As a part of the Nature and Cities Project, in the framework of “Civil Society Dialogue Between EU and Turkey Grant Scheme (CSD-V), lead by Eurosite’s newest member from Turkey the Nature Conservation Centre (DKM), Eurosite took the representatives of the Municipality of Tilburg to a study visit to Turkey. This visit followed the visit of the Turkish delegation to Tilburg earlier this year.

During a week-long visit the Dutch participants had an opportunity to: visit an organic farm in the surroundings of Ankara and hear about the work the Municipality of Çankaja is doing on supporting the organic farmers, including by providing a free market place for their products; see some valuable nature areas in and around the city; visit several of the city parks; meet the deputy Mayor of the Municipality and the Ministry of Environment and exchange ideas on the urban green infrastructure related work in both countries; visit the university and hear a lecture about the history of the urban planning in Ankara followed by giving a short inspiring message to the Turkish first year architecture students on what they could do in bringing nature and architecture closer together. On the final day of the visit a short workshop was organised to collect some ideas for future cooperation projects and to scope the interest of possible partners.