From the 7th to the 9th of June 2022, project partners and experts came together in Lisbon for a Periurban Park Symposium. This symposium was organised in the framework of the LIFE UrbanGreeningPlans project on the occasion of the Mid-Term meeting in Lisbon. It consisted of two plenary sessions, seven working sessions and three field trips. It was a closed meeting, with apart from the project partners, only the following invited experts and stakeholders attending:
- Ana Cristina Lourenço, Câmara Municipal Lisboa
- Fernando Louro Alves, Câmara Municipal Lisboa
- Gonçalo Andrade, Parques do Porto
- João Sousa Rego, Parques de Sintra
- João Cardoso de Melo, Parque natural Sintra-Cascais
- Ines Rosario, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon
- Patrizia Tiago, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon
- Stakeholders from different municipalities from Greater Lisbon also attended the symposium.
This report is structured in two parts: 1) Green Infrastructure & Periurban Parks in Portugal; 2) Biodiversity monitoring. Additionally, the reflections from the workshops can be found at the end of this rapport.
Green Infrastructure & Periurban Parks in Portugal
Ana Cristina Lourenço, Câmara Municipal Lisboa
In the years to come, Lisbon will be faced not only with a big rise in temperatures, but also with violent storms. Ana explained that this is why the city is looking at urbanism in a different way, an ecological way:
"We must work with nature"
Green Infrastructure (GI) is Lisbon's main tool to face Climate Change (CC), not only for the ecosystem services GI delivers, but also for the health of people, social amenities and air quality. Since 2008 a real effort was made in Lisbon to make GI more robust. To do so, a lot of work is put into Green Corridors towards the centre of the city. The next challenges are:
- Bringing GI into city areas where there is a lack of space;
- Working with all the municipalities around Lisbon to get GI as a robust tool to face CC problems.
- Going green without compromising the blue. The city will face a scarcity of water. As such, it will need to increase the concept of a water smart society.
To master these challenges, networking is of high importance. This means exchanging with surrounding municipalities and gathering contributions of people from abroad. Learning from other experiences is extremely useful. All these efforts will make a better city with good amenities, good quality of life and health for everyone.
It is all about connections and networks: connecting the landscape through green corridors; connecting municipalities by cooperating together; connecting international partners by exchanging knowledge.
Fernando Louro Alves - Biodiversity and Nature Restoration in Monsanto Forest Park, Lisbon
The Periurban Park ‘Parque Florestal de Monsanto’ is an excellent example of nature restoration. Up until the early 20th century, the area was completely degraded. After an impressive restoration effort, the forest is now a refuge for Biodiversity and those living in Lisbon. At present, connecting the area with the city through the use of green corridors is a priority:
To improve the Biodiversity of the Park:
- Knowledge needed to be improved; Biodiversity in and around cities is very different from pristine areas.
- Slow mobility is favoured; big efforts are made to provide proper public transport links and discourage people from coming by car.
- Gardens in the cities need to be improved; there is a huge potential to create more biodiverse private gardens. Within the LIFE UrbanGreeningPlans project, a special tool is in development to improve the plants citizens pick for their gardens.
João Sousa Rego, Parques de Sintra
In close vicinity to Lisbon lies the Queluz National Palace, a high visited 18th Century Palace with gardens near the Jamor river. For many years, the river would flood into the gardens. There was a lack of communication amongst the different municipalities, so the management of the river was fragmented. A big highway crossing the area posed an additional challenge:
To solve this, an umbrella project was created for a green-blue corridor: the Jamor river. It established an integrated intervention strategy that restored the National Palace of Queluz to its capacity as a territorial hub and supported the re-naturalisation of the river.
This is a good example of :
- Cooperation between different municipalities thanks to good communication from the project promoter - a story telling video proved to be key.
- How to invest the income coming from tourism (fee entrances to the Queluz National Palace) in ecosystem restoration.
João Cardoso de Melo, Quinta do Pisão Nature Park
The area of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park had very low social standing. For a long time it was a place where prisoners were sent and as such was perceived negatively by the public. A lot of work needed to go into changing the mentality.
