Keywords

1 Introduction

Allotment gardens (AG) have a long tradition. Nowadays an AG is considered as a type of community garden, a plot of land made available for individual, non-commercial gardening or growing food plants. In countries under development they are conceived as “gardens for the poor”, as an important motivation was self-sufficiency through the cultivation of fruits and vegetables (Gusted, 2017). In any case, AG are a location of social interaction, and increasingly are recognised as biodiversity hubs in Green Infrastructure (GI). GI describes a strategically planned network of natural and near-natural areas with different natural features on different scales. In this respect, the GI represents a new planning approach for landscape architecture, which is based on a comprehensive and sustainable view of nature and the landscape. In addition to ecological, socio-cultural, aesthetic and economic aspects, diverse socio-political goals such as climate change, biodiversity or social cohesion are integrated into the concept. These biotope networks are intended to preserve biodiversity on the one hand and to strengthen and regenerate ecosystem functions and the potential for providing ecosystem services based on them on the other. The main aim of this contribution is to have a look at AG and their GI potential. This concerns several questions, like in which way AG might be part of urban biodiversity networks, their contribution in terms of ecosystem services and which role AG may play in nature conservation, restoration and habitat connectivity in the long term.

2 Materials and Methods

The present research is based on a qualitative literature review through the Web of Science and other scientific research platforms like Scopus and Google Scholar supported by field survey evidence. The literature review focused on AG’s as such, their history and traditional role for food supply for the poor, and their recently transformed role as GI element including. The field survey was performed during excursions with collection of qualitative information in the period 2017–2020 in Ecuador, Germany, Sweden, Uganda, and Vietnam (countries in alphabetic order). Several types of stakeholders where consulted during the field surveys, particularly random AG gardeners from the mentioned countries, complemented with information from local communal and academic stakeholders. Interviews with gardeners comprised the topics of garden size, mode of cultivation, role of biodiversity, role of environment and health, as well as their opinion on the role of AG’s as GI. The survey included from five (Sweden, Uganda) to ten (Ecuador, Germany, Vietnam) stakeholders per country. Literature review focused on a qualitative approach, quantitative data from the literature were used to support the drawn conclusions.

3 The Role of Allotment Gardens Around the World

3.1 Dimension and Purpose of Allotment Gardens

Having a look on the dimension and purpose of AG’s, country specific diversity becomes already obvious. The Cost Action TU1201 defined AG’s as ‘small plots of urban land allocated by local authorities to households who are interested in producing their own vegetables’ (Veen, 2014). Veen (2014) underlined that the international termination differs in terms of the AG characteristics, and they are different from community gardens where people do not have individual plots. According to Guitart et al. (2012) community gardens refer to green spaces for mainly horticultural uses, which are run by local communities in urban areas including communally and individually managed or rented plots of land. AG’s are also different from urban agriculture, which is practised on larger scale and commercially. As documented by Veen (2014), a Norwegian dictionary defined AG as a “collection of small garden plots, 150–300 square meters, outside the owner’s domicile, usually on rented, most often municipal land”. Sovova and Veen (2020) investigated Dutch and Czech AG’s and found an AG size in The Netherlands of 100–500 m2, as well as in Czech Republic of 200 and 240 m2. In Germany, the size is limited to 400 m2, and the only permanent building in the AG may be a bower that is not used for living. Also, the Polish Allotment Garden Act contains restrictions regarding the bower (Moskalonek et al., 2020). The AG dimensions were confirmed in the field surveys.

In the Global North, importance and function of urban AG has repeatedly undergone major changes, particularly in the last decades. As a place with an existential and health promoting function more than 200 years ago, AG’s were transformed recently into the main leisure and recreational facility in the urban realm that serves social interaction (Moskalonek et al., 2020). AG’s became substantial GI part, representing harnessed nature that is used infrastructurally (Benedict & McMahon, 2012). Meanwhile, particularly in European cities, their leisure and recreational value is more important than an economic benefit (Moskalonek et al., 2020).

