Create new habitats

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]

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).

‘I have a bee’ (IHAB) is an organisation for hobby beekeepers. It contributes to a sustainable and long-term solution to the bee colony collapse phenomenon by popularizing bee keeping as a hobby. It was founded by 3 hobbyist beekeepers back in 2014. The idea originated from their passion for beekeeping and the desire to breed and keep bees as pets. The group has engaged in research about the roots of traditional beekeeping and designed a new top bar hive which has the advantage of being usable in backyards or on city terraces. (Ref 1) Their 1,000,000 beehive initiative aims to ignite 1,000,000 people around the world to watch at least one beehive. (Ref 3) No information found on status of project as of September 2020.

The idea of beekeeping originated from AUDI AG, Audi Hungaria's parent company. In 2015, Audi Hungaria was in the midst of implementing its flora and fauna protection plan thus the beekeeping idea was in line with ongoing developments, and was quickly taken up by management. 6 bee colonies with 270,000 bees were installed in September 2015. The bees produce 200-240 kilograms of honey each year, which is branded as Audi Hungaria Premium Honey, and gifted to visitors, as well as purchasable in the gift shop. The income is used for nature conservation programmes. The company also cooperates with the University of Sopron in a biomonitoring project which uses the bees as bioindicators of environmental pollution. (Reference 1)

Revitalization of a large urban park in the Walle and Gröpelingen districts of Bremen. The current park constitutes a neglected area of the former port and shipyards sites with around 4,000 small garden parcels.The local government consulted with numerous societal actors the envisioned project, which aims at the revitalization of the park's both green and blue infrastructure. The goal of the intervention is to create a large recreational park for the districts of Walle and Gröpelingen, which will improve the image of the districts, help with their economic revitalization and provide sustainable practices for urban green care and community gardening (Ref. 2, 3). "Between September 2017 and September 2020, the Green West of Bremen was the focus of the federally funded project "Green Urban Labs" (Ref. 5). As of 2020, "Several of these building blocks have already been started or implemented and have led to an improvement in the cooperation between the actors on site, to an upgrading of the infrastructure and biotopes as well as to an increase in the popularity of the previously rather unknown area" (Ref. 5).

Creation of the social garden by a coalition of multiple social actors in Bremen (citizens, NGOs, public institutions). The initiative was a self-organized grassroots project for urban development that aims at the creation of the green urban area for sustainable gardening and sustainable solutions. The project involved greenery plantings, growing vegetables and herbs, assembly of beehives, organization of educational and cultural events and workshops (Ref. 1, 4).

A private investment project that aimed to create a new building complex in the Findorff district of Bremen and build two large residential buildings "Münchner Bogen" and "Findorffer Tor" with green roofs on top. The green roofing of the buildings was influenced by the local actors - the alliance "Green Bremen" and the advisory board of the Findorff Council. The initiative aimed to contribute to sustainable urban development by the positive impact on biodiversity, rainwater retention, improved local air quality and provision of natural thermoregulation for the buildings (Ref. 1, 2, 3).

The project of building 100 butterfly booths in different locations of the city developed by BUND Bremen in cooperation with the Botanical Garden, Stadtgrün Bremen and implemented jointly with the citizens. The project additionally involved plantings of flowers and educational activities. It aimed at increasing biodiversity, increasing the protection of the endangered butterfly species as well as providing care instructions for the care of butterflies for the residents of Bremen (Ref. 2, 3).

A city-wide initiative for the protection of bees developed by the BUND Bremen together with a number of local NGOs, local government and the citizens of Bremen. The project involved the planting of trees and wildflowers that will serve as a food for pollinators in different parts of the city as well as the provision of additional nesting places for the bees. It aims to protect the endangered bee species, increase biodiversity and beautify the city with the new plantings (Ref. 2, 3).