We Make Transition! project has concluded with successful initiatives in Vidzeme

The Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme project “Towards sustainable and resilient societies through empowered civil society and collaborative innovation” (We Make Transition!) has concluded. For three years, partners from Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Norway, and Poland tested and applied the innovative public participation method “Transition Arena.” The method helped find solutions to the region’s most pressing problems – climate change, biodiversity loss, and barriers to transforming the sustainable food system.

“Transition Arena” is a cycle of co-creation workshops where participants create a vision for the desired future, define pathways to achieve it, and develop concrete actions and initiatives. “Transition Arena” topics can vary – sustainable lifestyle, agriculture and food, biodiversity, circular and sharing economy. The method strengthens local community cohesion and promotes joint action by bringing together municipal, civil society, and business representatives to achieve common goals.

In Vidzeme in 2024, three co-creation workshops were implemented, gathering nearly 120 participants. Among them were change agents, entrepreneurs, farmers, politicians, representatives of state institutions, municipalities, educational and research institutions, associations, local organic food market organizers, and tourism businesses. The results of the co-creation workshops confirmed the method’s effectiveness – several concrete initiatives were created during them for the development of the Gauja National Park Bioregion and promotion of organic food consumption.

Some of the initiatives implemented in Vidzeme in 2024 and 2025:

1. The Cēsis Municipality pupils’ competition “My Bio Product Recipe for School Lunch” encouraged young people to think about including organic products in school menus and engaged them in discussions about healthy and sustainable diets.
2. A matchmaking event at the second Bioregion Forum in May 2025 in Cēsis facilitated direct cooperation between local organic product producers and catering service providers, creating short supply chains. This experience allowed identification of new directions for cooperation.
3. The educational event “Discover the Bioregion!” for primary school students in Cēsis, Sigulda, and Valmiera, with farm visits and an organic food workshop, promoted understanding of the value of local and organic products and responsible consumption from an early age.
4. Support for creating a unified Green Public Procurement (GPP) model in public catering, making it easier for municipalities and institutions to include organic products in public procurement.
5. A study visit for representatives of the Vidzeme Planning Region and Cēsis Municipality to Bremen, deepening insights into the Bremen bioregion’s operations and becoming acquainted with best practice examples in schools where the share of organic food in meals reaches up to 90%.

One of the project’s results is a manual for practical application of the “Transition Arena” method, which compiles the method’s main elements and the experience gained in the We Make Transition! project both in Vidzeme and partner countries. Meanwhile, the principles of “Transition Arena” and the project’s experience can also be explored in a simple summary format in a transition arena guide.