Before the local elections in April 2024, we launched the We Ask About Green campaign, encouraging people to ask candidates questions about environmental issues. It engaged around 340 people from all over Poland. After the elections, we continued to support the participants.
Who is the action for?
We dedicate this action to local environmental activists from all over Poland. We especially encourage people from small and medium-sized municipalities to ask about green. Follow Action’s Facebook profile, where we post the latest events.
What did we ask about before the elections?
Some of the questions that participants asked candidates before the elections were:
- What measures do you intend to take so that our municipality makes greater use of renewable energy sources?
- What measures do you intend to take to make municipal buildings more energy efficient?
- How will you encourage residents to manage rainwater more sustainably and save water?
- How do you plan to make our municipality greener?
We have prepared a practical guide on local environmental action for participants available in Polish.
Download our guide and ask about green!
Webinars and practical guides
After the election, we developed a new set of activities. We are organising a series of webinars and publishing guidebooks for local activists. We invite experts and practitioners to each event to encourage a dialogue between active residents and the local government. In this series, we plan to organise four webinars about sustainable water management, spatial planning reform in Poland, forms of nature conservation, and the Green Deal. The preparation of practical guidelines will follow each of the discussions.
Sustainable water management for flood protection and drought prevention (16.10.2024)
During the meeting, we discussed managing rainwater in our environment to better cope with climate change. We introduced the institutions responsible for water management in Poland and their competencies. Additionally, we discussed how to effectively initiate a dialogue with municipalities for more sustainable water management. Dr Iwona Wagner, an expert in sustainable water management, and Paweł Dąbrowski, responsible for water management at the Rumia City Hall, shared their knowledge on these topics.
We worked on the example of the challenges faced by the Association Ekipa z Bagien, active participants in our campaign. The association strives to preserve a wetland in the centre of Ostróda city as a natural retention zone, a biodiversity hotspot friendly to people and nature. Their experience has given us a better understanding of how to act locally for more sustainable rainwater management.
Reform of the planning and zoning system. Protecting environmentally valuable areas with the use of the municipality’s general plan. (5.12.2024, 10:00-12:00)
The Polish spatial planning system reform obliges municipalities to introduce a General Plan by the end of 2025. During the webinar, we discussed new spatial planning tools, how to get involved in creating new planning documents, and how the General Plans can protect valuable natural areas and river valleys and preserve important ecological corridors. Dr Leszek Trząski, Chairman of the Municipal Urban Planning and Architectural Commission in Gliwice and Deputy Director of the Silesian Botanic Garden in Mikołów, showed solutions for rainwater retention implemented in the municipality general plan for Mikołów. Agnieszka Czachowska, an expert from the Sendzimir Foundation, explained how citizens can engage in the establishment of those documents.
Guide: We ask for green – spatial planning reform
Many municipalities in Poland have started to collect submissions to the municipality’s general plans. We have published a short online guide in Polish, from which you can learn how to make your voice heard and protect areas of natural value. In the guide, you will find the key changes following the 2023 planning and zoning reform and practical information on how to get involved.
Download our guide and submit your plan application!
Forms of nature protection – what function do they have in climate change adaptation? How can we get involved? (17.03.2025, 10:00-12:00)
Polish law offers many possibilities for nature protection, including areas crucial for climate change adaptation. During the webinar, we discussed these possibilities and shared insights on how local authorities can be mobilised for active nature protection. Our guests: Andrzej Ginalski (WWF Polska), Sabina Lubaczewska and Magdalena Berezowska-Niedźwiedź (Fundacja EkoRozwoju), and Magdalena Krzosek-Hołody (Fundacja Puszka) discussed ways we can participate in widening the scope of nature protection in our environments with special focus on protecting trees.
Biodiversity – from Nature Restoration Law to your own garden. How to create dialog with the municipality on green space management that supports biodiversity? How to support it in your own garden? (16.04.2025, 10:00-12:00)
During the webinar we will focus on the topic of biodiversity. What is it? Why is it so important? And what can we do to support it in our environment? We will discuss international policies like Nature Restoration Law that set the direction for action in this area. We will talk about how they can influence local initiatives. Katarzyna Przyjemska-Grzesik will talk about involving residents in decision-making processes so as to support biodiversity in the municipality. Mariusz Antolak will share tips on how to increase biodiversity in our local environment.
Register for the webinar!
We Ask About Green academy
On 6-8 November 2024, we conducted a workshop for the Action participants in 2024. We met in Warsaw’s Praga district.
The purpose of the workshop
During the workshop, we provided local activists with knowledge in three thematic areas:
- air quality,
- water and greenery, and
- waste management.
A second key objective of the training was to support skills related to working with local government, residents’ activity and designing practical actions. During the workshop, participants analysed environmental situations in their municipalities. In the end, they had the opportunity to develop a grant proposal.
Workshop programme
- Ilona Gosk introduced participants to the competencies of local government regarding environmental issues and presented the processes by which residents and representatives of non-governmental organisations can become involved.
- Agnieszka Czachowska showed good examples of solutions supporting blue and green infrastructure.
- Participants could ask Sabina Paciorek from Skawina Municipality practical questions about implementing air protection measures.
- Ewa Chodkiewicz shared several good practices in sustainable waste management.
- During a practical guided tour with Tomasz Niewczas, participants discussed how to manage biodiversity hotspots, using Fosa Park in Warsaw as an example.
- Karolina Maliszewska dived into the topic of effective project design and innovation implementation. A tool from the VISIS kit called Amoeba was used to aid participants.
- The event was coordinated by Anna Bucka and photographed by Magdalena Niezabitowska-Krogulec.
Watch a video presenting the VISIS method and examples of its use in Poland and around the world:
The Sendzimir Foundation coordinates the action, which is financed by the Polish-American Freedom Foundation and the European Climate Foundation.
