Aprenem a la Xarxa. The metropolitan parks learning programme
The metropolitan park learning programme Aprenem a la Xarxa aims to foster links between the public and their parks, raising awareness of socio-environmental values and creating spaces for participation and experiential learning.
The parks are a perfect laboratory to grow through experiences and learn through interaction with the environment while improving it, with actions promoted by networking. This is a programme for discovering and experiencing the values of the metropolitan parks.
Local
Spain
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Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
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As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): AMB (Barcelona Metropolitan Area) Type of organisation: Public authority (European/national/regional/local) First name of representative: Ramon M. Last name of representative: Torra i Xicoy Gender: Male Nationality: Spain Function: General Manager Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Carrer 62 núm. 16-18 edifici A Zona Franca Town: Barcelona Postal code: 08040 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 932 23 51 51 E-mail:nmgarcia@amb.cat Website:http://www.amb.cat
URL:https://www.instagram.com/aprenem_a_la_xarxa_amb/ Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): @aprenem_a_la_xarxa_amb #aprenemalaxarxaamb #aprenemalaxarxa #projectesparticipatius #arrelat #17cicle #jugatecambiental #compartimunfutur
URL:https://twitter.com/ParcsplatgesAMB Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): @ParcsplatgesAMB #parcsplatgesAMB #parcsmetropolitans #parcsAMB
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New European Bauhaus or European Commission websites
In conjunction with the metropolitan councils, the AMB provides comprehensive management for the Metropolitan Park Network (plants, furniture, facilities, paving and buildings) and its promotion through the Aprenem a la Xarxa learning programme.
52 parks are managed in 34 municipalities in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, covering over 3 million m2. Their socio-environmental benefits improve people’s quality of life and health, which is especially important in densely populated areas such as the metropolitan area (see section 0 Intro).
The main management guidelines have evolved to raise the number and quality of such benefits, producing a more sustainable model that optimises use of water (essential in the Mediterranean area) and energy and turns these spaces into areas of biodiversity. This is very important, given the fragmentation and loss of habitat in urban areas.
These changes would not be possible without people getting involved. With their participation, we learn their values and thus raise their self-esteem and awareness, strengthening bonds and a sense of belonging, fostering attitudes of care and conservation of nature in their neighbourhood, continually raising its quality.
Aprenem a la Xarxa started in 2011 to promote the natural, social, heritage and cultural values of metropolitan parks. It has since grown alongside changes in management to become the parks’ educational and participation branch, a channel for direct interaction with the public to promote rediscovery of nature.
In this framework, projects aimed at different audiences have been set up and new spaces for biodiversity, participation and experiential learning designed and built, such as butterfly gardens, insect hotels and environmental classrooms. The metropolitan parks have become new learning spaces in contact with and reconnected to nature fostering experimentation, participation and knowledge of socio-environmental values and the functions of ecosystems in relation to people.
Biodiversity
Ownership
Enjoyment
Opportunity
Experiences
Metropolitan parks help reduce atmospheric pollutants, regulate temperatures and humidity and promote biodiversity.
Their sustainable management raises the quality of urban nature, making it a network of spaces integrated into and extending the urban fabric, providing numerous ecosystem services and acting as connectors with natural areas around cities, making up the metropolitan green infrastructure (see links in section 4.3 Technical documents).
All such management is based on sustainability, considering the conditions of the Mediterranean climate, where saving water is essential due to ever more frequent droughts.
The Biodiversity Improvement Plan was incorporated in 2018, providing a compilation of actions involving nature-based solutions (see sections 3.1, 3.2) for management challenges. One of its axes is citizen intervention, as the driving force for this transformation through numerous activities.
Some of the issues tackled include:
- Changes to meadow management. Many become unirrigated flower meadows. Vegetation follows natural rhythms, using selective mowing only to make it compatible with other uses. Some activities consist of monitoring animal and plant life by observing positive impacts.
- Choosing low-maintenance shrub species with successive flowering and fruiting, encouraging pollinators and birds. Public plantings are organised in autumn to support the annual replanting of park vegetation.
- Monitoring naturalised lakes converted from ornamental spaces to naturalised aquatic ecosystems, where guided activities are organised to monitor plant and animal life.
- Construction of spaces that foster biodiversity, designed by maintenance service technicians, such as butterfly gardens, insect hotels and biodiversity refuges, while including public participation in the process and subsequent monitoring.
