Essen, Germany
City population: 576013
Duration: 2012 – 2015
Implementation status: Ongoing
Scale: Sub-microscale: Street scale (including buildings)
Project area: 300 m2
Type of area: Residential, Other
Last updated: October 2021

The Haumanngarten is a community garden in Essen founded by the Transition Town movement (Ref. 1). Since May 2015 a mixed group have been growing vegetables, herbs, flowers and berries on a former playground. Fellow gardeners with and without knowledge of gardening participate in the garden (Ref. 2).

Overview

Nature-based solution

  • Community gardens and allotments
  • Community gardens

Key challenges

  • Climate action for adaptation, resilience and mitigation (SDG 13)
  • Climate change adaptation
  • Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
  • Habitat and biodiversity conservation
  • Green space creation and/or management
  • Environmental quality
  • Soil quality improvement
  • Regeneration, land-use and urban development
  • Promote natural styles of landscape design for urban development
  • Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
  • Environmental education
  • Social interaction
  • Health and well-being (SDG 3)
  • Creation of opportunities for recreation
  • Sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12)
  • Sustainable consumption
  • Sustainable production

Focus

Creation of new green areas

Project objectives

1. Create a space for public life in the city (Ref. 1) 2. Change the existing relations between public space and the urban population (Ref. 1) 3. Create a green and attractive living environment (Ref. 1) 4. Increase the quality of life in the neighborhood (Ref. 1) 5. Provide space for recreation and health (Ref. 1) 6. Allow all urban residents to encounter and participate in the urban development (Ref. 1) 7. Create a more positive image of a district (Ref. 1) 8. Soil protection, soil formation (Ref. 1) 9. Increase in biodiversity (Ref. 1) 10. Food production/Provide people even with a low income with fresh vegetables (Ref. 1) 11. Contribute to the temperature reduction in the city (Ref. 1)

Implementation activities

300 m2 of land were allocated to a community garden movement in Essen (Ref. 1)

Climate-focused activities

Climate change adaptation:

  • Increase or improve urban vegetation cover to help reduce outdoor temperature
  • Create or improve outdoor spaces to help people escape from urban heat

Biodiversity conservation or restoration-focused activities

Biodiversity conservation:

  • Protect and enhance urban habitats
  • Create new habitats

Main beneficiaries

  • Non-government organisation/Civil Society
  • Citizens or community groups
  • Marginalized groups

Governance

Management set-up

  • Co-governance with government and non-government actors

Type of initiating organisation

  • Citizens or community group

Participatory approaches/ community involvement

  • Co-planning (e.g. stakeholder workshops, focus groups, participatory mapping)
  • Crowd-sourcing/Crowd-funding/Participatory budget
  • Dissemination of information and education
  • Joint implementation (e.g. tree planting)
  • Co-management/Joint management
  • Citizen oversight (e.g. boards, advisory)

Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project

The civil community "Gemeinschaftsgarten Essen" are the initiators of the project (Ref. 2). The use of the areas as community gardens is done in consultation with the responsible department "Green and Gruga" of the city of Essen and on the basis of a declaration by the community gardeners. In this declaration, they undertake an ecologically oriented method of cultivation and to return the areas to their original state when the garden project is terminated (Ref. 1).

Project implemented in response to ...

... an EU policy or strategy? Unknown
... a national policy or strategy? Unknown
... a local policy or strategy? Yes (1. The project is developed in cooperation with the local government program "Transition Town Essen" (Ref. 1). 2. the permit for the usage of the land was obtained from the city of Essen (Ref. 1). )

Financing

Total cost

Unknown

Source(s) of funding

  • Public regional budget
  • Public local authority budget
  • Crowdfunding
  • Other

Type of funding

  • Earmarked public budget
  • Direct funding (grants, subsidies, or self-financed projects by private entities)

Non-financial contribution

Type of non-financial contribution
  • Provision of land
  • Provision of labour
Who provided the non-financial contribution?
  • Public authorities (e.g. land, utility services)
  • Citizens (e.g. volunteering)

Impacts and Monitoring

Environmental impacts

  • Climate change
  • Lowered local temperature
  • Green space and habitat
  • Increased green space area

Economic impacts

  • Increase in agricultural production (for profit or not)

Socio-cultural impacts

  • Social justice and cohesion
  • Increased opportunities for social interaction
  • Increased involvement of locals in the management of green spaces
  • Increased access to healthy/affordable food
  • Increased sustainability of agriculture practices
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Gain in activities for recreation and exercise
  • Education
  • Increased knowledge of locals about local nature

Type of reported impacts

Expected impacts, Achieved impacts

Presence of formal monitoring system

Unknown

Presence of indicators used in reporting

No evidence in public records

Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports

No evidence in public records

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

No evidence in public records

References

1. Ministerium für Klimaschutz, Umwelt, Landwirtschaft, Natur- und Verbraucherschutz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (2016). Gemeinsam gärtnern in der Stadt Praxisbeispiele aus Nordrhein-Westfalen. Ministerium für Klimaschutz, Umwelt, Landwirtschaft, Natur- und Verbraucherschutz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen. (Document attached).
2. GEMEINSCHAFTSGARTEN ESSEN (2017). Gemeinschaftsgarten Essen. Available at: Source link (Accessed: November 6, 2020).
3. Friends of the Earth (2017). Friends of the Earth Germany. Available at: Source link (Accessed: November 6, 2020).
4. Bläser, K., Danielzyk, R., Fox-Kämper, R., Funke, L., Rawa, M., Sondermann, M. (2013) Urbanes Grün in der integrierten Stadtentwicklung. Strategien, Projekte, Instrumente (Urban Green in integrated urban development. Strategies, Projects, Instruments. Ministerium für Bauen, Wohnen, Stadtentwicklung und Verkehr des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (Eds.) Düsseldorf. (Website not available in 2020).
5. Wiegel, Susanne (2017). Gemeinschaftsgärten in Essen: Vielfalt und Fülle – an zahlreichen weiteren Orten soll Essen erblühen!. Available at: Source link (Accessed: November 6, 2020).
6. Urban Oasen (2017). Haumanngarten Essen. Available at: Source link (Website not available in 2020).
7. Stierand, P. (2016). Broschüre: Gemeinsam gärtnern in NRW. Available at: Source link (Accessed: November 6, 2020).