Urban Biodiversity Parks is developing and piloting the concept of urban biodiversity parks as a tool for urban ecological restoration and regeneration.
Project description
This project promotes urban biodiversity parks as a tool for urban ecological restoration and regeneration. It reflects Turku’s ambition to become one of the world’s leading ‘nature and climate cities’.
Piloting one main urban park and four smaller schemes, the aim is to create urban biodiversity spaces that can be used not only for recreation but also for community and learning. The park and the four selected pilot areas provide a platform for experimenting ways to preserve and actively enhance biodiversity in urban environments.
Diverse groups such as local inhabitants, NGOs, education institutions and private actors are involved in planning and implementation. These activities help integrate biodiversity protection into the maintenance and construction of urban infrastructure. In this way, Urban Biodiversity Parks increase stakeholders’ awareness of biodiversity conservation – and their capacity for actively supporting it. Activities include providing capacity building for private actors, and developing a model for including biodiversity parks in the voluntary ecological compensation scheme under Finland’s Nature Conservation Act. The project also involves citizens in participatory nature management, and cooperates with educational institutions to develop and use biodiversity parks as real-life learning environments. Additional activities include developing smaller scale suburban biodiversity pilots together with local communities, and trialling the biodiversity friendly greenspace design of a housing property.
Activities
The project’s key aim is to pilot a novel concept of urban biodiversity parks as a tool for urban regeneration and resilience. Biodiversity parks serve as platforms for experimenting innovative approaches to conserving and actively enhancing biodiversity in urban environments. The first urban biodiversity park will be piloted both as a recreational area – and as a versatile learning environment for various target groups such as schools, green infrastructure companies, residents and visitors.
- Establishment of a full-scale biodiversity park of about 20 ha in the Turku city district of Skanssi. The park will enhance biodiversity in various habitats and protect local and endangered species.
- Implementing small-scale biodiversity pilots in selected suburban neighbourhoods. This enables participants to co-learn how urban restoration solutions can be integrated in suburban planning, development and regeneration.
- Engaging the local community in planning and implementing biodiversity pilots and recreational elements, such as green spaces for residents and visitors to enjoy.
- Exploring effective means to engage private actors in urban ecological restoration, and increase their knowledge and capacities in biodiversity conservation. Topics range from ecological compensation to residential property design.
- Developing Skanssi Biodiversity Park as a participatory learning platform and promoting its use as a real-life learning environment for various educational institutions.
Funding
European Urban Initiative
Project information
Urban Biodiversity Parks is developing and piloting the concept of urban biodiversity parks as a tool for urban ecological restoration and regeneration. The aim is to create a 20-hectare biodiversity park, providing a recreational area – while also serving as a platform for community engagement and experiential learning. This helps citizens, NGOs, private actors, educational institutions and others get involved in developing and testing ways to preserve and actively enhance biodiversity in urban environments. The concept is being trialled in Turku’s Skanssi area, with more, smaller pilots planned in other suburban neighbourhoods.