However, the AG history shows, that in economically difficult times the practical use becomes more important. This is also the case in developing countries where AG’s still have a crucial food security function and serve families with low incomes (Khalil et al., 2017; Singh & Singh, 2017), as is illustrated in the example from Uganda (Fig. 21.1). Khalil et al. (2017) defined small-scale food producers as smallholders and summarised that they are taking the bottom 40% of the (i) operated land size, (ii) the Tropical Livestock Units and (iii) the distribution of revenues. Particularly in economically less developed countries of the Global South, AG’s are usually used by individuals or families, even families might support each other (Singh & Singh, 2017). In a later stage of development, there is a trend of transition from cooperation to cooperatives, as was illustrated in an investigation in Benin by Houessou et al. (2019). Do to the extreme climate in Africa, AG’s are often practised as agroforestry in order optimise the water balance and to protect the soil from evaporation in a hot climate (Lorenz & Lal, 2018) (Fig. 21.1, left).

Fig. 21.1
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AG’s in Uganda. (Photo: Petra Schneider)

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Water retention systems, trees for shadow, or frost protection systems are typical AG elements differing according to climate and biogeographical zones. Furthermore, urbanisation, growing population and community development have an impact on AG’s structure and size. Roberts and Shackleton (2018) found a clear decline in most community food garden attributes in South Africa between the 1980s and 2000s, which refers to the number of gardens per town, the total area of all gardens combined and the mean size per garden with a maximum garden size loss in King Williams Town by 77%. Trembecka and Kwartnik-Pruc (2018) argued that also in European countries the number of AG’s is decreasing due to increasing property prices, except Austria and Germany where the AG’s are located on municipal land and are under special protection.

3.2 Allotment Gardens for Health and Wellbeing

Soga et al. (2017) quantified the health benefits of urban allotment gardening in Tokyo, Japan, and underlined the improved physical and psychological wellbeing through a questionnaire survey and comparison between gardeners and non-gardeners and concluded a substantially better general health, mental health and social cohesion. The authors proofed that the moderate intensity of AG physical activity promotes people’s physical fitness and health, and caused additional psychological health benefits. Furthermore, AG’s are likely to increase people’s vegetable consumption. Also, Wood et al. (2015) performed a study on the quantification of AG health and well-paired t-tests revealed a significant improvement in self-esteem and mood as a result of one allotment session, being valid for the time spent on the allotment as well as the time after up to 7 days. Furthermore, the results proofed that allotment gardeners experience less depression and fatigue and more vigour. In that investigation, the participants identified six main themes for enjoyment of allotment gardening, that is being outdoors and having contact with nature (70%), sense of achievement derived from allotment gardening (50%), opportunity for restoration and stress relief (35%), enjoying social interaction (31%), growing and eating the produce (19%), and the opportunities to be active (11%). Comparable results were found by Egerer et al. (2018). Furthermore, nice AG’s provide a positive visual impact (Fig. 21.2) and enjoy people (Borysiak & Mizgajski, 2016). Working people recover from work stress (Young & Hofman, 2020). Moreover, AG open up a new field of activity for the unemployed. Retirees are discovering a meaningful leisure activity that they can do as often as they want, even on a small budget. In the Global South AG’s serve intrinsically public health and wellbeing through the contribution to local food security and ensuring livelihood of local people.

Fig. 21.2
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AG’s in Visby, Gotland, Sweden. (Photo: Petra Schneider)

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3.3 Ecosystem Services of Allotment Gardens

Ecosystem services (ES) are nature’s services for humans, which they obtain through habitats and living beings such as animals and plants. They are divided into four categories according to the nature of the benefits to humans:

  • provisional services: products that are obtained from ecosystems; regulatory services: benefits arising from the ecosystems regulation; supporting services: services that are required for the production of all other ecosystem services; as well as cultural services: non-material benefits obtained through ecosystems, such as the fulfilment of aesthetic, spiritual and intellectual needs, recreation, and cultural heritage. AG’s are considered as substantial green resource for the provision of urban ecosystem services (Gómez-Baggethun & Barton, 2013; Speak et al., 2015). AGs are part of Nature-based Solutions, supporting ecosystem services including people and habitat connectivity.

Due to their closeness to the city, AGs can therefore help to reduce urban traffic. Like all green spaces, they reduce air pollution as they eliminate dust and form an urban heat buffer (Rost et al., 2020; Mancebo, 2018). Rost et al. (2020) found that on average in Berlin (Germany), the assessed AG nocturnal air temperatures were 2.7 Kelvin cooler than the remaining urban realm. This benefits the city’s microclimate and water balance. Furthermore, AG’s are locations of a circular material management and the promotion of closed water and nutrient cycles, particularly in dry regions. Common practices everywhere in the world are roof water harvesting and water retention. AGs are also used to recycle garden waste on site as a substructure for the soil layer and in this way to create micro-habitats.

