The next global biodiversity framework is to be adopted in Kunming, China, before the end of this year. Also up for decision is an action plan for cities and regions, which Bonn is advocating as a co-signatory of the Edinburgh Declaration.
Bonn is a founding member of the Global Alliance of Cities and Regions for Biodiversity, and Mayor Katja Dörner is a member of the Advisory Council of Cities to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Mayor is also committed to biodiversity as a cross-cutting issue through her membership of the Global Executive Committee of ICLEI, the international city network for sustainability.
Action weekend for young and old on May 21/22
Already on Saturday, May 21, 2022, the municipal environmental education center "House of Nature" at the Waldau organizes its biodiversity action day under the headline "Biodiversity - In the forest and at home". Numerous offers and actions inform about the importance of biodiversity of our native forests. Visitors are invited to experience biodiversity and learn how they can promote and protect it on their own doorstep.
Biodiversity Day in the Botanical Gardens traditionally offers the opportunity to get to know many actors and their local projects in Bonn. After a two-year break, the Botanical Gardens will therefore open their doors again on Sunday, May 22, 2022, for a central day of action.
VHS event series "Biodiversity in the City" and BION summer lectures
Not only for the action weekend, but throughout the year, the Department of Environment and Urban Greening, in cooperation with the Adult Education Center, offers the series "Biological Diversity in the City" with exciting (online) lectures and interesting field trips. Many educational offers of the House of Nature can also be booked in cooperation with the Adult Education Center.
The BION network is the platform for biodiversity research in Bonn. Apart from the City of Bonn, many of the BION members, such as the Botanical Gardens of the University of Bonn or the Zoological Research Institute and Museum Alexander Koenig, combine scientific work and interesting offers for young and old. In July and August 2022, BION will organize the successful digital lecture series "SommerWissen" for the second time.
National label for diversity: “StadtGrün naturnah”
The Department of Environment and Urban Greening is committed to improving biodiversity and closeness to nature on urban green spaces with a variety of measures and programs. For its commitment, the City of Bonn received the silver medal in the nationwide labeling procedure "StadtGrün naturnah" in 2019. The aim of this labeling procedure is to create attractive habitats for people and nature. The City of Bonn is currently applying for recertification with its green space development concept and other measures. Important and above all visible building blocks for this engagement include insect-friendly mixed perennial plantings and the creation of flowering meadows and flowering strips. Increasing use is being made of native seeds. Some of the areas, for example in the cemeteries, are planted in cooperation with the Bonn Biological Station.
Flowering habitats
In the daycare center project "Blossoms for Insects," even the youngest children can plant their own flowers and experience how their flowerbed becomes a popular insect meeting place. Thanks to the "Bonn blossoms and hums" project, such flowerbeds can be found almost all over Bonn. The City of Bonn enables citizens to lease small plots of land at low cost - for example under city trees - and thus create space for nature and places for neighborhoods to meet. The transition town initiative "Bonn in Transition" provides regional seeds for this purpose.
Green bus stops and advertising pillars
As part of the Smartcity partnership, the City of Bonn, together with Stadtwerke Bonn GmbH and the company Ströer, is greening the roofs of bus stops and advertising pillars, among other measures. Green street furniture shows and reminds everyone that green roofs with insect-friendly flowering plants are possible even in the smallest areas and is intended to inspire the creation of more places for plants and animals everywhere in the urban environment.
Greening and unsealing buildings - for biodiversity, climate and soil
Roofs and facades or previously sealed ground areas are still a largely untapped potential that needs to be exploited - for biodiversity, in climate adaptation and for soil protection. For this reason, new funding programs for the greening of buildings and the unsealing of surfaces have been established in connection with the City' s Climate Emergency Program. Within these programs, private individuals, tradesmen, church congregations, associations and other corporate bodies who want to implement a greening of facades and/or roofs or also the greening of previously sealed surfaces on their own building or property are supported. In addition to improving the climate, the project also aims to enhance the ecology and increase biodiversity in urban areas through species-rich flowering areas on flat roofs and insect-friendly mixed perennial plantings on unsealed surfaces. The Department of Environment and Urban Greening offers greening advice and assistance in applying for funding from the two urban greening programs for anyone interested.
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Bio-Stadt Bonn: Organic City
Since 2019, the City of Bonn has been a member of a network of German organic cities, municipalities and districts, as the first city in North Rhine-Westphalia. The central goals of Bio-Stadt Bonn are to increase the organic content, especially in the public catering of municipal institutions, and to promote organic agriculture in the city area and in the region. The important thing here is to raise awareness, show good examples of better consumer behavior, motivate people to follow suit, and increase acceptance of organic and similarly sustainable farming.