An interview with Marco Masi, Regione Toscana, on the importance of aligning national climate strategies with local realities and making participation a meaningful driver of planning.
How aligned are national strategies with local needs and what role does participation play in bridging the gap?
We put these questions to Marco Masi, Regione Toscana, who reflects on a recurring challenge: the misalignment between national and regional policies. While European frameworks increasingly require participatory processes, this obligation does not always translate effectively down to the territorial level. The Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces, he argues, represents a key space for maturation and capacity building, both at national and regional level.
For Masi, the ability to read the needs of the territory and of the people should be the very first competency developed by any public official, not merely as a procedural step in participatory processes, but as an enrichment tool for planning and design. Training public administration staff, from management to frontline officials, is therefore essential.
On political will, Masi notes that public administrations increasingly understand the strategic value of planning participation in advance, precisely to avoid social conflict and resistance to major public works. A concrete example: the Tuscany Water Protection Plan makes public participation not just an obligation, but an opportunity, embedding it as a core part of the programme drafting process.
Watch the full interview below.
Last Update
24/07/2026
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