AG’s are an excellent example for a multifunctional land use type delivering ecosystem services like food provision, nutrient cycling, air purification, heat buffer, biodiversity, as well as physical as well as social wellbeing and benefits (Langemeyer et al., 2018). Figure 21.3 shows the multifunctional land use of AG’s in Hoa Binh, Vietnam, that are used for food provision, while the land is used in parallel for water retention in the flood case. Furthermore, the gardens in Fig. 21.3 have a linear shape along the river that promotes biotope network structures for fauna migration.

Fig. 21.3
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Multifunctional land use of AG’s in Hoa Binh, Vietnam. (Photo: Petra Schneider)

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The biotope function of urban gardens relates to the function of species and habitats. Gardens can then provide biotopes for non-domesticated species and support undesired overgrowth of crops and domestic animals. This has a supportive effect for biodiversity. In addition, AGs act as a buffer zone between natural and urban habitats, so that the location of allotment gardens on the outskirts has a favourable effect, as they act as link to the town centre, but also to the agricultural landscape. At the same time, in addition to their function as a retreat, they also make a contribution to the protection of the local flora and fauna. Moreover, they represent valuable islands for plants, animals and people. The wealth of structures that can be found in different forms from garden to garden and is of particular importance. There are niches in AGs for numerous plants and animals due to the diverse mosaic-like garden structures, including the different culturally and individually determined farming methods and care intensities. Exemplarily, the Polish Allotment Garden Act illustrates the upgraded role of AGs in terms of nature protection and habitat connectivity (Moskalonek et al., 2020). The Polish Act defines new AG functions going beyond the traditional ones, like restoring degraded areas to the community and nature, protection of the environment and nature, acting the improvement in ecological conditions of municipalities and shaping a healthy human environment. If they are a connecting element to other urban green spaces, they take on important tasks for the biotope network and are therefore an indispensable prerequisite for biodiversity. In addition to being places of retreat for flora and fauna, they also fulfil a biotope function to protect native animal and plant species in “mini biotopes” (Meyer-Rebentisch, 2013).

Nowadays AG’s also fulfil an important function as a reservoir of genetic diversity: often gardeners cultivate old useful and cultivated plants that are no longer cultivated in commercial agriculture and are therefore often threatened with extinction. Furthermore, pollination bees find habitats, and this concerns domestic bees as well as wild bees which are observed in AG’s (Egerer et al., 2020).

AG gives a possibility to grow own food. One of the AG characteristic is that berry bushes and fruit trees, summer flowers and ornamental plants, vegetables of all kinds, medicinal plants and aromatic herbs grow side by side, in type depending on the climate zone. Those who care for them in the AG at the same time are making a contribution to biodiversity. The types of grown fruits and vegetables depend on the climatic zone, the geographical conditions, and the preference of the gardeners, the volume of the harvest mainly from the AG size. However, there is a difference between the Global North and South as the percentage of self-sufficiency use of the harvest is higher in the Global South, which underlines the priority of food provision. For instance, the average results of Sovová and Veen (2020) indicate that 70% of the harvest are used for self-sufficiency in Dutch and 52% in Czech AG’s. Roberts and Shackleton (2018) made investigations on South African gardens and concluded that 84% of the gardeners used the harvest for home consumption but also sold any excess to provide some income, while 16% reported gardening solely for the purpose of selling the harvest.

4 Show Case Allotment Gardens of the Allotment Garden Association Schnarsleben e.V. in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

The following show case illustrates the role of allotment gardens for connecting nature and people, and might be considered one way of AG future, particularly in the Global North. It refers to a typical German AG, that can be found in a similar version across Europe, and shows the transitional development potential from a historically priority relevant food producing space to a regionally important place of habitat connectivity. The planned nature conservation measures are currently under approval by the local planning authority and shall be implemented starting from 2022.

