Coordinator: Flora Roberts
Co-coordinator: Eggo Müller
Members: Kári Driscoll, Andrik Becht; student-assistant
WP4 shifts focus from imagination to practical application, empowering students to cultivate purpose and agency while enhancing climate resilience through community gardening and rewilding initiatives (Hoffman & Doody 2015). Engaging with these community garden projects on and around UU campus fulfills various objectives, including promoting mental health and resilience among students (Bauer 2022; Koay & Dillon 2020).
Rewilded gardens require less maintenance than non-native plant communities. To ensure project sustainability, we’ve partnered with UU’s Botanical Gardens and Future Learning Spaces. Identified community partners like Utrecht Natuurlijk (https://www.utrechtnatuurlijk.nl/overons/) who offer vital resources including gardening space and tools.
In year 1 we will establish plot areas with partners. Student groups develop gardening projects under WP-leader and local volunteer supervision.
In Year 2 we refine gardening projects and expand engagement to the wider UU-community, reaching UU students and staff via existing networks (e.g., Network for Environmental Humanities).
In year 3 we disseminate findings. The project activities adapt to student interest, such as focusing on areas like edible plants, rewilding and environmental justice.
Learning goals
- Understanding the connection between contact with living things and mental health (biophilia).
- Understanding basic sustainable gardening principles, seasonality, native plants, and the role of rewilding and afforestation in mitigating the climate crisis.
- Understanding the role green spaces play in mitigating pluvial flood risk in Utrecht specifically – and how individuals can increase flood and drought resilience locally through nature stewardship (Brockhoff 2019).
- Experiencing connection, ‘agency’ and purpose vis-à-vis the climate crisis through engaging with diverse models of nature stewardship.