It's not just about nature conservation, but also about the positive impact conservation can have on the local community. It’s about making clear what kind of opportunities nature can provide. We want the community to be empowered and proud.
Apart from having a low social standing, the area was also in strong need of habitat restoration and management. The following management practices were put in place:
- Rewilding: introducing grazing domestic herbivores (campanica sheep, mirando donkeys and deer) for vegetation management and to promote biodiversity through a mosaic landscape. The efforts were very successful, with many new orchid species and the improvement of keystone species like bats, frogs and vipers.
- Replacing the invasive species of eucalyptus with native oaks
- Restoration and management of ponds/rivers: currently, 5 rivers at Cascais Municipality are monitored. Due to improvement of water quality, endangered fish are returning.
Monitoring is conducted at two levels:
- Biodiversity (e.g. Butterfly, Herpetofauna, Bird camera trapping).
- Visitors (counted, monitoring their impacts on the place), done through enquiries, quality assessments and surveying people.
This area, as many other Periurban Areas, requires a special communication effort:
There is a lack of understanding amongst city dwellers, that sheep, donkeys, horses do not need housing as they are wild species. It's important to give opportunities to people to bring them to nature and enjoy it. At the Park, each month there is a new calender with activities.
- Agricultural activities, as well as the historical and cultural heritage of a Park, can be used as a principal activity to engage people with nature.
- The Park has its own sustainable form: yearly, 26 tons of vegetables are sold from the Park.
- People can go to the vegetable garden and pick their own crop.
It’s all about working with the people and creating an understanding of how nature can impact the community and create social benefits. The Park, for example, works with a local psychiatric hospital to create jams that are sold within the Park.
THINK BIG!
- Plan ahead with a 10 years vision, make a road map;
- Get political commitment
- Invest in collecting data and have a good ecological and landscape assessment
- Build your own team, with passionate people for nature and biodiversity
- Engage the local community, use social media to get nature in their daily lives.
Good nature conservation can lead to changing perceptions, mentalities, improved ecological status and have a positive impact on the local community.
Gonçalo Andrade, Parques do Porto
A big project is underway in the north of Portugal to create a GI network of Periurban Parks for the Porto Metropolitan Area, starting by identifying the Parks that already exist and potential new areas and ecological connections.
- There are 11 Parks identified so far: 5 mountainous parks, 3 river valleys, 2 cultural landscapes & 1 coastal landscape. Their purpose will be mainly nature conservation and leisure. They will serve as an alternative to the shore, which is already very intensively used. Additionally, 12 river corridors were defined to connect these Parks together.
- In 2017, a new project for mobility, cohesion and territorial identity, environmental enhancement and nature tourism in the metropolitan area was developed: a network of connectors. All these 11 Parks were connected with 17 main urban centres through cycling and walking paths, again taking advantage of paths that were already there.
- Currently, there are 5 new Parks under way. This network is energised by the Sustainable Development Goals. They are of strategic importance to adhere to the different strategies, EU Green Deal, EU Digital Transition, New European Bauhaus, EU Biodiversity Strategy.
- The Parks’ management plans are participative, collaborative and adaptive. Flexibility is key to identify threats and opportunities faced by the Park and to adapt and correct measures implemented.
This is a great example of common compromise and common action undertaken by several municipalities, whilst adapting agile project management.
Biodiversity Monitoring
Bringing nature into cities will require proper monitoring to help us understand if our efforts are effective. Different monitoring methods were introduced by two speakers.
Ines Rosario - Monitoring Biodiversity: technological solutions
There is still a lot we do not know about Biodiversity, due to a lack of data, or a lack of tools to help us understand the data. To solve this, the LIFEPLAN project collects data from across the globe. Over 100 countries are participating in this project, which is strongly driven by technological solutions:
- AudioMoth: records the sounds of birds and other vocal organisms;
- Camera traps to capture images;
- Malaise trap to capture insects;
- Cyclone samples: captures spores of fungi and other airborne organisms.
This data gets collected in a cloud. An AI software will then analyse it, providing scientist with a wealth of data on global biodiversity.
This project is a great example of how technology can help collect and analyse large amounts of data to help us better understand biodiversity.