Activities organised with the public always have a major positive emotional component, appealing to the capacity for surprise and amazement at the values of the metropolitan parks, whether these are events related to the rhythms of nature just around the corner from home, such as observing breeding birds in nesting boxes, spectacular blooming in flower meadows and the influx of butterflies, or discovering other values, such as heritage elements in historical parks, whose maintenance and restoration are also included in park management (see sections 1.1, 1.2).
Participation and knowledge, as well as citizen science activities linking the public with the scientific world, also bring empowerment and self-esteem to the population, who feel they are involved and play an important role in building and developing these spaces.
Greater biodiversity and the maintenance and restoration of heritage elements also produce aesthetic changes that enhance beauty and proximity to nature, while increasing the sense of well-being among people visiting parks and attending activities.
These satisfying experiences and sense of living in contact with nature in the middle of the city strengthen the bonds between the public and their parks and generate a sense of belonging.
This positively impacts people’s mental health and their perception of these environments, which become local focal points, where they learn concepts and information that provide cultural wealth, with knowledge that can strengthen their critical spirit regarding their environment, opening the way to improvements in its conservation and maintenance (see sections 1.3,1.4).
Sometimes there has also been a progressive change in the uses and the way in which the spaces have been occupied, converting some of these parks, which were the scene of undesired dynamics, into new spaces for meeting and contact with nature.
The metropolitan area is a densely populated territory with a great diversity of socio-economic situations, so access to nature and the benefits of its ecosystem services are often limited for some sectors of the population.
Metropolitan parks are urban parks of high environmental quality, managed to reproduce more natural ecosystems.
According to figures from a 2019 study by Barcelona Regional Agency and AMB, in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, over one million people live less than 15 minutes away from a park (see section 2.1). This shows how accessible they are, offering everyone the chance to connect with nature, whatever their situation, even those whose circumstances mean they would not have access to more distant natural environments.
The steady improvement in these spaces positively affects everyone’s quality of life and facilitates their reconnection with nature. This makes them an equal opportunity for all.
Activities are always free and aimed at all audiences. Schoolchildren, families, the elderly and schools for people with functional diversity or mental illnesses can take part (see section 2.2). Through the educational signage system, people can also learn on their own.
We will soon be adding sign language interpreting for deaf people to our educational activities.
Inclusion in the design (see sections 2.1, 2.2):
The principles of inclusion are incorporated into the design of parks and participation spaces to facilitate access for all. Such measures include:
- Placing plantations in raised boxes to make them accessible to people with reduced mobility.
- Designing tables and activities adapted to wheelchair use.
- Adapted toilets in park educational areas.
The metropolitan parks educational project gets the public involved at different levels, not only as passive receivers of knowledge, but also as active agents in actions to improve the quality of biodiversity.
Biodiversity and health:
Numerous studies show there is a direct link between biodiversity and human health. Along these lines, the study on biodiversity and health in metropolitan parks was published in 2020 (see links in section 4.3 Technical documents).
After the pandemic, the biodiversity improvement actions in the Aprenem a la Xarxa programme carried out with the public have taken on special relevance, as they are seen by participants as interventions which involve them, while also directly impacting on their quality of life.
Social benefits:
The effects and impacts also have a social side.
Activities appeal to all kinds of audiences, who engage in a wide variety of ways, through schools or activities aimed at the general public and families, as they are structured along different lines of content.
They encourage participation and association with schools, organisations, local councils, institutions and the general population, while boosting collaboration networks. This provides great social benefits, bringing together people with very different backgrounds, interests and ages, through intergenerational participation and cooperation between citizens and experts in different fields.
Metropolitan parks become meeting places that promote social cohesion, revitalising neighbourhoods and towns and offering spaces for leisure and educational activities. The activity programmes are integrated into the cities’ cultural and associative life and are now part of their traditional calendars (see section 2.3).
The Aprenem a la Xarxa educational programme is promoted by the AMB, a supra-municipal administration that supports local councils in different areas, such as the management of 52 parks in 34 out of the 36 metropolitan municipalities.
The programme is run jointly with different institutions and audiences, who contribute a wealth of perspectives and content.
First of all, local councils are involved, through framework agreements on the management and promotion of the metropolitan parks. Depending on the field, the projects are managed by teaching, environmental or cultural departments, while the Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona is also involved in specific projects.
Companies or organisations specialising in environmental education, historical and artistic heritage and other fields run the activities, depending on the subject matter, always providing the stimulation needed to encourage participation, using methods such as: workshops, games, treasure hunts, guided tours and participative activities.
School-related projects also involve teachers from nursery, primary, secondary and special education schools.
