Green Spaces Issue
Issue 4
This quarter's issue is
"Maximising community contribution
to biodiversity through urban green
spaces". The article "Community
Values" was first published by
Urbio, the magazine of English Nature.
"Not all social
groups benefit from parks and green
spaces"
Maximising
Community Contribution to Biodiversity through
Urban Green Spaces
written for Urban
Wildlife News
Judy Ling Wong OBE .
Director Black Environment Network
90% of Britain's population now live
in urban areas. The declining quality of
Britain's urban green spaces is now a
matter of extensive public concern. As
part of the urban renaissance movement,
the betterment of urban green spaces is
rising up the agenda. There is an opening
for the environmental sector to put into
place opportunities, within green spaces,
for the urban population to come into
contact with nature, and enable them to
acquire the awareness and understanding
to switch on their contribution to
biodiversity. The missing contribution
still to be gained within the urban
population is vast.
In the urban scenario, environmental
gain does not stand alone. Here, the
agendas of contribution to the natural
environment, neighbourhood improvement
and social regeneration coincide. The
successful engagement of urban based new
audiences demands a methodology which
draws on joined-up thinking. It is about
the bringing together of the social,
cultural and environmental agendas,
informed by an understanding of human
processes.
Twin pillars of
sustainable development
Relationship of people
to people
Relationship of people
to nature
Recognition of the
power of the basic human process
We use and enjoy spaces
where we are welcome
What we constantly use
and enjoy is truly ours
We wish to care for
what is ours
Creating and improving urban
green spaces for people
Resources for community involvement
seem to be everywhere and yet there still
seems to be a lack of open familiar
places where ordinary people can run into
opportunities for knowledge and
participation around biodiversity. Urban
green spaces is a prime candidate. Urban
green spaces can provide hundreds of
focal points for change - a web of sites
right in the centre of where people are,
from urban parks, city farms, commons,
cemeteries, council estate grounds,
school playing fields, children's
playgrounds, community gardens, urban
woodlands, to abandoned wasteland. The
spotlight now focused on urban green
spaces looks forward to betterment and
renewal, a chance for many themes to get
in at the formative stages of new
thinking.
A framework for connecting
people and nature in urban green spaces
The environmental sector needs to see
clearly and promote its socio-cultural
environmental role. This will enable it
to build awareness, understanding and
commitment to biodiversity within those
who run urban green spaces, from Local
Authorities to community managers of
pocket spaces, and work with them to
ensure urban green spaces can be focal
points for establishing the awareness and
understanding of biodiversity by :
- Strategically ensuring contact with
nature within urban green spaces
- Linking activities which promote
biodiversity into overall programme of
activities within urban green spaces
- Promoting understanding of
biodiversity as part of people-centred
events, from a teddy bear's picnic night
to a Mela
- Linking social, cultural and
environmental themes for a broad base for
motivation , e.g.Taking on the
multi-cultural interpretation of the
environment from plant trails of the
countries of origin of the global
collections of plants and trees within
urban green spaces to the diverse names
on war memorials giving us insight into
Britain's multicultural history
The environmental sector needs to
position itself within a socio-cultural
agenda and build awareness, understanding
and commitment to community development
within their own project staff working
with biodiversity, so that they have the
skills to:
- Reach out and welcome new audiences,
working within a socio-cultural
environmental agenda
- Work with people whose agendas are
not environmental to establish
opportunities for contact with and
enjoyment of nature
- Design activities which give people
information and practical skills so that
they are enabled to bring nature into
their own lives (From window box projects
to assisting in transforming
schoolgrounds)
- Initiate projects which link in with
everyday themes which connect with nature
(An imaginative teacher taught everything
there was to know about sustainable
development through the journey of a pair
of Nike shoes from its creation to its
owner's feet and finally to the dustbin!