Patrizia Tiago - Monitoring Biodiversity: Citizen Science
A popular form of Citizen Science in Portugal is Bioblitz: Citizens, together with scientists, record as many species as possible in an area for a limited amount of time. This method allows scientists to compare different years and/or, time periods. The Bioblitzes taking place in Lisbon are connected to the “Biodiversity4All” initiative. This website allows for different projects to be set up and is connected to iNaturalist. It’s an easy and low-barrier way of getting citizens involved in biodiversity monitoring.
Involving citizens in monitoring activities helps promote the importance of biodiversity and raises the awareness of the larger public to biodiversity loss.
Working sessions
In the working sessions, project partners discussed different topics and questions to further develop urban greening. Here are the main reflections and conclusive points, organised per overarching question. These reflections represent only the opinion of individual participants and serve as a base for discussion.
How can we make Urban Greening Plans adaptable to external drivers?
To set a baseline, we need clear definitions:
- Urban: in its broad sense, territories characterized by an urban way of life – i.e. more than 50% of the active population work with/for/in second or third economic sectors. This includes periurban or rururban areas
- Greening: in its broad sense as well, includes any kind of natural feature that strengthens, and increases BD and natural cover of ecological (high) value (in, on, around buildings and cities).
- Plan: framework of strategies, techniques and management plans deployed in space and time.
- Adaptive: flexible, reversible, dynamic, (eco)systemic, robust.
We need to rethink the land value logic from an anthropocentric and economic growth approach, to an anthropo-biocentric and liveability approach.
Within this context, there is a range of external drivers that are relevant:
- Climate change (frequency, intensity, unpredictability of extreme events + systemic evolution of ecosystems).
- Social pressure on natural spaces.
- Outdoor activities (new sports, new types of demands).
- Ecosystems and species.
- Economy (less resources, climatic migrations and relocalisation leading to increased land pressure; remote working leading to more outdoor activities).
- New forms of mobility.
- Governance systems (better integration or more specialization, or environment as a principal or secondary layer of urban policies)
Tips for successful Urban Greening Plans:
- Set the fundamental values and definitions (nature, urban, plan, greening…).
- Create an integrated & transversal way of governance (across different sectors and scales), with a common agenda.
- Have the ability to change land use.
- Make UGPs mandatory.
- Integrate them into planning and management instruments of territory.
- Rethink current indicators to improve our monitoring: the CBD is used by the Global South, USA & Canada. There is a need for a European index based on EU values regarding nature.
Creating Urban Greening Plans should become an open process, with trial and error, experimentation and monitoring. There is no more time to first write the rules and then implement them: adopt a similar logic as with the COVID-19 vaccine process, or the ‘territoires d’expérimentation’ in France.
Urban Greening Plans should become URGENT Greening Plans!
How should we measure biodiversity enhancement, and how can we link it to an international index?
- Learn more about species, ecosystem services and governance at an ecological level. We need to know our starting point and also the governance system behind it (create a database)
- An index needs to be established on an ecological level.
- Monitoring: evaluate the situation either using expensive measures, or cheaper indicators
- Upgrade the database initially made and make improvements/adaptations (thinking also of external drivers like Climate Change).
It is essential to always need to compare yourself with yourself on a timeline. NOT to other areas. To do so accurately, we must ensure we are always using the same means and techniques. So, how do we link this with an international index?
- You don’t! It’s not possible to compare one ecosystem to another one.
- A possible solution would be to provide raw data to governing institutions.
- You improve your performance, in relation to your own performance.
How to integrate multi-stakeholder management (e.g. bikers, hikers, families) with biodiversity enhancement?
It's important to understand what the different user groups in your area are, and what impacts their activities have. Common examples are:
- Sports practitioners: mostly bikers and runners. Main issues: creation of new trails and the erosion of the existing ones, conflicts with other users and biodiversity disturbance.
- Families and social users: parties and celebration gatherings, and dynamic activities. Main issues: waste production, noise, overcrowded spaces and biodiversity disturbance.
- Dog walkers: Main issues: waste production and biodiversity disturbance.
- Nature lovers: Main issues: potential biodiversity disturbance.
