Campobasso, Italy, 16th of June 2025
Local Action Group (GAL) Molise, together with 10 partners forming a consortium of 8 countries, has officially launched the Green B-LEAF: Green Participatory Budgeting for Local Environmental Action and Sustainable Future. Green B-LEAF empowers rural Mediterranean communities to drive climate adaptation and sustainability through Green Participatory Budgeting (Green PB). By equipping municipalities and residents with data-driven tools and methodologies, the project fosters community-led climate action. Through collaboration across 8 countries, Green B-LEAF develops and pilots tailored budgeting frameworks, enhances institutional capacity, and promotes community ownership. Outputs include a Green PB methodology, Green Budget Tagging toolkit, pilot projects, and a transnational knowledge-sharing network. The project integrates New European Bauhaus values and ensures long-term impact through community engagement and policy alignment.
The overall Green B-LEAF objective is to enhance climate resilience and sustainability in rural Mediterranean communities through participatory budgeting and data-driven planning. The project therefore addresses challenges such as low community participation in climate planning and budgeting in rural areas; environmental degradation and limited adaptive capacity, lack of tools for assessing the climate impact of local budgets, disconnection between data and local decision-making, and a need for tailored, inclusive, and practical policy tools in small municipalities.
Adolfo Fabrizio Colagiovanni, Green B-LEAF Manager, stated: “Green B-LEAF is a unique opportunity to empower rural communities across the Mediterranean to shape their climate-resilient future. By combining participatory budgeting with climate adaptation, we’re giving citizens a direct voice in building greener, healthier places to live.”
Marko Paunovic, OTB Europe, has noted that “Through Green B-LEAF, we are not just communicating about climate action — we are creating spaces where every resident can become an active participant in local green transformations. Our mission is to make sustainability accessible, inclusive, and democratic for all.”
The Green B-LEAF project has been funded by the Interred Euro-MED Programme of the European Union, and is lead by GAL Molise Verso il 2000 (Italy), in collaboration with Municipalities of Faro (Portugal), Vodnjan (Croatia), Sandanski (Bulgaria), Strumica (North Macedonia), Pilea-Hortiatis (Greece), Quart de Poblet (Spain) and Beltinci (Slovenia), supported by OTB Europe (Portugal), Center for Climate Change and Promo Idea (North Macedonia).
For more information, please consult the Green B-LEAF Website: https://greenb-leaf.interreg-euro-med.eu/
