UrbanLIFEcircles: A New Blueprint for Biodiversity in Cities
We spoke to Mirjam Võsaste, Urban Nature Coordinator at the Tarty City Government, and her team, who, through the urbanLIFEcircles project, are pioneering a more biodiversity-friendly approach to urban planning. Their efforts aim to restore green connectivity, revitalise habitats, and engage citizens in creating thriving, nature-rich cities.
Biodiversity—the variety of life that sustains our planet—is essential to the health of ecosystems, and cities are no exception. Urban areas, often perceived as ecological deserts, can in fact support rich biodiversity, providing habitats for plants, animals, and even pollinators like bees and butterflies. Green urban spaces make cities beautiful, but they can also provide necessary ecosystem services such as regulation of air and water quality, combatting the urban heat island effect, and improving the mental health and wellbeing for citizens. Yet, as cities expand, natural habitats are lost or fragmented, leaving urban biodiversity under increasing threat. This has farreaching implications, as thriving ecosystems are crucial for managing environmental challenges and adapting to climate change. The urgency to address biodiversity loss is emphasised in the IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, which has found that populations of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles have declined by an average of 68% since 1970. This alarming trend is a witness to the fragility of ecosystems and a call for action. According to this report, the degradation of biodiversity threatens nature’s ability to provide essential ecosystem services, including clean air and water, food production, and natural resources. Additionally, biodiversity loss poses a risk to economic stability. Over half of the global GDP is dependent on nature and its services and sectors which form the backbone of the world economy such as agriculture, food, and construction, are especially vulnerable. In response, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 outlines a bold vision to stop biodiversity loss in urban areas. This strategy calls on cities to prioritise green infrastructure—such as urban forests, parks, meadows, and tree-lined streets–
while improving connectivity between green spaces. Another strategy to support ecosystems is to adopt biodiversity-friendly practices such as reducing excessive mowing. However, turning these goals into real-life practices has been challenging.
To address these challenges, the urbanLIFEcircles project offers a systematic approach to transforming urban greenery, placing biodiversity at the heart of city planning.
Tartu’s Green Spaces
residents. While many praise the project for promoting biodiversity and even express interest in applying the ideas to their own gardens, others resist the changes, criticising the new landscapes as unappealing. “Often, the backlash comes from subjective ideas of beauty,” the researcher notes. The team has developed strategies to balance ecological benefits with visual appeal to bridge this gap. By choosing plants that bloom in different seasons and finding balance between different mowing regimes, they aim to make biodiversity-friendly spaces more accessible and attractive. Putting up educational signs is also another way to help residents understand the purpose of these changes, and answer questions like “Why is this here? Why is it needed?”
these changes contribute to reducing the urban heat island effect, with temperatures in less frequently mowed areas being noticeably lower. Cities have the potential to serve as biodiversity havens while simultaneously addressing pressing environmental challenges like climate change.
A Collaborative Approach to Biodiversity Restoration
urbanLIFEcircles
Introducing adaptive community based biodiversity management in urban areas for improved connectivity and ecosystem health
Project Objectives
The urbanLIFEcircles project seeks to systematically integrate biodiversity into city landscapes by reducing mowing, introducing diverse native plants, and fostering communitydriven solutions. Through partnerships among Tartu, Riga, and Aarhus, the project aims to demonstrate how urban areas can become vital ecosystems that support local wildlife and help mitigate environmental challenges.
Project Funding
The urbanLIFEcircles project has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union under grant agreement No 101074453.
Led by Tartu, in collaboration with Riga and Aarhus, the project aims to restore connectivity and enhance ecosystem health across urban areas. “This project comes from the realisation that, even though urban ecology research has, for decades, provided a wealth of knowledge on biodiversity in cities and what needs to be done to support it, we’re not seeing these changes happen much in practice. Tartu University has top-level ecologists—both botanists and zoologists, and we wanted to use this expertise to make a difference in our hometown and bring ecological knowledge out of the academic world and into real life”, explains Mirjam Võsaste, a plant ecologist and Urban Nature Coordinator at the Tartu City Government.
