Dissemination of information and education

The intervention takes place in one of the most important parks in Palermo, and the area plays an important role, by hosting several plant and animal species, and the intervention consisted of creating an agricultural area within the park with a community-based approach. This proved that agricultural initiative had an economic role to play for the city, and at the same time can enhance social inclusiveness. (Ref.1.)

The Biodroom is a community garden where citizens can meet each other, children can play, and where vegetables are grown ecologically. The Biodrome started as a laboratory for art, gardening and ecology in the city: a temporary culture project with art manifestations, but is since 2014 it functions as a community garden that is maintained by citizens (Ref. 1).

A large-scale restoration of park Zapaden over 53 hectare had started in 2017, aiming to restore the aesthetic appearance of the park, and to preserve its authentic character and value for Sofia as the second biggest park in the city. Many activities were planned, including restoration of green areas, restoration of a lake and a rock-garden (renovating the artificial lakes, rivers, and waterfalls, and adding new vegetation), and adding new flowers and greenery. In addition, renovation and creation of new grey infrastructure such as playgrounds, alleys, lighting, cameras, irrigation systems, camp grounds, and more is planned. (Ref. 1; Ref. 2)

While it is difficult to assess how much work has been completed as of 2020, recent websites (from 2018) claim: "The park has two main parts – one has alleys built in it, as well as places for leisure and the other is a forest perfect for the hotter days of the year. The green part ends at the Smardana locality where people can find a lake." (Ref. 10)

The Harris Garden is situated on the Whiteknights campus of the University of Reading. The garden provides an important amenity for all, giving pleasure to an increasing number of visitors, staff and students. It provides facilities for teaching, conservation and recreation. In 2010, with the closure of Plant Sciences, responsibility for the main part of the garden passed to the Facilities Management Directorate of the University and a major revitalisation programme began; with the "new purpose of conservation and recreation for all". (Ref. 1 , 2)

Instead of expanding the Ring of Antwerp to improve mobility, the municipality of Antwerp decided to use the space to create a Green Ring of 13 kilometers consisting of a wide range of projects (Ref. 3). This large city plan contains green spaces along the Ring, green corridors between those green spaces and with existing parks, a new green park, neighborhood green spaces, restoring the historical city wall and so on (Ref. 3). The plan also contains measures to improve water storing capacity (Ref. 4).

Fobney Island in Reading (which is an area by the River Kennet in Berkshire county) was transformed through a restoration project in order to e.g. attract wildlife (birds; bats; water voles; otters). This partnership project (with work being carried out by the Environment Agency, Reading Borough Council, Thames Water and the Thames Rivers Restoration Trust), includes restoring the river and creating wetlands. (Ref. 1-3)

Thanks to an initiative by the citizens of Sofia, called Green Rails in Sofia, grass was planted by the Municipality on a an area of newly reconstructed tram line in Sofia. The cited benefits were heat reduction, noise reduction, aesthetics, natural water retention and drainage, and lower costs of maintenance in the long term compared to grey alternatives. The grassroots initiative “Green Rails in Sofia” are determined to keep putting pressure on the local authority to continue planting grass on other parts of the tram lines. (Ref. 1; Ref. 2; Ref. 3)

'Groene Mient' (Green Commons) is a citizen initiative that realized an exceptional social-ecological residential project consisting of three housing buildings of energy neutral homes and a 3,500 m2 communal garden (1,6). Storm water is captured from the roofs of the buildings into bioswales, permeable paving is applied, the shared garden is 'eatable' and houses run on sustainable energy (1). The houses do not have a gas connection and have three different sustainable energy systems: heat pump with heat-cold storage, solar boiler or electric heating (6).

The ‘Mountain Forest Initiative’ was launched in 2009 by the Bavarian Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry to restore the protective function of the vulnerable alpine forest in light of climate change, and was ongoing until 2014. To create a general sense of ownership in the process, the Mountain Forest Initiative sought the involvement of different stakeholders at the local level (e.g., private forest owners, land-use related authorities, hunters, nature conservationists, and tourism associations) (Ref. 1).

The intervention is a project of historic memory, it seeks to pay tribute to those individuals who were taken and assassinated as part of the resistance movement during the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship by planting a forest with Mediterranean species. In the forest, each tree represents one of these persons, thus combining aspects of recent history with the natural environment. (ref 1) Each tree represents real people, as the project collaborated with the families of the victims (Ref 1), to create a space of conscience about what happened in the Franco's period, as well as a memorial for them.