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ABOUT INTEGRATION WHAT does the INTEGRATION OF ALLOTMENT AND COMMUNITY GARDENS mean?
WhY The Integration of allotment and community gardens project covers a range of practices that have evolved formally or informally in Warsaw and Berlin as well as in some other cities. They aim to implement new ways of resource sharing and cooperation between people and communities for strengthening the gardens’ resilience. Such practices are gaining importance in the context of increasing pressure on land in the cities.
AIM Allotment and community gardens are often considered as different worlds. However, they share many similarities. The Integration of allotment and community gardens project shows the closeness between these two worlds and all others that evolve around urban gardening, highlighting the powerful synergy that their potential union can create. This guide demonstrates ways that enable gardeners to stabilise and enhance their role in the city, it encourages new forms of co-operation between different state and non-state actors, and it fosters new models of sustainable land use. Both kinds of garden draw benefits through mutual learning; the sharing of knowledge, experience and resources; as well as the strengthening of their role in the urban arena – a condition that can ensure their recognition within urban landscape management plans. In the process of integration, urban gardens become more accessible for wider constituencies, thus ensuring environmental, spatial and social justice. They can become multifunctional spaces responding to the needs of different communities.
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