These challenges can be summarized in two complementary categories:
- The coexistence amongst different users.
- The coexistence between biodiversity and different users.
There is an opportunity to involve different users in biodiversity enhancement:
- Users’ involvement: through citizen science programs, school programs, collective activities or events related to restoration, new plantations, maintenance, etc.
- Develop a constant relationship with the different actors. In order to do so the management bodies of parks need dedicated trained staff and to ensure financial resources.
- Send a unified message across different Protected Areas through local and regional level coordination. In relation to this point and the next one, it could be useful to identify potential ambassadors.
- A communication strategy in order to increase biodiversity culture and to create awareness. Two important aspects are fundraising and/or social media campaigns.
Additionally, increasing green spaces through enlarging existing areas or purchasing new land gives city dwellers more space for recreation.
How can we utilise positive communication for policymakers and citizens to accelerate awareness of the climate emergency and the importance of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) and Green Infrastructure?
Communications around Urban Greening Plans are twofold: for UGPs to be successful, political support is needed - and for political support, it is important to have citizens "on your side". Different methods of communication are needed. When communicating about the climate emergency, NBS and GI to citizens, it's critical to make it...
- Tangible: There is a knowledge gap amongst the public when it comes to the link between Climate Change, Biodiversity loss and the potential of NBS. Giving real-life examples helps to illustrate them.
- Manageable: “make it small”; make big issues like Climate Change manageable for people in a positive way.
- Personal: focus communications around how people are not disconnected from nature, but a part of it.
Additionally, remember to avoid academic language when explaining these processes. It can also be a lot more effective to have people experience the power of NBS and GI, and involve them in the “renaturing” process.
NBS: Nature is the Best Solution!
Communication is also essential in gaining political support. Policymakers are often looking for "selling point". As such, it's important to underline:
- How NBS and GI have the potential to greatly improve the quality of life in cities;
- The opportunities for so-called “green jobs”;
- The potential for NBS to make nature economically measurable (for example through carbon budgeting)
How can Urban Greening Plans and NBS help meet the EU restoration targets?
During the time of the meeting, the EU targets had not yet been published. Nonetheless, we discussed multiple ways in which UGB and NBS can support restoration actions. When done well, they can help:
Capture and store carbon:
- Improvement of soil health by promoting more permeable soils and transforming streets.
- Promoting more natural surfaces like green facades, rooftops, balconies, and public green spaces. This provides additional benefits to biodiversity.
Prevent and reduce the impact of natural disasters:
- Flooding: Transform straight rivers into more natural, free flowing rivers; create permeable surfaces; restore waterfront vegetation.
- Fire: Use grazing methods with sheep or goats to maintain natural areas, making them less subjective to wildfires.
- Drought: use native species or “next native species”: species that are better suited to the new climate conditions in an area; favour drought-resilient species.
- Heat waves: Green vegetation can greatly reduce the overall temperature in cities.
Additionally, public green spaces also improve the health and well-being of city dwellers, creating a win-win situation.
What are the most suitable methodologies to Monitor BD for green managers?
Green Managers in this context can be both private landowners, but also those working in public bodies, managing green spaces. Monitoring can be done:
- over time;
- at a local, national or international level;
- in Protected Areas, but also other green areas or even urban areas;
- to inform managers about the areas’ status or help shape management plans.
Available methodologies:
- Species monitoring or habitats monitoring: these are strictly scientific methods and give a unified way of reporting results and analysing data. They are most commonly used in Protected Areas/Natura2000 areas.
- Citizen science, for example: aforementioned Bioblitz, or through apps like i-Naturalist.
Who has access to the data and/or results? That depends on the data!
- When the data is sensitive for the conservation of biodiversity then it remains exclusively in the research team (for example finding a nest of a rare species).
- Data that can be made public without endangering biodiversity can be shared on public database platforms (for example the flora species of an area).
Monitoring that is done through citizen science is also an important communication and nature education tool, that can help raise awareness and (re)connect people to nature.
Credits:
Created with images by SeanPavonePhoto - "Lisbon, Portugal Skyline" • ricardo rocha - "View of Lisbon from Monsanto Viewpoint"