Voluntary work opportunities

The city garden was a 2000 square meter large communal garden in Nuremberg Eberhardshof district that invites all citizens to take part in gardening and co-operating activities without any costs attached. The project was aimed at promoting sustainability for Nuremberg and the Bavarian region (1). The gardeners try to rely on a variety of different plants, even in their last season, they planted 35 tomatoes, 14 chili, ten potato, and twelve bean varieties alone. In 2013, a bee colony was also established. (7) The project had its last season in 2018, after which it had to be closed because of plans to create a district park in its area. (5) The city garden has established itself as an important leisure facility in Eberhardshof by offering, for example, cooking courses and training courses on tree pruning as well as numerous other topics. (6)

There have been different activities throughout the time to recover and improve the Malecon Botanical Garden. In 2012, the main activity was to recover the Malecon Botanical Garden by introducing a collection of Mediterranean species and of other ethnobotanicals plants and delivering some other environmental services to the location (Ref 1). In 2019, there were different works to rehabilitate the Garden for the September Fair, and also some other plans to create a cultural and artistic space within the Garden (Ref 10 and 11).
The project has completed its first stage, but there is an ongoing number of initiatives to rehabilitate and improve the garden (Ref 9 and 10).
Regarding the status of the project, the first stage has been completed, but an ongoing initiative to rehabilitate and improve the garden is taking place (Ref 9 and 10).

Wetlands provide a varying degree of treatment of discharged water and are ideally suited for the containment and treatment of polluted water runoff, being a holistic example of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS). The Dublin Local Authority installed an Integrated Constructed Wetland to treat polluted water discharged from the urban area, with the aim of cleaning urban runoff and drainage water. It was meant to purify water that discharges into a pond, and later on into the Tolka river. The project has been very successful in treating polluted water effectively, according to studies. (Ref. 1; Ref. 3)

From 1850 to 1956 the area Eskesberg was a limestone mine, after that up until 1972 it served as a landfill. When taken over by the city of Wuppertal, groundwater contamination and outgassing required a large remediation to remove toxic substances and recover the area according to nature conservation guidelines. (Ref. 8) Since 2005, it has been turned into a nature conservation area covering 8.5 ha where several rare plants and animals have resettled and thus the area also serves as an important recreational space for residents (Ref. 1, 2, and 3). The project was initiated by the local government, who also collaborate with different partners for maintaining the nature conservation area, such as the biological station, which organizes excursions, performs monitoring on the terrain and sets up bee hives. Also, residents apart from visiting the area can actively participate in its maintenance as volunteers, guided by the city of Wuppertal and the NGO Biologische Station Mittlere Wupper. Furthermore, the nature conservation association of Wuppertal and scientists from the university of Cologne are involved in the intervention by conducting research on the terrain (Ref. 1, 2, 3 and 6).

On 'De Roma', an old cinema that has been renovated into a theatre, a green roof of 650m2 was created which improves biodiversity and contributes to Antwerp's climate change adaptation (Ref. 1, 4). A bee house was also later installed on the roof (Ref. 2). The green roof is created by volunteers of De Roma and Kopspel, which is an organization that provides learning-working places for student of 'Deeltijds beroepssecundair onderwijs (Part-time Secondary Professional Education) and temporary employment for people that want to turn back to the labour market (Ref. 1).

Offord Road community garden is a place for the residents of West Reading (i.e. those who live, work, go to school in the area). Reading Borough Council set up the community garden (i.e. the green space) at the Oxford Road end of Western Elms Avenue through a grant called ‘Section 106’ (thus giving the site back to the community in 1996). (Ref. 1, 2, 7)

A project began in June 2017 to plant grass, flowers, trees, and shrubs on 10 hectares of “muddy spots”, or unused lands that were being eroded and increasing of dust particles in the city. The aim of the project was to improve the air quality and stop these muddy areas being used as unregulated parking spots. The project was initiated and is partly implemented by the municipality, while volunteers also took part in the initiative, brought together by the citizen group called When we Become 100 000 – we Will Plant a Forest. The project planned to use compost from the new composting facility in Sofia, which reuses food waste. (Ref. 1; Ref. 2)

‘Colorieten Hof’ is a community garden in which vegetables, herbs and flowers are grown sustainably. The garden is a social meeting place for elderly, neighborhood citizens and female immigrants who can learn Dutch and about Belgian culture (Ref. 1, 3).

In 2017, the municipality of Sintra approved the municipal Solidarity Gardens Program, which aims at enabling the inhabitants of Sintra to "value solidarity and, in some way, value natural resources" (ref.4).
This intervention aims to create small gardens in urban areas. Not only as a tool for subsistence for families in situations of social vulnerability but also to generate access to areas that tend to deteriorate, through correct management and profitability of resources. Eventually, the NBS aims to promote actions for the implementation of sustainable urban development, focused on strengthening family and local agriculture (1)

On the brownfield of an abandoned train station and its surrounding terrain, active citizens and neighbors developed Utopia town, a living lab for creative urban development, cultural and creative industries, and citizen engagement. Under the guiding principle “edible train station – edible town", next to other projects, an urban garden with organic cultivation was developed on 1,000 sqm of the terrain at the former train station Mirke as a focus area for their activities due to its favourable location in order to show that gardening is possible in urban spaces, even on balconies or terraces (Ref. 1, 2, and 3). The main building of the Utopiatown has a bar, a concert venue, a food sharing station, and a free bicycle lending service that is operated by volunteers. (Ref. 9). Gardening workshops that are offered to citizens with little experience of gardening are planned to be further extended with seminars and practice classes for students (Ref. 3). Since its beginning, the area of the “utopia town” has grown rapidly and is now providing opportunities for multidisciplinary academic research. (Ref. 12)