Green space and habitat

The Lama Balice Nature Park is located near a long 'lama', which is a deep karst gorge, located north of the city of Bari. Established in an abandoned site, the nature park protects the area of the riverbed in the periphery of the city, acting as a natural channel for regulating water flow. It also serves as a recreational and cultural hub, while conserving agricultural functions and maintaining biodiversity. An administrative body consisting of the participating local mayors has been set up to manage the protected area. [1][2]

The "Oasis for Children" project, implemented in Zagreb, is based on the experience of implementing non-institutional education in 5 primary schools in Zagreb. The main objective of the project is to promote the principles of healthy lifestyles, environmental protection, sustainable development and volunteering among pupils of partner primary schools. Throughout the year, students will be educated outdoors in school gardens, on environmental protection, sustainable development, healthy lifestyles and volunteerism. Students will also work on the garden for the opportunity of practising the knowledge gained from the regular education system. Every academic year, new primary schools are added to the project with the increased popularity of the school gardens [Ref 1]

The Square Metre for Butterflies project was initiated by the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh (RBGE), in partnership with the Butterfly Conservation Trust, as an Edinburgh Living Landscape network membership activity. By planting relatively small-sized patches of caterpillar food plants on the roofs of mainly office buildings, the aim of the project is to enhance green roofs in order to increase their value for biodiversity, and for native butterflies in particular. Office buildings in Edinburgh’s city centre are targeted because of their location close to Arthur’s Seat hill, which is the natural habitat of Edinburgh’s butterflies. [ref 1]

The John Muir Pollinator Way is an initiative by the NGO Buglife to create and restore pollinator habitats along a 215 km long-distance active travel route – The John Muir Way – across the densely populated central belt of Scotland. The John Muir Pollinator Way is the first B-Line ‘pathway’ in Scotland and stretches from Helensburgh in the west to Dunbar in the east (Emilie). It is an ambitious project given the length (215 km) of this pathway. It connects nine different local authorities and 40 km of the total length falls within the Edinburgh local authority area (Burgess, 2016). This not only serves to halt the process of declining pollinator numbers providing crucial ecosystem services, but also helps people to connect with nature. Between July 2015 and March 2017, project partners and volunteers have transformed 19 sites into species-rich grassland. [ref 1]

After 2011, in the face of crisis and austerity hardship and the collapse of the central public welfare system, many municipalities assumed the role of enhancing food production through urban allotment gardens. In Ag. Dimitrios (AD), the idea emerged from a couple of newly elected representatives one of whom was part of an agriculture cooperative outside of Athens. A mixture of social and environmental goals were set (to change the microclimate, to change people's habits, to reintroduce contact with nature in the city, to be environment-friendly through good practices, and to create an educational ground for children). [1]

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) is a project finalised in 2016 and “handed over” through a public/private partnership scheme, from the foundation/donor to the Greek state. The site hosts the National Library of Greece and the Greek National Opera in a 170,000 sq m landscaped park. The SNFCC's objective is to restore Greece's image and become a global role model of environmental sustainability. The project is committed to a range of educational and cultural activities, which have been provided for free. It also claims flood-regulating functions, air quality improvement impacts and shade provision, among others. [1]

The Roerplein pocket garden was a Neighborhood Green Plan project. The Neighborhood Green Plans were an initiative of Utrecht Municipality to support the bottom-up 'greening' of its neighbourhoods. Citizens could propose a variety of often quite small-scaled plans that enhance the neighbourhood by means of green spaces that promote social cohesion and thereby community identity. At the Roerplein, a public square was transformed into a green square by way of a participatory process, assisted by a social entrepreneur. The project aimed to reduce heat stress, enhance social cohesion and the attractiveness of the neighbourhood, promote biodiversity and support recreation (ref. 1).

The Tree Strategy is a municipal action plan in progress, aiming to address some of the main sustainability challenges described in the Environmental Program of Malmö City. Its main relations to sustainability challenges include improved health and well-being, decrease differences in those among different social groups and increase biodiversity. The Strategy includes a range of possibilities for evaluating its ecological and social success (ref. 1).

Initiated by the City Administration, NGOs and citizen groups, public funds have in recent years been used alongside partnerships with local businesses, landowners and citizen initiatives to invigorate the East Quarter. This initiative was proposed through the redesign, extension and new development of parks, greening and communal use of vacant plots, the establishment of new urban forests, the setting up of new communal gardens, and the planning and partial implementation of a green corridor for cyclists and pedestrians.
Within this large project, three NBS areas actively contributed to the improvement of the Quarter: Querbeet, Bunte Gärten and Parkbogen Ost (1).
Querbeet is a community garden in the Eastern district of Leipzig, formed in 2012. The garden is lead by democratic self-governance principles where the focus is on shared space, with a focus on enhancing cultural interactions and encouraging active citizenship (1). Since 2017, the plot of the garden has reduced, however, the non-profit organisation formed two new gardens: a community garden and a school garden where environmental education the main activity (2)
Bunten Garten (Colorful Garden) is a community garden and registered refugee aid association that aims to bring residents and refugees together (3) The garden was revived in 2015, and since offers opportunities for recreation, wellbeing and informal support to refugee families (1).
Parkbogen Ost is a scheme focusing on developing unused railway tracks as an arch-shaped, green mobility corridor running along the perimeters of much of Leipzig’s East Quarter and connecting the quarter’s green spaces and providing easier access, by foot or bike, to the city centre as well as to surrounding areas. (1, 4)

Initially the park was created in 1903 as a summer residence for the royal family and had a no-visitor’s policy. For over 40 years the park collected 821 trees, shrub and, grass species from all over the world on less than 100 ha. After the estate was given back to the successors of Tsar Boris III, they partially donated the park to Sofia municipality and in 2013 the park-museum ‘Vrana’ was opened for visitors. Due to its rare species, well-preserved wilderness and historical significance, the park enjoys great interest from tourists as well as scientists as a biodiversity hotspot. (Ref 1)