Projects aimed at other audiences involve organisations, nursing homes and the general public.
The park maintenance companies that work with the AMB Parks Service also provide logistical support for the activities.
The programme Aprenem a la Xarxa also involves a great wealth of interdisciplinary interaction through diverse collaborations at different times and in different projects while also involving the audience, thus producing a constant exchange of knowledge and experience:
- The different educational projects are designed by biologists and environmentalists from the AMB Parks Service and local councils, all of whom specialise in environmental education.
- Experts in wildlife management, such as ornithologists, herpetologists and entomologists are involved in the activities on improving wildlife in the parks.
- When activities involve building an educational or participatory space, such as butterfly gardens or educational modules, architects and vegetation experts from the AMB Parks Service are involved, designing the project and building it with the company winning the public tender. Schoolchildren are also involved in some of our projects.
- Engineers from the Parks Service design and adapt spaces in metropolitan parks for learning.
- Gardeners and other park maintenance company workers are involved in the logistics for the activities.
- Primary and secondary school teachers and social workers.
- Experts in history, art and cultural heritage in general (heritage activities).
- Professionals specialising in psychology and animal behaviour (responsible dog ownership project).
- Graphic designers who turn content into publications.
- People of all ages and backgrounds who take part in the activities. Schoolchildren at all levels of education: early childhood, children, adolescents. Families, people from different participating groups. People with functional diversity, senior citizens and more.
This metropolitan parks educational programme is a response to new needs in today’s society. A recent paradigm shift in school educational projects in Catalonia sees them moving towards more experiential project-based learning. The new normal resulting from the pandemic has highlighted the need for contact with nature and the outdoors, especially for people living in cities where this is more difficult to achieve on a regular basis.
Expanding the use of parks as areas for learning, an innovative project that has been taking shape over the last decade, has led to growing interest from the public and the professionals involved, caused in part by the current economic climate. In addition, the projects have been replicated in parks in 33 metropolitan municipalities. This path has led to designing and adapting spaces in parks specifically for learning, knowledge and participation, termed Naturaules. These are now entering a new innovative stage of consolidation, as the projects have traditionally been run in natural areas and not in urban parks, as with Aprenem a la Xarxa.
Another unique aspect is the large participation network that has built up over the years, involving large numbers of professionals from all the municipalities, schools and organisations, experts in different fields and individuals from different generations and socio-economic contexts who have got involved and participated in the activities.
To varying degrees, all large metropolises in the world suffer the consequences of population density, such as urban development pressures leading to loss of natural areas and environmental quality.
Promoting urban green spaces as new areas for learning, participation and reconnection with nature can open up new opportunities to improve people’s quality of life, whatever the city. Not only through the environmental values of their ecosystems, but also in terms of the psychological impact on individuals and the social impact on local communities.
The necessary resources can exist in any city in the world, even if their contexts, not just ecological, but also social and economic, are different. The lines of work can be designed from available resources, varying in size accordingly. But the first necessary step is to build a network of professionals and individuals who can come together and work towards a common goal, to enhance the value of natural spaces close to communities, working to transform them, improve their quality and turn them into spaces to reconnect with nature and all its benefits.
The use of lively, motivating methods helps open the door to participation to build such networks of relationships. In our case, the impetus comes from a government authority, but the process can take very different forms, such as a neighbourhood movement, depending on the environment. It is about working on bonds and roots, and moving in the same direction to produce benefits for people from people.
Experiential learning projects in contact with nature in the programme (see sections 4.1, 4.2, 4.3):
-Jugatecambiental: family activities with information point and children’s free play area
-Activities in metropolitan parks, beaches and rivers: annual programme for all audiences
-The Metropolitan Education for Sustainability Programme includes formal and non-formal training activities
-Participatory projects: service and learning methodology (SLM). Schools and organisations. They learn and provide a service to the community to enhance its value E.g., building and monitoring nesting boxes, maintaining biodiversity areas, drawing up routes and teaching materials
-Arrela’t: participation in public plantings to replace trees in metropolitan parks, with the Parks Service team. Schools, organisations and families
-Environmental classrooms: buildings for educational and recreational activities
-Built participation spaces in parks involving people in their design, maintenance and monitoring of wildlife, with activities guided openly or by an organisation (butterfly and medicinal gardens, insect hotels, biodiversity refuges, medicinal herb, science, vegetable and rose gardens, vineyards)
Citizen science: numerous advantages for obtaining scientific data and its value to participants
-Metropolitan Bioblitz. Annual event to conduct a simultaneous biodiversity census in all metropolitan park Jugatecambientals
-Wildlife viewer. All data from biodiversity monitoring activities is recorded in the wildlife viewer, a tool available on the parks website
-Metropolitan Butterfly Observatory to learn about the biodiversity of the network related to the flower meadows
Publications: educational and dissemination materials to support activities (posters, leaflets, guides, cut-outs)
Signage: signs to back up guided activities and facilitate self-directed learning by filling parks with content: insect hotels, butterfly gardens, birds, naturalised aquatic spaces, botanical trail
Working on the metropolitan park ecosystems with public participation also helps raise awareness of ecosystems. A local situation, but closely related to the global challenges we face today.
