Municipal / city level environmental plan or programme

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 Gorla Maggiore water park, inaugurated in March 2013, is situated within the municipality of Gorla Maggiore, in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 30 kilometers northwest of Milan. The water park is a constructed wetlands (CW) built on the banks of the Olona river that includes (a) a pollutant removal area composed of a grid, a sedimentation tank and four vertical sub-surface flow constructed wetlands; (b) a multipurpose area with a surface flow constructed wetland or pond with multiple roles; and (c) a recreational park with restored riparian trees, green open space, walking and cycling paths. [1]

After 2011, in the face of crisis and austerity hardship and the collapse of the central public welfare system, many municipalities assumed the role of enhancing food production through urban allotment gardens. In Ag. Dimitrios (AD), the idea emerged from a couple of newly elected representatives one of whom was part of an agriculture cooperative outside of Athens. A mixture of social and environmental goals were set (to change the microclimate, to change people's habits, to reintroduce contact with nature in the city, to be environment-friendly through good practices, and to create an educational ground for children). [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).

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)

‘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.

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).

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).

The two-year project "Integrationsgärten" aimed at the creation of three social integration gardens for refugees at different residential districts: transitional house Arbergen 2 (2016), a transitional house at Tannenbergstraße (2016/2017), and in Huckelriede (2017). The project involved various gardening activities and cultural events that aimed at increasing social integration of the refugees, improving their language skills, as well as stimulating neighborhoods to social engagement and participation in environmental issues in the neighborhood (Ref. 2, 3).