In many large cities, such as Stuttgart, agricultural uses comprise a significant portion of land and include critical habitat for plants and animals in areas characterized by sealing. In addition, agricultural land in urban areas provides valued and heavily used recreational space and represents the most direct opportunity for many people to engage with the origins and production of their food. At the same time, agriculture and the population are in a particular tense relationship, especially in (sub-) urban areas - farmers complain about a lack of understanding and consideration; the local population complains about monocultures and the use of pesticides in agriculture with reference to insect protection and other concerns. In recent years, however, more and more citizen-driven initiatives have emerged that attempt to resolve this tension. However, a systematic analysis of these initiatives in the context of biodiversity conservation is still missing, as well as an analysis of their success factors.
Picking up on this, the project focuses on how farms and the population in (sub)urban areas can be more closely connected to promote biodiversity. Three interrelated sub-questions are considered:
- How do farmers and urban populations perceive each other in a biodiversity context?
- What are the motives for participation in cooperation models on the part of the farmers and on the part of the urban population?
- What possibilities are there for designing participation models?