Such actions improve habitats for many species in cities, bearing in mind the loss or fragmentation affecting them, and are useful nature-based solutions for sustainable park management (see sections 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and section 7.2):
- Planting low-water-use vegetation, increasing the mass of vegetation, a positive measure in the face of the climate crisis. Species are chosen for their seasonal rhythms, so that flowering and fruiting occur throughout the year, providing shelter and food for the maximum number of species.
- Some metropolitan parks have been included in the network of climate shelters in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. They serve to mitigate the increasingly frequent high temperatures in the Mediterranean region.
- Creating new biodiversity spaces, such as butterfly and medicinal gardens, insect hotels, nesting boxes and flower meadows that respect plant life cycles, attracting pollinators, many species of which are endangered, and other insects and birds that help control urban pests.
- Monitoring naturalised aquatic spaces, studying populations of native wildlife and the presence of invasive species, in order to improve the quality and increase the number of such spaces in cities.
- Building and monitoring nesting boxes and feeders for different types of birds and bats, to support the presence and reproduction of different bird species.
- Projects related to civic-mindedness and responsible dog ownership, associated with dog areas in the parks. A social aspect that requires educational work.
In addition to these actions involving direct intervention in the environment, all educational projects contain other awareness-raising activities on these and other environment and nature-related aspects.
(See section 7) Since 2011, when the first sporadic activities were held in the metropolitan parks, all the above lines of work in Aprenem a la Xarxa have been implemented. Since 2016, the year participation figures were first registered, over 290,000 people have attended 8,431 activities (see section 4.1).
In this time some of the park buildings have been restored to house environmental classrooms. A new sustainable building has also been designed with nesting boxes and insect hotels, the Aula Ambiental in Can Zam Park. These now total six (see section 5.2).
At the same time thanks to many of these activities, numerous participation spaces have been built and consolidated.
37 biodiversity shelters, some built with tree trunks fallen during storms
12 insect hotels
9 butterfly gardens
387 flower meadow areas
919 new trees
Parks have been provided with 1,025 nesting boxes for birds and bats attracting 42% occupancy, according to inspections by ornithologists and the public
More than 10,200 butterflies of 40 species were observed by 80 volunteers at the Metropolitan Butterfly Observatory from 2019 to 2021
The wildlife viewer has recorded 112,624 wildlife observations
Feeders have been placed in 28 parks in cold weather when it is harder for them to find food
We are now starting a new phase of the programme: the Naturaules (see section 6.1). The aim is to centralise all lines of work in one physical space in the parks since only 6 have environmental classrooms. They will provide furniture and educational materials for the programmes in place and all initiatives arising from organisations and schools so they can carry out their own projects. These spaces have been specifically designed and installed by the AMB’s team in 20 parks and the new programme will get underway during 2023.
Organisational meetings with local councils and training sessions with educational communities are currently underway to provide them with these resources to use independently.
This project develops new competences in the context of the European competence framework on sustainability:
- Learning for a green transition and sustainability is a fundamental part of AMB's (public administration) management of metropolitan parks.
- It comprises a large diversity of actions and projects that provide educational tools and resources aimed at a wide range of audiences, in both formal and non-formal fields.
- It supports and offers resources to educators to promote experiential learning, in contact with nature and with the active involvement of children and young people in the improvement of the biodiversity areas of the parks that will provide numerous ecosystem services to the cities.
- It promotes equity, as metropolitan parks provide an opportunity to reconnect with local nature, allowing all people to enjoy their advantages equally, even those who, due to their socio-economic context, do not have the resources to do so.
- It mobilises part of the public budget earmarked for the improvement of metropolitan parks towards the construction of spaces for biodiversity and participation that engage citizens and provide nature-based solutions.
- It creates new learning spaces in the metropolitan parks where all the experiential, participatory and interdisciplinary activities can be carried out, directed or organised autonomously by schools and other groups.