)
- Provide opportunities to for people
who have become aware of nature to be
exposed to the principles of biodiversity
and consistently deepen knowledge in a
way which enables them to make a
practical contribution or to change their
everyday behaviour to protect our
environment
- Nurture and support new candidates
from every sector of society to enable
them to shape and lead activities, and
take part in representation and
decision-making
- Maximise local partnership work,
adopting an inter-agency, cross sectoral
approach to project work to involve the
community
Where urban green spaces are in
decline, programmes around biodiversity
and sustainable development can link into
a plethora of life-enhancing activities
which deliver environmental quality in
and beyond green spaces. Where good
quality urban parks and green spaces
exist, they are deeply loved and enjoyed.
People value them as realms of freedom,
open to spontaneity and informal
pleasures and contemplation, but their
inevitable link to greenness is not
necessarily capitalised on as an avenue
to awareness of the intricacies of the
natural world and a consciousness of the
vital and powerful role of people within
it. The incorporation of the theme of
biodiversity as part of the social
programme within urban green spaces can
make a major contribution not only to the
natural environment but to the
liveability of the urban environment. The
environmental sector is an essential
player within urban green spaces, poised
to switch on a vast contribution, through
urban participation in biodiversity and
sustainable development, to the quality
of life of generations to come.
Guidance Paper 4 - Biodiversity
and Urban Green Spaces
Black Environment Network March '03
The case for using urban green spaces
as a focus for education for biodiversity
has been made in the paper
“Community Values - Maximising
Community Contribution to Biodiversity
through Urban Green Spaces”. In this
guidance paper we will address some
themes for development and what can be
done to stimulate for awareness of
biodiversity in urban green spaces.
The principal agencies
responsible for action for biodiversity
need to:
• actively build awareness,
understanding and commitment for action
for biodiversity within the bodies and
organisations responsible for green space
development.
The more obvious agencies include
local authorities, voluntary nature
conservation organisations, educational
institutions. Linking into these is not
new but we need them to stimulate and
renew their commitment . They are in
charge of:
- urban parks
- city farms
- allotments
- commons
- cemeteries
- schoolgrounds
- urban woodlands
- derelict land
The environmental section is now
positioning itself within a
socio-cultural agenda. The new
challenging targets are those who are in
charge of community spaces are on the
edge of conversion to commitment to
biodiversity and will be lifelong allies
if won over. They need education
themselves and dynamic stimulating
resources at community level. These new
diverse and numerous targets (residential
social landlords, residents'
associations, owners of garden centres,
etc.) so very close to people's lives,
are in charge of:
- council estate grounds
- housing association estates
- small children's playgrounds
- garden centres
- community centres with any patch of
land
- horticultural community based projects
- gardens open to the public and visited
for pleasure including those belonging to
the National
Trust or the Historic Houses
Association
- specialist plant societies
- gardening clubs
- pocket spaces
- window boxes and balconies (where
people with no land simply want to be in
contact with flowers and
plants)
- wherever people are given the
opportunity to plant something (See Green
Space of the Month - Confused Spaces
- inspirational project where local
people desperate to brighten up a dismal
area have permission to plant
something in the most fragmented series
of small spaces, down to 3
square feet of soil at a
street corner. )
Those who are in charge of planning
and designing green spaces, the education
of future professionals, representative
forums, and those facilitating input by
the community also need to be made aware
and won over to include elements which
feed into education for biodiversity.
These include:
- planners
- voluntary groups such as community
design services or Planning Aid
- architects
- landscape designers
- urban forums
- relevant departments of universities
and higher education institutions
- consultants specialising in running
participatory consultation events
• strategically create
attractive combinations of indigenous
plants for green spaces focused on
demonstrating the range of issues around
biodiversity. For interest, these
plants need to be chosen to visually
compete for attention against the popular
love for the abundantly flowering and
colourful garden plants.
• build on the new thinking
that garden plants are not second class
citizens to indigenous plants when it
come to providing opportunities for
education for biodiversity.
- Action for biodiversity does not
just mean fighting for a corner to put in
indigenous plants.
