Locally in Action for Biodiversity

‘Building a new sustainable neighbourhood on the outskirts of Sneek, together’. This is the philosophy behind Harixmaland. The city of Sneek would like to give collective and sustainable initiatives in this area a chance. A Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) is the way to put together ideas from a collective vision for the future and bring them to action. The Sneek Association for Urban Agriculture (Stichting Stadslandbouw Sneek) invited CREM to lead a BAP session.

Around 50 participants came together on the evening of 31 October to brainstorm about the biodiversity-rich area. Among the participants were current and future users of the area, business people and employees from care, educational and health organizations. Local government employees were present as observers.

Creative process

The participants were separated into different groups. Each group identified ‘services’ that the area could offer, in one of four themes: local economy, recreation, farm and other education, and residential. One group came up with pictures, proposals and ideas for each theme, a process that led to some very innovative ideas.

Favourite Dreams

The session resulted in at least 70 dreams! Favourite dreams were: a green play area with water and rafts, ziplines and big rope bridges for recreation and a vegetable or flower garden where people could work and sell products, learning about food production and local products and plans for temporary natural area.

Do you work for a local government or neighbourhood association? Then look at biodiversiteitactieplan.nl or get in contact CREM.

More info: Wijnand Broer