The City of Tartu plays a central role as the project’s coordinating partner, while researchers from the university contribute through planning, monitoring, expert advice, and communication. The city is focused on the practical side of the project, like creating new habitats, adopting biodiversity-friendly management practices, building urban nature trails, and collaborating with stakeholders such as gardening and management companies. Together, they are promoting ideas like growing more local plants for city greenery and respecting the needs of biodiversity when maintaining urban green spaces. “A big part of the project is also about working with people—getting citizens involved in hands-on activities that directly benefit nature while engaging with different stakeholders to introduce a new way of thinking about urban ecosystems. It’s about creating change, not just on the ground, but also in the mindset of the city and its people” the researchers say.
“UrbanLIFEcircles is about creating change, not just on the ground, but also in the mindset of the city and its people”.
The urbanLIFEcircles project represents a bold transformation of urban green spaces in Tartu. Where parks once featured neatly mowed grass and carefully spaced trees, the city is now embracing a more natural, biodiversityfocused approach. In some places, grass is allowed to grow, and mowed less frequently, and diverse local plant species are introduced to enrich the soil and create habitats. Some areas have even been reimagined as forest-like environments, a significant shift from traditional urban landscaping. This transformation has sparked mixed reactions among Tartu’s
One of the most remarkable findings of the urbanLIFEcircles project has been the swift response of insect biodiversity to changes in plant composition. Traditional urban parks, dominated by neatly mowed grass, offer limited resources for pollinators. However, as soon as diverse plants—whether native or cultivated varieties—were introduced, butterflies started returning to city-centre parks. ”The need for habitats like these is very high for insects, as they often lack good opportunities even outside cities due to the prevalence of industrial and agricultural lands that do not support biodiversity. By creating these spaces, cities can act as refuge sites for local species, providing much-needed habitats. This idea is supported by scientific research, which shows that urban areas can serve as biodiversity refugees rather than ecological traps” the researcher shares. Early results are showing the benefits of these interventions. In areas where mowing was reduced or new plants and meadows were introduced, both the diversity and abundance of pollinators increased significantly. For example, initial monitoring revealed 12 species of butterflies in mowed areas compared to 24 species in unmowed areas—double the diversity. Additionally,
A particularly innovative aspect of the project is its collaboration with private citizens and apartment associations. The urbanLIFEcircles project provides small grants in all three cities to private households and apartment buildings to enhance biodiversity in their own gardens. This initiative supports the creation of urban meadows, small water bodies, and habitats for species like hedgehogs and birds. This is one of the first programmes in Europe focused specifically on biodiversity-friendly gardening on private land. “Cities usually only manage public land, but a large part of urban green space is private gardens, and we often don’t know what’s happening there. This is our first attempt to promote biodiversity in these areas and highlight their importance,” the researcher adds.
The project also actively engages citizens through volunteer opportunities. Residents are invited to join in activities such as planting diverse species, sowing and collecting seeds, or participating in traditional manual mowing events in city-centre parks. These events are open to individuals, schools, kindergartens, and even local companies, creating a strong sense of community involvement. “Citizens can participate through their own gardens or by volunteering with us throughout the year,” she concludes. The urbanLIFEcircles project demonstrates that cities have the potential to become biodiversity havens while tackling critical environmental challenges like climate change. The project sets an inspiring example of how urban areas can reconnect with nature.
Project Partners
Lead partner: Tartu City Estonia: University of Tartu, Tallinn Technical University, Kino NGO, Rohetiiger Foundation
Denmark: City of Aarhus Latvia: Riga City, Latvian Fund for Nature
Contact Details
Project Coordinator, Mirjam Võsaste Tartu City Government Urban Nature Coordinator
Tartu City Government Raekoja plats 1a (town hall)
50089 Tartu, Estonia
T: +372 53056477
E: Mirjam.Vosaste@tartu.ee
W: https://tartu.ee/en/urbanlifecircles
Mirjam Võsaste is a plant ecologist and works at the Tartu City Government as Urban Nature Coordinator. Her interests are everything related to urban nature – how to make cities sustainable, bring back biodiversity and transform the urban green areas for everyone.
