Are traditional urban greening actions compliant with the European Greening Plans guidance?

The Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, embedded in the European Green Deal, is a key policy agenda promoted by the European Commission to protect nature and biodiversity. This strategy sets ambitious goals to protect and restore ecosystems, halt biodiversity decline, and improve monitoring and governance efforts. Notably, municipalities with at least 20,000 inhabitants are now invited to develop comprehensive Urban Greening Plans (UGP). To support this process, the European Commission has recently released a draft guidance document that provides step-by-step assistance in creating long-term UGPs. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 European cities to evaluate what kind of UGPs have already been developed and assess compliance with the European guidelines. The findings reveal that many cities have already developed greening or sustainability plans, although certain crucial steps are still lacking to ensure the long-term success of UGPs. These include securing political commitment, establishing a working structure, fostering cross-departmental collaboration, and addressing limitations in human and financial resources. Typically, greening strategies are implemented within broader sustainability initiatives such as climate adaptation or biodiversity strategy. Among the interviewed cities, four cities are in the process of developing a comprehensive greening plan that integrates various policy goals and strategies according to the European guidelines. Setting policy targets and monitoring the current state of nature and biodiversity emerged as the most challenging step due resource limitations. Finding suitable areas for greening in rapidly developing and densely populated cities was cited as a primary barrier to implementing UGPs. To accelerate the implementation of comprehensive UGPs, there is a need for more coherent financial and legislative support at both the EU and national levels.