation and ecosystem resilience by peat rewetting and reforestation, protecting biodiversity and working with local communities to build and improve livelihoods (1,3).
The first stage of the project is considered completed and is considered to achieve positive impacts already, but it still aims to upscale certain activities until 2025 (3,4,5). The total lifetime of the project extends to 2062 (4).

The ‘City of 1,000 Tanks’ project offers a holistic solution to the problems of floods, water scarcity and pollution in Chennai (Ref. 1). The project's primary objective is to develop a "Water Balance Model" for the city, which involves collecting rainwater, treating wastewater and runoff pollution with decentralized nature-based solutions, as well as prevent climate-change-induced droughts and saline intrusion due to sea-level rise (Ref. 1, 2). This is achieved through developing various nature-based water management solutions and improving the recharge capacity of traditional temple tanks (Ref 1).
The project began in 2018, following the call for action event of the "Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities Asia" (a bilateral program spanning several Asian countries). The Water Balance Model is developed as a strategy with an incremental implementation process (Ref 1, 2). The project started with pilot projects and then progressed to flagship projects before full city-wide implementation (Ref. 3).

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its partners collaborated in 2018 to develop an ecosystem restoration project in the Rohingya Camps of Ukhiya, near Cox's Bazar. The main objective of this project was to mitigate the increased risk of landslides, slope instability, and flooding caused by flash floods and the vicinity of the Bakkhali River. The intervention included the planting of quickly growing native trees, shrubs, and grass species. Additionally, the project encompassed other measures such as vegetable cultivation on stream beds, biological soil stabilization methods, and plant-based wastewater treatments. To ensure the sustainability of the project, a network of future practitioners from the Bangladeshi and Rohingya communities was created. Moreover, environmental education and awareness activities were undertaken to complement the efforts of the project, with a particular focus on engaging young people from both the host and refugee communities to maximize its impact. The area where the project was implemented has been significantly affected by land and forest degradation over the last few decades, which has been exacerbated since the arrival of Rohingya refugees in 2017. Therefore, the project also involved other stakeholders such as the International Center for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Danish Refugee Council, the World Food Programme, the International Organization for Migration, and the Bangladesh government, each contributing in various capacities to achieve the project's objectives. (1,2,3,4)

The Community Garden Project was proposed in 2018 by Samyuktha Kannan (a resident of Chennai City) to the Resident Welfare Association (RWA), which is a non-governmental organization (NGO) of Kasturba Nagar (1,2,3). The RWA uses the community hall of a public park of Kasturba Nagar to host meetings and community events, but the area was surrounded by open dry land and an unmanaged field (1,2). This open area surrounding the community hall was then assigned to develop a community garden of 1500 square feet (1,2,3). This project aimed to serve as a shared garden place to bring along residents of all age groups to enjoy gardening and simultaneously create opportunities to learn and share knowledge through social engagement and reconnect with nature (1,2). Although implemented and completed in 2019, the project still continues to contribute towards sustainability through further development and introduction of eco-friendly elements and activities, as well as the involvement of various stakeholders for support (3,4).