The Province of Latina (Italy), lead partner of the ENI CBC MED NAWAMED project and coordinator of the Environmental Contracts of its territory, organized a remote event entitled "Presentation of the progress of the Environmental Contracts of the Province of Latina". The event, realized in collaboration with the Interreg Med TUNE UP project, took place on June 28^th, 2022. 

The aim of the workshop was to present the nine Environmental Contract processes currently active in the provincial area, identifying funding opportunities and discussing perspectives to start synergies and collaborations. 

Environmental Contracts, including those of rivers, lakes, and coasts, are forms of voluntary agreements, related to the negotiated strategic planning, which foresee a broad participation of local stakeholders in order to identify a shared Action Program, aimed at addressing the environmental problems, according to an integrated and multidisciplinary logic. 

Fig. 1 - Riviera of Ulysses – Latina - Italy

The Province of Latina, implementing the European Water Framework Directive 60/2000, has devoted increasing attention to the issue of the environmental protection and redevelopment of its territory, and since 2003 it has been promoting and developing a system of environmental planning based on collaborative principles and integrating different ordinary and pact instruments. 

The first result was the Environmental Redevelopment Program (PRA), drafted as part of the European Life+ REWETLAND project. This commitment allowed the Province to strengthen its institutional, technical and strategic capacities, which then followed up on the process initiated by promoting the activation of Environmental Contracts, negotiated and participatory planning tools aimed at the containment of eco-landscape degradation and the redevelopment of watershed territories, and by coordinating through the EU project LIFE GREENCHANGE the definition of the Biodiversity Pact, an instrument aimed at enhancing green infrastructure through the involvement of key players in the agricultural sector. Subsequently, following the introduction of River Contracts in the regional norm, the Province of Latina also with its own resources has committed to support several Environmental redevelopment processes. As a result, the Province of Latina was able to capitalize on the experience of the past few years in water protection in the ENI CBC MED NAWAMED project launched in 2019.

In this event Fabio Zaccarelli, NAWAMED project manager for the province of Latina illustrated the project activities and objective highlighting the potentiality to replicate and integrate the proposed solutions into the Environmental contracts’ ongoing processes with the aim to take advance of the NAWAMED good practices present in NAWAMED in the field of the Nature Based Solutions. 
Several the institutions attending the meeting, representing all the environmental contracts of the territories, for sharing the ongoing activities, results, objectives and networking for future common initiatives. 

In particular the event was attended by:

• Fabio Zaccarelli, PM of the NAWAMED project
• Sandro Esposito - Province of Latina for the Agro Pontino Coastal Contract;
• Lola Fernandez - Municipality of Sezze for the Ufente River Contract;
• Onorato Nardacci - XIII Monti Lepini and Ausoni Mountain Community for the Amaseno River Contract;
• Romina D'Ascanio - University of RomaTre, Department of Architecture for Ventotene and S. Stefano Islands Protected Marine Area Contract;
• Claudio Costa - Gustavo Brunelli Research Institute, for the Lake Paola Contract;
• Alessio Valente - University of Sannio for the Rio Capodacqua S. Croce River Contract.

The discussion was focused on identifying new fundings and opportunities to strengthen synergies and collaboration among local institutions to maximize the impact of the projects operating on the same area. 
The participants showed interest in NAWAMED, and they accepted to be involved during the future project activities with the aim to foster capacity building toward a common strategy for regeneration and efficient use of the natural sources, facing the water scarcity criticality.