Implementation of specific programs to address the needs of these communities

Terres Sainville is one of Fort-de-France's priority neighborhoods, known for the precarious living conditions of its residents and the prevalence of illicit activities. Many plots of land in the area have been abandoned and are used as informal dumpsites. In response, the City of Fort-de-France developed the "Jaden Lanmou" (Garden of Love) program, which aims to revitalize neglected spaces across the city’s 145 neighborhoods, Terres Sainville being one of them.
With support from the Terres Sainville town hall, neighborhood associations (such as the Terres Sainville Citizens' Council and local schools), and the Ypiranga Martinique association, the community has been working to transform these wastelands into shared gardens. Since 2021, Ypiranga has created 10 productive gardens, designing each based on the land's configuration, soil quality, and the preferences of local residents, including options for market gardening, medicinal plants, fruit trees, and above-ground containers (Ref 1; 7).
This initiative prioritizes the development of city-owned land and strategic transit sites, while also encouraging private landowners to maintain their abandoned plots or share them with the community. Additionally, the program seeks to enhance existing flowerbeds, create new ones, and incorporate artistic elements like street art and graffiti. Public meeting spaces are being developed to foster community interaction.
The city aims to involve residents by providing equipment, training, workshops, and advice on best practices. Ultimately, neighborhood representatives and residents will be responsible for maintaining these new communal spaces and ensuring they are respected (Ref 2).

The "Active Recreational Green Area Development at Horváth-tető" in Miskolc is a project aimed at revitalizing a central yet underutilized urban space, commissioned by the Municipality of Miskolc in 2017. A distinctive feature of Miskolc is the Avas hill, located in the city center, which beautifully blends nature with urban elements. Despite its potential, the area had been neglected, particularly following the decline of vineyard culture and the reduced use of old wine cellars. To address this, a comprehensive development plan was initiated to rejuvenate the Avas region, with Horváth-tető at its core.
The project aimed to transform the area into an outdoor recreational hub for all age groups. The hill's historic terraces, once popular promenades, were repurposed into distinct, multifunctional spaces. Sports enthusiasts can enjoy facilities such as street workout stations, an outdoor gym, a skate park, a climbing wall, and parkour elements. For those looking to relax, picnic areas, sunbathing spots, and a retro-style terrace are available. The entire development prioritizes accessibility, providing inclusive options for visitors with mobility challenges.
The park also features significant landscaping, including the planting of trees, shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses, and ferns, enhancing its overall appeal. Infrastructure improvements were made, including the restoration of stairs, paths, retaining walls, and the rainwater drainage system. A special shallow basin was designed to collect rainwater and support plant roots while also serving as a playful area for dogs within the dog park.
Since its opening in 2022, the park has become a popular destination, offering a tranquil escape in a beautiful setting. It provides a wide range of recreational opportunities for people of all ages, making it a valuable addition to Miskolc’s urban landscape and connecting the historical Avas hill with modern city life.(Ref.1,2)

The Jardim do Caracol da Penha project transformed a vacant urban area into a community garden and recreational space in Lisbon. Initially planned as a parking lot, the project was reimagined by local residents, led by Rita Vieira Cruz, and submitted to the Participatory Budget in 2016, garnering over 9,000 votes (Ref 2). The one-hectare garden connects the Arroios and Penha de França parishes and features leisure areas, an amphitheatre, playgrounds, and a community garden (Ref 4). Its design was shaped by citizen input, emphasizing sustainability and accessibility, with plans to support activities such as outdoor cinema and community gatherings (Ref 2).

Phoenix is America’s fifth largest and hottest city, a sprawling urban heat island which has expanded without adequate consideration to climate and environmental factors like water scarcity and extreme heat (1). ​Multiple heat records were broken in 2023 including 133 days over 100F (37.7C), and 55 days topping 110F (43C) (1). Only around 9% of Phoenix is protected by tree canopies, yet this citywide figure masks vast inequities between wealthy, majority-white neighborhoods (1). As a response, the City of Phoenix has adopted an equity-driven heat mitigation plan to create a shadier, more livable environment amid rising temperatures and hundreds of heat-related deaths (1). Part of this plan created the Community Canopy Grant program, which offers public schools, churches and homes in qualifying census tracts – low-income neighborhoods with little shade funds for tree planting projects (1). One neighborhood, Grant Park is one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods – and one of the most neglected (1). It is a red lined neighborhood with higher pollution levels, less vegetation, more noise pollution and higher temperatures (1). To change the inequity and create enough shade to provide residents and passersby reprieve from the heat, the city planted around 40 trees in the Grant Park neighborhood within household yards (1-2). Residents can choose from a list of 19 native and desert-adapted trees including the Texas olive, Chinese red pistache and Chilean mesquites (1). The trees, which are a couple of years old and pretty heavy, are planted by contracted arborists (1). Following the planting process, each household was provided with a tree kit – a hose, irrigation timer and instrument to measure the soil pH and moisture, as well as written care instructions (1). This is the fourth tree planting effort by this city and the hope with this initiative is that it lasts (1).

