Last updated: October 2021
The city of Zagreb prepared city-owned land on 10 locations for urban gardening, called "city gardens" for citizens who do not own land in Zagreb. The project "City Gardens" is a positive example of sustainable use of urban land and improving the quality of life of our citizens in social, economic and environmental terms. City gardens provide access to healthy food and improve the household budget of citizens, contribute to preserving a healthier environment, preserving biodiversity, environmental awareness of citizens, connecting with nature, healthy leisure and promoting a healthy lifestyle and developing partnerships between the City of Zagreb and citizens (Ref 1).
Overview
Nature-based solution
- Community gardens and allotments
- Allotments
- Community gardens
Key challenges
- Climate action for adaptation, resilience and mitigation (SDG 13)
- Climate change mitigation
- Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
- Habitat and biodiversity restoration
- Green space creation and/or management
- Environmental quality
- Air quality improvement
- Regeneration, land-use and urban development
- Promote natural styles of landscape design for urban development
- Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
- Social interaction
- Health and well-being (SDG 3)
- Improving mental health
- Creation of opportunities for recreation
- Economic development and employment (SDG 8)
- Economic development: agriculture
- Sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12)
- Sustainable production
Focus
Creation of new green areas, Transformation of previously derelict areas
Project objectives
The project goals include sustainable use of city owned land, improvement of the quality of life of citizens in social, economic and ecologic sense. Urban gardens should enable production of healthy food, improve house budget of the citizens, contribute to preservation of the healthy environment, preservation of bio-diversity, ecological conciousness of the citizens, foster connection with the nature, healthy use of free time and promote healthy life style, as well as partnership of the city of Zagreb with the citizens (Ref 1, 3).
Implementation activities
In the area of the City of Zagreb, there are currently 13 city gardens with over 2100 garden plots on an area of 22.5 ha at the following locations:
2 in the area of Stenjevec City District, at Stenjevec Street and Savska opatovina Street I. branch, 3 in the area of Novi Zagreb City District - east, 2 at Ive Andrića Street and 1 at Karela Zahradnika Street, 1 in the area of Novi Zagreb City District - west, at the location Čavoglavska ulica, 1 in the area of the City district Peščenica-Žitnjak, at the location Ulica Prve gardijske brigade Tigrovi, 2 in the area of the City district Sesvete, Senjska street and Ulica Rimski put, 1 in the area of the city district Trnje, location street Prisavlje, 1 in the area of the Maksimir City District, location of Dragutina Mandla Street and 1 in the area of the Podsused-Vrapče City District, location of Susedsko polje Street. Arable land consists of garden plots up to 50 m2 and common parts with common equipment (access roads and paths, wooden and prefabricated storage of tools and organic fertilizers, composters, benches and waste bins, garden gazebos and canopies). The areas of all City Gardens are fenced (Ref 1, 3).
Climate-focused activities
Climate change mitigation:
- Increase green urban nature for carbon storage (wetlands, tree cover)
Biodiversity conservation or restoration-focused activities
Biodiversity restoration:
- Restore ecological connectivity
- Public engagement
Main beneficiaries
- Citizens or community groups
- Marginalized groups: Socio-economically disadvantaged populations (e.g. low-income households, unemployed), Other
- Food producers and cultivators (i.e. farmers, gardeners)
Governance
Management set-up
- Government-led
Type of initiating organisation
- Regional government
- Local government/municipality
Participatory approaches/ community involvement
- Joint implementation (e.g. tree planting)
- Citizen monitoring and review
Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project
The project is led by the city of Zagreb and co-funded by private companies such as media outlets newspapers 24 sata and Radio Kaj (1 and 3)
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
€2,000,000 - €4,000,000
Source(s) of funding
- Public regional budget
- Public local authority budget
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 goods
- 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
- Enhanced carbon sequestration
- Environmental quality
- Improved air quality
- Improved soil quality
- Green space and habitat
- Increased green space area
- Increased conversion of degraded land or soil
- Enhanced support of pollination
Economic impacts
- Increase in agricultural production (for profit or not)
Socio-cultural impacts
- Social justice and cohesion
- Improved social cohesion
- Fair distribution of social, environmental and economic benefits of the NBS project
- Improved liveability
- Improved access to urban green space
- Increased visibility and opportunity for marginalised groups or indigenous peoples
- Increased involvement of locals in the management of green spaces
- Increased access to healthy/affordable food
- Increased sustainability of agriculture practices
- Health and wellbeing
- Improved physical health
- Cultural heritage and sense of place
- Improvement in people’s connection to nature
Type of reported impacts
Achieved impacts
Presence of formal monitoring system
Yes
Presence of indicators used in reporting
Yes
Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports
Yes
Availability of a web-based monitoring tool
No evidence in public records
References
(1) City of Zagreb (2015) Gradski Vrtovi. Available at Source link. Accessed on 15 July 2020
(2) City of Zagreb (2016) Monitoring na Gradskim Vrtovima. Available at Source link. Accessed on 15 July 2020
(3)City of Zagreb (2016) O projektu. Available at Source link. Accessed on 15 July 2020
(4) City of Zagreb (2014) Budget 2014. Available at Source link. Accessed on 15 July 2020
(5)City of Zagreb (2015) Budget 2015. Available at Source link. Accessed on 15 July 2020
(6) Vecernji List (2016) Zastupnici raspravljaju o blagajni za 2016. Available at Source link. Accessed on 15 July 2020
(7) 24 sata (2016) Samobor otvara gradski vrt. Available at Source link. Accessed on 15 July 2020
(2) City of Zagreb (2016) Monitoring na Gradskim Vrtovima. Available at Source link. Accessed on 15 July 2020
(3)City of Zagreb (2016) O projektu. Available at Source link. Accessed on 15 July 2020
(4) City of Zagreb (2014) Budget 2014. Available at Source link. Accessed on 15 July 2020
(5)City of Zagreb (2015) Budget 2015. Available at Source link. Accessed on 15 July 2020
(6) Vecernji List (2016) Zastupnici raspravljaju o blagajni za 2016. Available at Source link. Accessed on 15 July 2020
(7) 24 sata (2016) Samobor otvara gradski vrt. Available at Source link. Accessed on 15 July 2020