AUTHOR=Martens Dörte , Öztürk Öyküm , Rindt Lara , Twarok Jana , Steinhardt Uta , Molitor Heike 

TITLE=Supporting biodiversity: Structures of participatory actions in urban green spaces

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Cities

VOLUME=Volume 4 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-cities/articles/10.3389/frsc.2022.952790

DOI=10.3389/frsc.2022.952790

ISSN=2624-9634

ABSTRACT=Biodiversity loss is an important topic considering climate change, global warming and even the reasoning of current and future animal related diseases i.e. Covid-19 pandemic. Urban biodiversity is also important because of the ecosystem services they provide, restorative benefits for wellbeing and physical health of the people who live in urban areas. Each city has its own strategies to cope with this issue and these strategies do not function without the contribution of habitants of the cities. We developed an index (BBS) of the existing possibilities to support urban biodiversity in Berlin to measure the awareness and willingness of the Berliners to participate and support urban biodiversity, partly offered by the Berliner Senate administration (Charta 2030).
A survey was conducted in a face-to-face situation in four districts of Berlin with 431 urban residents, measuring preference for three different levels of biodiversity, connectedness to residential greenspace, neighbourhood and city, nature relatedness and willingness in participatory actions around greenspace. 
Results show that the high biodiversity condition in a photo scenario was preferred by most residents, indicating the appreciation for urban biodiversity. The connectedness to the residential greenspace was high (and higher than the connectedness to neighbourhood and city), showing a high potential for quality of life. While the overall willingness to participate in actions to support urban greenspace was rather high, our index shows substantial differences in activities, which are perceived more or less. This is a key result for urban park management in order to increase urban biodiversity participation processes.