The Grand Parc des Aygalades project involves the creation of a 14-hectare metropolitan park (connecting Aygalades Park with Bougainville Park and François Billoux Park) that will connect the northern neighbourhoods of Marseille to the port located further south (Ref 1). This project is part of the green conversion of Marseille's northern districts, historically among the most disadvantaged areas in France (Ref 1). The Grand Parc des Aygalades project will enhance the city's greenery, reduce flood risks, create cool zones, restore and develop biodiversity, and significantly improve residents' quality of life and air quality (Ref 1, Ref 2). The environmental and social challenges include reconnecting the populations of these neighborhoods to green spaces, services, education, sports opportunities (Ref 2).
The park project includes redesigning urban infrastructure to improve rainwater absorption and reduce flood risks, addressing the issue of impermeable and artificialized soils that exacerbate flooding during heavy rainfall (Ref 1). It also involves renaturing a 17-kilometre-long stream currently buried under railway tracks, improving flood management and rainwater drainage (Ref 1, Ref 4). The project will also convert a heavily degraded former industrial site, requiring the rehabilitation of polluted soils (Ref 1). Additionally, creating green corridors aims to mitigate the heat island effect, particularly severe in these northern districts due to the high concentration of buildings and concrete surfaces, and the lack of green spaces. Public participation will be encouraged through information meetings, thematic workshops, and an online platform for submitting ideas and feedback (Ref 4).

Eliseo Collazos is located in the coastal desert ecosystem of the Lomas or ‘fog oasis’, an area that receives less than 10 mm of rainfall per year. Vegetation cover is of particular importance in the hills surrounding Lima, as it provides critical solutions to erosion, landslides and soil degradation in the ecologically degraded ecosystem of the Lomas. However, this ecosystem is facing risks from urbanisation, illegal mining and agricultural practices, resulting in the lack of the delicate mist-fed greenery for which the Lomas are known (2). This has led to increased particulate matter in the air due to exposure to sand and wind, aggravating respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis, which is prevalent in Lima's informal communities (2).
Low-income communities have inhabited this area, forced to migrate from the rainforest, highlands and city to the desert slums (4), who have only been able to settle in these landscapes with little access to resources, prone to disaster risk, little public investment in infrastructure and little access to green spaces (2). As a result, these communities live in poor conditions (1). For this reason, in 2013, the University of Washington, under its Urban Informal Communities Initiative programme (1), initiated a participatory project that sought to address the challenges faced by the inhabitants of this area (1, 2). In a series of participatory workshops, residents identified greenspace and food security as top priorities in their community; the Gardens, Greenspace and Health project responds to these priorities as an initial step towards the expansion of greenspace, agriculture and ecological restoration in and around the Eliseo Collazos community (2, 4).
Although individual families constructed them, the front yard gardens contribute to a shared public realm and community greening (4). The general project also involved the installation of fog catchers and the creation of common recreational spaces (4).

In Phoenix, many residents live in dead zones with little or no access to fresh food. These zones are called 'food deserts,' which represent a low-income area with low access to a grocery store (3). Out of the 43 food deserts identified by the city, 18 are fully or partly in south Phoenix (2-3). In 2017, Two researchers from Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability and Leuphana University Lüneburg in Germany began exploring the idea of creating a sustainable food forest cooperative in Phoenix to provide fresh, healthy food, supporting local entrepreneurs, and promote environmental sustainability (1). The project's development team spent months immersing themselves in the world of food forests, by exploring different types of community gardens, discussing preferred characteristics, anticipating local challenges, and identifying potential collaborators (1). As a result, The Food Forest Cooperative was established and planted roots in a 0.5 acre (0.20 ha) plot within the Spaces of Opportunity Community Garden in 2022 (1). This food forest engages the local community by offering educational opportunities around the value of culturally relevant, whole fruits and vegetables, medicine making, and learning about the many uses of edible/medicinal plants (4). The Food Forest Cooperative as a multi-generational project that members preserve for their children, and their children’s children (2). The intention behind the project is to address food insecurity in south Phoenix and empowering the community to take ownership of it and reconnect with their ancestors through the land and food (2). Through the Cooperative, members can contribute different skills, from administrative work to manual labor to community education and traditional medicine (2). It was created to empower community members and challenge the patterns of our food system through the blending of environmental, social and economic goals (4).

