Last updated: October 2021
With spaces for biodiversity being continuously threatened by urban development, the environmental association Ökolöwe Leipzig initiated a biodiversity-enhancing project during the 100th Catholic Day event in Leipzig in May 2016. Consisting of green interventions at four schoolyards all over Leipzig involving the active collaboration of students who are also expected to maintain the interventions into the future and 100 mobile high beds at the central city square for public display, the project objective was to demonstrate how to foster biodiversity even in limited urban spaces while also to raise awareness (1, 3).
Source: https://www.leipziginfo.de/aktuelles/artikel/biodivercity-artenvielfalt-in-der-stadt/
Overview
Nature-based solution
- Grey infrastructure featuring greens
- Green playgrounds and school grounds
- Institutional green space
- Community gardens and allotments
- Community gardens
Key challenges
- Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
- Habitat and biodiversity conservation
- Green space creation and/or management
- Regeneration, land-use and urban development
- Promote natural styles of landscape design for urban development
- Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
- Environmental education
- Sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12)
- Sustainable consumption
- Sustainable production
Focus
Creation of new green areas, Knowledge creation and awareness raising
Project objectives
1. Raise awareness of students about the importance of biodiversity conservation concerning both plants and animals in cities (5).
2. Protect and enhancing biodiversity in urban contexts were spaces for the latter are getting scarcer and where biodiversity is constantly under threat due to development projects (3).
3. Showcase options for fostering diverse habitats on small urban spaces to preserve and enhance urban biodiversity (1, 3).
4. Enhance a feeling of ownership for the garden and the wider role in sustainable development based on personal identification with the project's interventions (1).
Implementation activities
- In the course of the project, biodiversity-enhancing interventions formed at four different locations in Leipzig.
- Guided by association's environmental pedagogues (Ökolöwe) and the "Geowerkstatt Leipzig", students of different ages (from 4 to 18) installed for the long.-term use:
- a herbs garden with optimal temperature, humidity, light and soil conditions for each plant
- a stone garden for plants that require dry conditions
- an insect hotel (beehive) with breeding tubes of varying diameter to suit different insect types
- raised beds, demonstrate that plant diversity is also possible on sealed surfaces; through layers of different materials decomposition is enhanced and heat supply provided from below for plants to thrive.
- In addition to that for the duration of the day of the Catholics in May, 100 mobile raised beds with diverse flowers vegetables and herbs were installed for display at a square for residents and tourists to try and imitate (1, 2, 3, 4).
Biodiversity conservation or restoration-focused activities
Biodiversity conservation:
- Protect and enhance urban habitats
- Promote environmentally-sound development in and around protected areas
- Protect species
- Undertake specific measures to protect species
- Undertake specific measures to protect native species
- Means for conservation governance
- Raise public awareness
- Public engagement
- Create and use scientific knowledge for conservation
Main beneficiaries
- Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)
- Citizens or community groups
Governance
Management set-up
- Led by non-government actors
Type of initiating organisation
- Non-government organisation/civil society
Participatory approaches/ community involvement
- Co-planning (e.g. stakeholder workshops, focus groups, participatory mapping)
- Taskforce groups
- Dissemination of information and education
- Consultation (e.g. workshop, surveys, community meetings, town halls)
- Joint implementation (e.g. tree planting)
- Co-management/Joint management
Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project
The initiative was initiated by the environmental association "Ökolöwe Leipzig" and the an association for hands-on geography ("Geowerkstatt Leipzig") in collaboration with the religious institution "Katholikentag" organizing a large event for catholics each year whose focus in 2016 was biodiversity. Citizens participated in the programme and were also specifically targeted by the biodiversity awareness campaign. Students of all ages, under supervision and guidance of specialists of the two previously mentioned associations, worked on implementing the interventions in their school yards and have the responsibility to maintain them (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Project implemented in response to ...
... an EU policy or strategy?
Unknown
... a national policy or strategy?
Unknown
... a local policy or strategy?
Unknown
Financing
Total cost
Unknown
Source(s) of funding
- Unknown
Type of funding
- Unknown
Non-financial contribution
Type of non-financial contribution
- Provision of labour
Who provided the non-financial contribution?
- Citizens (e.g. volunteering)
Impacts and Monitoring
Environmental impacts
- Green space and habitat
- Promotion of naturalistic styles of landscape design for urban development
- Increased green space area
Economic impacts
- Unknown
Socio-cultural impacts
- Education
- Increased knowledge of locals about local nature
- Increased awareness of NBS and their benefits
Type of reported impacts
Expected impacts, Achieved impacts
Presence of formal monitoring system
No
Presence of indicators used in reporting
No
Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports
No
Availability of a web-based monitoring tool
No
References
1. Ökolöwe Umweltbund Leipzig e.V. (2016). BiodiverCity – Artenvielfalt in der Stadt. Website not available
2. Ökolöwe – Umweltbund Leipzig e.V. (2016). ‘BiodiverCity Katholikentag’. Leipzig: 100. Deutscher Katholikentag. Accessed on October 12, 2020, Source link
3. Leipzig Info. (2016). BiodiverCity – Artenvielfalt in der Stadt Mobile Hochbeete zum Katholikentag auf dem Willy-Brandt-Platz in Leipzig. Accessed on October 12, 2020 Source link
4. Leipziger Internet Zeitung. (2017). ‘Ökolöwe wird mit UN-Dekade-Titel für „BiodiverCity“ ausgezeichnet’, Leipziger Internet Zeitung, Accessed on October 12, 2020, Source link
5. UN-Dekade Biologische Vielfalt Geschäftsstelle. (2017). BiodiverCity. Accessed on October 12, 2020, Source link
6. Geowerkstatt Leipzig e.V. (2017). Geowerkstatt Leipzig. Verein for praxisnahe Geographie. Accessed on October, 12, 2020, Source link
7. Geowerkstatt Leipzig e.V. (2017). Home sweet home – Bienen und Insektenhotels für unsere Stadt. Accessed on October 12, 2020, Source link
2. Ökolöwe – Umweltbund Leipzig e.V. (2016). ‘BiodiverCity Katholikentag’. Leipzig: 100. Deutscher Katholikentag. Accessed on October 12, 2020, Source link
3. Leipzig Info. (2016). BiodiverCity – Artenvielfalt in der Stadt Mobile Hochbeete zum Katholikentag auf dem Willy-Brandt-Platz in Leipzig. Accessed on October 12, 2020 Source link
4. Leipziger Internet Zeitung. (2017). ‘Ökolöwe wird mit UN-Dekade-Titel für „BiodiverCity“ ausgezeichnet’, Leipziger Internet Zeitung, Accessed on October 12, 2020, Source link
5. UN-Dekade Biologische Vielfalt Geschäftsstelle. (2017). BiodiverCity. Accessed on October 12, 2020, Source link
6. Geowerkstatt Leipzig e.V. (2017). Geowerkstatt Leipzig. Verein for praxisnahe Geographie. Accessed on October, 12, 2020, Source link
7. Geowerkstatt Leipzig e.V. (2017). Home sweet home – Bienen und Insektenhotels für unsere Stadt. Accessed on October 12, 2020, Source link