The Allotment Garden Association (AGA) Schnarsleben e.V. has its origins in the 1930s. It is located in Niederndodeleben in the Hohe Börde landscape protection area. The garden area has currently a good usage share. 71 of 104 garden parcels are currently in typical allotment use. On the one hand, the Covid-19 pandemic is the reason; on the other hand, the trend towards self-sufficiency with fruit and vegetables has been increasingly popular in recent years. AGA Schnarsleben e.V. has now reached a crucial point in its history and intends to combine nature protection, species conservation and urban gardening through a Nature Conservation Strategy. With its location in the hilly landscape of the Hohe Börde region, the location offers the possibility to develop a green corridor as a symbiotic use of allotment gardening and stepping stone patch biotopes (Saura et al., 2014). The connections between the anthropogenic use and the degradation of natural or important anthropogenic ecosystems have prompted AGA Schnarsleben e.V. to take actions for the preservation and increase of biodiversity by reallocating unused garden parcels for ecosystem restoration. The measures comprise restoration of the fruit garden as orchard meadow, establishment of bird promotion areas, and herb gardens (Fig. 21.4). In addition, targeted species protection measures, e.g. through a semi-active habitat construction for species are also foreseen. The strategy for a green infrastructure in suburban and urban gardens is intended to consolidate biological diversity in the long term. In addition, the strategy was developed in a way that future land use models for the sustainable development of peri- and urban areas can be established, taking into account an appropriate scale and the given conditions. Figure 21.4 shows how the planned nature conservation measures shall form an ecological corridor for habitat connectivity. This biotope network needs an interdisciplinary cooperation of different actors. Most of the biotope network area is currently in intensive agricultural use.

Fig. 21.4
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Overview on the gardens of the Allotment Garden Association Schnarsleben e.V. – Planned nature conservation measures. (Author: Tino Fauk)

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To analyse the implementation possibilities of the biotope network, the AGA Schnarsleben e.V. started stakeholder involvement with the local agricultural company and the community of Niederndodeleben. On the parcels not anymore in use the grassing of sheeps and goats already began. The sample for habitat connectivity in Fig. 21.5. Further action of AGA Schnarsleben e.V. is e.g. optimizing natural habitats for fauna and flora.

Fig. 21.5
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Planned nature conservation measures of the Allotment Garden Association Schnarsleben e.V. – Sample for applied habitat connectivity. (Author: Tino Fauk)

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Environmental education is equated with species and nature conservation. Furthermore, it is planned to gain long-term scientific knowledge about the population development of the native flora and fauna in times of climate change and increasing urbanization. In addition, it is important to attract the interest of the next generations in the local nature, which almost no longer occurs in this agro-industrial landscape of the Hohe Börde. The motto is “Experience nature in community”.

5 Conclusions

AG’s in the urban environment are an indispensable part of urban quality of life. It is precisely the diversity of cultivated plants and their mostly vital and healthy condition that allotment gardens contribute significantly to improving the quality of life. By cultivating old cultivated plant species and varieties that are no longer used in horticulture today, as well as knowing about their cultivation and processing, cultural assets can be locally preserved and preserved. The value of AG’s as a form of green spaces close to residential areas is particularly evident for the majority of urban families with children and the elderly. An increase in the quality of life through AG’s within city districts is achieved precisely through the human and social coexistence of different social classes with common interests. AG’s have great potential for integrating people.

In addition to the various social and economic functions, urban gardens also fulfil important ecological functions. The balancing effect on the inner-city climate and in particular its potential for strengthening biodiversity should be emphasized here. Due to the different structural characteristics, AG’s have different meanings for species protection and the habitats of plants and animals. However, it should be noted that in some regions there still might be undesirable legacies from the past where sometimes artificial fertilizers have been applied by the gardeners.

As illustrated in the contribution, AG’s fulfil a variety of functions that have a positive effect on human health and quality of life. The social importance of allotment gardening has proven, in addition to the ecological and economic components. The preservation of traditional garden knowledge and an independent garden culture, AG’s enable the preservation of this cultural knowledge through their diverse social functions and opportunities for interaction.

Generally, AG’s are valuable elements of communities and GI that provide substantial ecosystem services. Important is to preserve them and to integrate the allotment requirement plans in urban, regional and special planning, as well as in urban-rural concepts. Therefore, the development of holistic concepts for connecting urban green spaces and landscaped areas, including allotment gardening should be fostered. However, the practice shows that planners are often not yet familiar with the GI concept and the design principles and therefore might not acknowledge in a sufficient way the AG benefits in the urban and regional planning concepts. Therefore, potential threats for AG in the future might comprise their elimination in order to obtain land for housing construction, as already happened in Germany. For that reason, it is necessary to create more awareness about the environmental benefits of AG’s. In this regard, the personal AG experience will contribute to further awareness. Experience might comprise allotment hikes and cycle paths or art trails, as well as leisure infrastructure taking into account the needs. The promotion of AG’s in the vicinity of residential areas will lead to their further acknowledgment. Abandoned AG’s are of crucial importance for nature conservation and restoration.