The social economy and the management of green infrastructure

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The Operational Programme for North West Europe recognises that the quality of places and environmental and cultural assets is important for creating strong and prosperous communities. Europe's green & blue infrastructure (nature sites. parks. open space. woodlands & waterways etc.) forms an important part of these assets. which is often managed by local authorities or other public agencies. With the current financial crisis however there is increasing pressure on public sector funds. Therefore new. more cost-effective models for resource management need to be developed. An opportunity for doing this is through increased involvement of the social economy in resource management via not-for-profit organisational structures. Such an approach can have the added benefits of achieving greater involvement of local stakeholders with the resource & delivering social outcomes. such as employment for disadvantaged groups. The aim of G&BF is to develop a strategic framework for doing this in an effective way that can be promoted throughout North West Europe with the aim of widening adoption of such approaches. Lessons learnt through the project will also feed into furthering European policy (particularly Europe 2020) and input to future delivery of the European structural funds. The project will also develop an approach for assessing the benefits of such schemes. by relating cost savings to the publci sector (through the more efficient management of the infrastructure) to the wider benefits delivered to society (through. for example. increased employment amongst target beneficiary groups). Finally the project aims to develop opportunities for transnational labour mobility both for social entrepreneurs and for stakeholders and beneficiaries of schemes.

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