Conference 2003
Greening the City:
Bringing Biodiversity Back
into the Urban Environment
Abstract:
 The
Nature of Sustainable City Living
Chris Baines (Baines Environmental Ltd., United Kingdom)
Of all the people on
the Earth today, one in 100 lives in the British Isles. In such
a crowded and urbanised society it is all too easy to lose touch
with nature. Certainly there is little room for wildlife as a sentimental
luxury.
This keynote lecture
will emphasise the essential role which the natural life support
system needs to play if the quality of life in towns and cities
is to be enjoyable and sustainable. Using his 30 year experience
as one of the UK's leading environmental campaigners, Professor
Baines will show how encouraging a nation of gardeners to enjoy
nature on the doorstep has led to a wide-ranging recognition that
wildlife in the city has a vital and far wider role to play as functional
green infrastructure. By brokering partnerships from amongst
the commercial construction industry, public parks, private sector
house builders, water and other utility companies, domestic garden
owners, school and nature conservation charities and a host of other
"strange bedfellows" it is proving possible to rebuild the green
integrity of urban areas, to make creative use of a wide range of
resources, and to involve a very broad cross-section of the general
public.
The presentation will
refer to a number of UK initiatives, and institutions, including
Chelsea Flower Show, the Green Gym, the GreenLeaf
Housing Awards, sustainable urban drainage, brown roofs, urban forestry,
horticultural therapy, Learning Through Landscapes, The Heritage
Lottery Fund, the Urban Wildlife Partnership, the Big Garden
Bird Watch, International Dawn Chorus Day, the world daisy chain
championships, and the Rebuilding Biodiversity initiative.
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