Provision of land

This project started as a grassroots movement by Hunter’s Bar Infant School (HBIS) in Sheffield when they were seeking to actively help to protect children from air pollution. HBIS led a fundraising campaign that, in collaboration with the University of Sheffield, provided the base to create a green barrier in their playground. The NBS is part of a bigger study called BREATHE that provides the science behind the project, which involves the design of the green barrier, the assessment of its impacts and a feasibility evaluation for installing green barriers in other schools in Sheffield and in Buenos Aires. (1)

Urban gardening developed in Rome as a reaction to the unequal distribution of available green spaces in densely populated areas of the city, and to the lack of care for the already existing ones. Since 2006, a large number of associations and informal citizen groups have started to engage in collective gardening by performing both Guerrilla Gardening-style actions and long-lasting community gardens projects run by local associations. This social and spatial transformation is turning most of its urban voids and interstitial spaces into places for collective enjoyment thanks to the spontaneous engagement of local dwellers. [1]

The creation of pocket parks is an urban initiative that has steadily grown throughout Budapest since 2010 (Reference 1). Most of these projects are citizen-led, but there is often support provided in the form of education and consultancy by initiatives such as the Contemporary Architecture Center (KÉK), or sometimes the local government (Reference 8). These spaces, typically covering an area of 1400 square meters only, are multi-functional and provide a space for small-scale food production, recreation, community sharing, and can be a fundamental element of neighbourhood rehabilitation. Moreover, it provides positive environmental effects such as water retention and the improvement of the area's micro-climate. Pocket-parks are critical in increasing the number of green areas in neighbourhoods that have limited space. (Reference 9)

The Porto Biospots Network is a partnership of the Municipality with "Infraestruturas de Portugal", and is a network of urban forest areas (predominantly autochthonous) that aims to allow the reforestation of adjacent transit routes, major highway nodes, and routes of circulation within the city, transforming environmentally poor lands into green areas that provide multiple ecological services. This initiative foresees the reforestation of 14 areas and the planting of 10,000 trees by 2021, having already completed 2 roads, with a total of 1305 native trees planted. The biospot is the materialization of a part of the Municipal Ecological Structure of Porto. [1][4]

The field is a 3.5 hectare of grassland, grazed by horses for over 20 years. After it fell vacant in early 2011, a group of local residents (“The Field Group”) negotiated a community lease with its owners, City of Edinburgh Council, with the aims of creating an orchard, creating/restoring semi-natural habitats and encouraging its use for quiet recreation and informal education. Members can volunteer their gardening labour or donate money. They can then participate in a garden run for the community – whether to pick the vegetables, learn fruit-growing, help to keep the chickens or just enjoy the space. [ref 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]

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)

The School Garden of Széchenyi István University, Apáczai Csere János Faculty in downtown Győr was reestablished by the Vice Dean of Apáczai in 2013. Apáczai’s new school garden trains university students studying education on properly organizing and maintaining the school garden with ecological methods in the format of an optional credit course at the university. Alongside the university students, elementary school student groups are responsible for the planting, maintenance, harvesting, seed collection and other activities under the supervision of teachers and in Apáczai’s garden. The modern school garden movement is rapidly growing since 2013 due to its recognized value in current pedagogical movements, and role in education for sustainability (Reference 1). In 2019, a raised garden bed was also added to the garden, which made that part of the garden accessible to wheelchair users as well. (Reference 2)