Events

Seeds of Change: Biodiverse Community Gardens as Tools for Social Empowerment

10 December 2024,1-2 pm
Online, further information here

With this lecture series, the HEBEDI team continues the successful webinar series of the EdiCitNet Global Lunch Talks as part of the HEBEDI project. From now on, the series will run under the title "LUNCH TALKS SERIES: Healthy and Biodiverse Edible Cities" and will be organised in a more interactive format with audience questions.

The Lunch Talk on 10 December 2024 will focus on the topic of 'Seeds of Change: Biodiverse Community Gardens as Tools for Social Empowerment'. With Julian Siegers from CIGL Esch and Ina Säumel from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

The benefits of biodiverse community gardens in the urban landscape are not limited to ecological aspects. Rather, various initiatives and programs in recent years have shown that community gardening and the integration of vulnerable groups in particular promote social cohesion. In the webinar, you will learn from best practice examples from Berlin and Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg) how both aspects are combined and successfully implemented.

About the Speakers:

Julian Siegers is responsible for the “Ville Mangeable (Edible City) Esch-sur-Alzette” project and works at CIGL Esch, a non-profit association whose aim is to help unemployed people find work and reintegrate into society, and to develop services that meet the population's unmet needs. His tasks are the supervision, animation and management of 5 community gardens, awareness campaigns via urban gardening projects and the development and realization of the Interreg project InteGRaVert, starting January 2025 if approved. He will present urban gardening projects that showcase the diversity of species on small surfaces, and make biodiversity “palpable” in the true sense of the word. All these activities are carried out in the context of professional integration and thanks to the experience in market gardening and environmental education of the Kalendula and Escher Geméisguart projects.

Ina Säumel leads the Multifunctional Landscapes research group at the Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She conducts and supervises research on urban and landscape ecology, land use change, sustainable use of resources and environmental pollution with a special focus on developing concepts for multifunctional, biodiversity-friendly and healthy landscapes. Over the last years, she led the following research projects: “Edible Cities Network” (EU H2020), “HEBEDI” & “RuralFutures” (BMBF) and “HealthyLiving “ (Berg Stiftung, Deutscher Stifterverband). During the webinar, she will provide an overview of the Berlin Senate's 'Social Cohesion' programme and emphasize the role of supporting community gardens as an informal approach to urban planning.

Who is this webinar for?

Everyone who is interested in making their neighborhood and city greener, healthier and more socially resilient, in particular urban and municipal stakeholders as well as members of green initiatives like community gardens and urban farms.

The event will be conducted in English. However, you are very welcome to provide questions and input in German as well.

Registration

Registration on Eventbrite