Minimizing heat stress is a critical priority for Phoenix, the hottest major city in the U.S., where heat-related deaths reached at least 359 across Maricopa County last year. The city's expansive urban layout and infrastructure exacerbate the urban heat island effect, making an already scorching climate even more hazardous. In addition, heat impacts communities unequally, with some neighborhoods up to 10 degrees hotter than others. Lower-income and predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods often have less canopy cover and fewer resources to combat rising temperatures, making them more vulnerable to extreme heat.
To address this, the City of Phoenix launched the Cool Corridors Program in 2020, a key initiative in its broader climate resilience strategy. This program, a partnership with American Forests and the Phoenix Street Transportation Department, aims to establish a network of shaded pathways that connect communities across the city. These corridors enable residents to travel safely to schools, public transit, and other city hubs, promoting environmental sustainability and public health.
The program prioritizes investment in low-income, heat-sensitive neighborhoods to improve tree equity and create green spaces where they’re most needed. The first Cool Corridor was developed in 2022 at Cesar Chavez Park, where over 250 trees were planted with the support of more than 100 volunteers, setting a strong example for future initiatives. By 2030, Phoenix plans to complete 100 Cool Corridors citywide, building a more resilient and livable urban environment for all residents. (1-5, 7-8, 10)

Over the past 10 years, Lima's population has grown from 8.2 to 9.6 million people. As the city's urban sprawl and population density have increased, green spaces have been replaced by grey infrastructure. Consequently, it has become challenging to ensure that residents enjoy a good quality of life (1, 2, 3). In December 2019, Lima City Hall launched "Limeños al Bicentenario," an initiative to revitalise the city's public spaces (1, 3). This program seeks to transform public areas through low-cost interventions, based on criteria such as vulnerability, citizen participation, and catalytic potential, among others (3). It also aims to foster social cohesion by involving residents in the maintenance of these newly renovated areas, while improving the city's resilience to climate change (1, 2, 3). Since its inception, the project has reclaimed 17 public spaces, covering an area of 41,000 m² (3). 430 trees have been planted, and the project has benefited from the collaboration of civil society and private sector partners (3). The programme also focuses on addressing climate change. Heat waves, droughts, floods and mass migration are the main climate-related risks affecting the city. In particular, the expansion of grey infrastructure at the expense of green spaces has exacerbated the risk of heat waves, causing temperatures to rise by up to 3.5 °C in certain areas of Lima (3).
One of the projects involved the recovery of public spaces in Teniente Pavia. For many years, the space was used as a public parking lot, and at night it accumulated garbage, there was alcohol consumption, drug use, and other problematic issues. There was no vegetation, benches or infrastructure for recreation. The neighbours, especially children, did not have access to green areas or recreational spaces (5). For this reason, in 2020 the project was initiated to repair sidewalks, plant vegetation, create gardens, and install infrastructure for play, rest, and exercise (3, 4).

D-Town Farm, located within Detroit’s River Rouge Park, is a landmark urban agriculture initiative led by the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN). Since its establishment in 2008, this seven-acre farm—the largest in Detroit—has embodied the organization’s commitment to food sovereignty, justice, and security for the city’s African American community. Each year, the farm cultivates over 30 varieties of fruits, vegetables, and herbs using sustainable and regenerative practices. Key operations include large-scale composting, rainwater retention, solar energy generation, and beekeeping, all of which support its ecological and educational missions.
Beyond production, D-Town Farm serves as a community hub. From May through September, it hosts public events that offer educational and recreational opportunities for children and families. The farm also provides hands-on training for aspiring growers through internships and volunteer programs, fostering community engagement and agricultural skill development. Volunteers play a crucial role in daily operations, with ongoing opportunities available throughout the growing season.
D-Town Farm’s mission extends beyond agriculture, serving as a platform for broader advocacy. By challenging barriers to food access, it addresses food deserts with a focus on empowerment and education. The farm supports the local economy by supplying fresh produce to restaurants, farmers markets, and residents, while its health-focused initiatives, such as the youth-centered Food Warriors Development Program, aim to reduce health disparities within the community.
The DBCFSN’s work at D-Town Farm exemplifies a model of community cooperation and self-determination, promoting equity and justice in the food system. By engaging with both local and broader urban communities, D-Town Farm not only strengthens Detroit’s leadership in urban agriculture but also contributes to food justice movements nationwide.
(Ref.1,2,3,4)