- In the urban areas, garden plants
are much loved and everywhere, from
seasonal bedding in the Royal
Parks, to roundabouts and window boxes on
council estates. Education reaches most
people when we start where
people already are. Because of the fact
that garden plants are plants
and present in profusion in
urban areas, they are the ultimate
opportunity as a springboard for
teaching processes relating
to plants and therefore every principle
of biodiversity to vast numbers
of people.
- Garden plants have wildlife value.
They bring people in contact with
wildlife and build interest in
wildlife and biodiversity.
At the present time, the
Countryside Council for Wales is piloting
their “Plants for
Wildlife”
project in 3 partner garden
centres in Wales. The project is based on
a simple but powerful idea -
plants which attract and
significantly support wildlife have a
Plant for Wildlife label in the pot,
directing people to buy these
if they like the idea of birds,
butterflies etc. coming into their
garden. Other supportive
measures include educational displays and
events at the garden centres.
• Expand on labelling and
interpretation.
Select dramatic single specimens of
either indigenous or garden plants and
build in the biodiversity dimension among
stories, jokes, interesting or ridiculous
traditions. The biggest tree in the
neighbourhood, the plant with the
funniest myth attached to it..... Yes, it
is education, education, education, but
lets have a range of essential serious
stuff embedded effortlessly,
entertainingly, and accessibly anywhere -
those big words intellectual and physical
access.
It is already happening. Countryside
Council for Wales' Plants for Wildlife is
a breakthrough for a statutory nature
conservation agency. BTCV, with its
Environment for All project works with a
completely open approach with diverse
communities. Eden Project is exemplary.
At the other end of the scale, voluntary
sector organisations like Common Ground
and Black Environment Network are shining
community based examples working with
huge networks combining imaginative
social, cultural and environmental
themes.
• revive Earth Education
programmes and lead on training those
in charge of green spaces to draw on it.
The lively imaginative approach is much
needed. Build on the method with new
material centred on biodiversity.
Those in charge of green spaces
need to:
- become aware of their potential
contribution to education for
biodiversity, because urban green
spaces embody plants and other
features which can act as
opportunities for education for
biodiversity.
- identify opportunities to
incorporate plants which promote
understanding and awareness of
biodiversity issues.
- work with biodiversity
organisations to consider and implement
programmes of education
around garden plants, leading to
understanding and awareness of
biodiversity issues.
- be aware that imaginative
programmes of education for
biodiversity not only play a
vital role in the future of our
planet and with it the future of
all of us, but can also lead to
enjoyment and enrichment of the
quality of life of the vast
numbers of urban bound people
they are in touch with.
Can the tail wag the dog ?
Urban green spaces are multiple use,
diverse spaces. They are not in the main
where action for biodiversity and habitat
creation happens. But, we need to
capitalise on the fact that urban green
spaces give essential and numerous
opportunities for promoting awareness and
understanding of biodiversity within
green spaces. This building block is
vitally important.
A last question - can the tail wag the
dog ? Is there a focus within the green
space community which will take on
championing a place for education for
biodiversity within urban green spaces,
rouse the green space sector, and
encourage the nature conservation and
biodiversity organisations to get on with
green space based and community based
partnerships to achieve it ? There are
glimmers.
Useful information
- Earth Education. Institute for
Earth Education ieeuk@aol.com
- Common Ground - ABC Project
www.commonground .org.uk
- Eden Project www.edenproject.com.
- BTCV Environment for All Project.
Information from Richard Williams
r.williams@btcv.org.uk
- Countryside Council for Wales -
Plants for Wildlife project
pfrost@ccw.gov.uk
- Community Values - Maximising
Community Contribution to
Biodiversity through Urban Green
Spaces, by Judy Ling Wong OBE.
First published in Urbio, Issue
2, English Nature. May'02.
Downloadable from the Resources
Section of the BEN website
www.ben-network.org.uk as part of
the BEN publication Ethnic
Environmental Participation
Volume 4
- Green Space of the Month -
Confused Spaces. On the BEN
website under Participation
Section
Download
Guidance Paper 4
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