Biodiversity-promoting climate measures in urban areas

Trees are an indispensable part of our cities. They offer shade, cool the environment, improve air quality and provide habitats for numerous animal and plant species. At the same time, urban trees are under great pressure in increasingly dense cities and facing climate change. The project “Biodiversity-promoting climate measures in urban areas (BiodivStadtbaum)” investigates how the protection of existing trees can be strengthened and barriers to the planting of new trees removed to secure and expand their provision of services to city dwellers and for biodiversity in the long term.

The project team investigates how tree protection is organized in German municipalities and what challenges it faces. To determine the extent to which existing tree protection statutes take into account climate protection and adaptation requirements as well as the promotion of biodiversity a nationwide survey of municipalities will be conducted. Additionally, this survey will investigate where conflicts arise between tree protection and other land uses or legal regulations. One focus lies on the model tree protection statute provided by the German Conference of Municipal Garden Authorities (Deutsche Gartenamtsleiterkonferenz, GALK), its use to date and possibilities for improvement in order to better meet the identified challenges. To this end, the project team is working together with the GALK's Urban Trees Working Group.

In the long term, however, urban tree populations must not only be protected, but also actively expanded, especially in the face of climate change. Therefore, another focus of the project and the nationwide survey lies in identifying legal obstacles that stand in the way of planting trees at new locations. Under the leadership of the legal project partners IDUR and PNT, such impeding legal and sub-legal regulations will be identified and suitable amendments proposed to facilitate the desired expansion of the urban tree population.