Office International

Since more than a year we have the word „crisis” on all our minds and bad news are spread everyday.

Sometimes the gardens and the allotment gardens are mentioned as a means to reduce the consequences of the crisis.

In fact, a study made in Belgium in 1998– the data of which are currently updated – documents that you can save approximately 400 € by cultivating 100 sqms of garden. The importance of this aspect varies from country to country and from period to period.

In addition to this, the allotment gardens do not only stimulate people’s health through a light physical exercise but as well by providing healthy food. These vegetables and fruit are cultivated without unnecessary chemical products. They are very tasty, are harvested at the good moment and are not transported over long distances and made ripened artificially.

Studies have shown that you find a much greater biodiversity in the allotment gardens than in parks and public spaces. On average you find 22,4 plants per sqm garden and only 0,5 in a park. The fauna is as well more numerous and diversified.

These gardens – green lungs and reserves of biodiversity in urban areas – are additionally cared for by the gardeners. This allows the authorities to save the costs to care for other green spaces.

The gardens are a place of fellowship and a place to meet, open for all. They favour the contacts between generations.

So, the allotment gardens are good for men, animals, plants and the whole society. But despite all that, their value is not always sufficiently recognized.

In a certain number of towns or countries the authorities plan to build more densely and are therefore considering to close down allotment gardens or not to create new ones. At the occasion of the international seminar in Ghent the Office and the national federations have supported the Swiss federation confronted with this problem.

Or it has to be underlined that towns are not only composed by houses and streets, but by people and their hopes“.

Where can hopes be born more easily, where can people dream more easily and make projects for the future than in a garden, in a space where nature can develop without too many constraints and allow people to gather new strength, allow the population to flee from the monotony of the urban constructions ?

The allotment gardens certainly cannot eliminate the reasons of the crisis, of people having no jobs and of the social problems. However, they can help to reduce the consequences thereof and open new perspectives.

If the worries for the environment do often no more figure amongst people’s priorities, the allotment gardeners protect the environment on a daily basis and contribute to a sustainable development.

In order to be accepted we have not only to explain the aims and purposes of our activities, but we have as well to adapt our activities and to put new ideas into practice. We have to find out the needs of the society which the gardens continue to serve.

It will be discussed both on a national and European level to find out how to adapt the allotment gardens and to prepare them for the future. We are looking for innovative projects that could have a model character. Projects are launched in order to find ways to motivate young people to join our movement and to volunteer.

In a world in constant movement nothing can be considered for granted. New challenges have to be faced. The opportunities to serve the members and the society have to be seized. Today our movement is more necessary than ever.

We have a certain know-how, qualities, competences and above all we have the will and the enthusiasm to contribute to the construction of a better world with our gardens.

Without being pretentious we have not to forget that the small brooks make the big rivers !

At the break of this New Year let us never forget that the allotment gardens are a tool that serves the whole society. Let us therefore summon up all our strength to safeguard the allotment gardens for tomorrow.

During the whole new year let us act not only according the appeal : « Yes we can » but above all « Yes we will ».

Conclusions - Seminar of the Office International du Coin de Terre et des Jardins Familiaux - Ghent (Belgium) from September 7th till September 9th,2009

During the international seminar in Ghent from September 6th till September 9th, 2009 the diploma of the Office International du Coin de Terre et des Jardins Familiaux concerning an ecological gardening was awarded on September 9th, 2009 to the

3) On June 14th, 2009 the diploma concerning an ecological gardening has already been awarded to the association „Hinterer Bocksberg“ (Suhl, Germany)

During the international seminar in Ghent the delegates adopted with unanimity and signed the following resolution :

The 14 members of the Office International du Coin de Terre et des Jardins Familiaux, meeting at a seminar at Ghent from 7 till 9 September 2009, were alerted by the Fédération suisse des Jardins Familiaux to the fact that numerous allotment gardens are threatened by real estate projects.

The Basle Central Federation is to have a new structure plan. This new plan envisages that 20% of allotment gardens will disappear in the coming 5 to 10 years in order to make room for the building of apartments and official buildings. This represents about 1200 plots.
In the City of Berne, several garden sites are also threatened by apartment building projects and no provision exists for any compensation or replacement.
In Romandie an allotment garden site will be eliminated at Lausanne Vidy and other sites are under threat in Geneva, even though in that city there is a waiting list of 700 names which bears witness to the high demand for allotment gardens.
In the Berne region, the allotment gardens in the town of Thun have fallen victim to the construction of a new stadium. Since the end of February 2008, the area has been entirely cleared and the garden sheds have been demolished or sold. The association still exists, but it no longer has any land.
In eastern Switzerland, a group of Gardens at St Gall is threatened by the construction of an underground shooting centre, with apartments built above it. Another site is threatened by the construction of a tunnel for trains because the construction of apartments is planned in this area. There exists an allotment garden concept stipulating the provision of replacement grounds. These grounds exist but not always near the residential areas

The Office International du Coin de Terre et des Jardins Familiaux is scandalised by the fate being suffered by allotment gardens in several regions of the Swiss Confederation and calls on the federal government to oppose the scheduled disappearance of a large number of allotment gardens.

In response to the crisis which is afflicting the most underprivileged, most European States encourage the creation of allotment gardens.

In response to the energy crisis, numerous countries take an interest in the development of short supply routes, of which allotment gardens are one element.

In view of the reduction of biodiversity that has been observed, allotment gardens, as has been shown by the study carried out by the German federation, are a means of preserving biodiversity and enriching it in urban areas.

An ever-growing proportion of the population lives in urban areas, which are expanding ceaselessly. City inhabitants suffer stress. There is nothing like allotment gardens to combat this malady in our society. The contribution made by allotment gardens to the health of city dwellers has been highlighted by the work and observations of European, Canadian and American medical teams.

As a result of plots used for teaching purposes, allotment gardens offer schoolchildren a place to learn about and respect nature, a special place to make them aware of sustainable development.

Giving priority to real estate projects to the detriment of allotment gardens would merely worsen the living conditions and state of health of the inhabitants of the towns concerned. Studies showed that gardening is healthy. It makes fitness studios unnecessary.

Allotment gardens must be regarded as the green lungs of cities. Cities really need them. It is impossible to imagine cities in the future without green spaces, and garden allotments are extremely valuable in economic, social, ecological, town planning and health terms.

If, on public-interest grounds, which we can understand, it is sometimes necessary to do away with an allotment garden site, the local authorities must make every effort, at the very least, to replace the plots that have been lost and their facilities. This is the rule that applies in most other European countries.

The Office International du Coin de Terre et des Jardins Familiaux asks the Swiss Confederal Government and the political leaders of the various regions to review their position and to do everything to, at least, preserve the existing allotment gardens and, if possible, expand their number in order to respond to the needs of the Swiss population.

In order to better represent the European allotment gardeners and better defend their interests, it is important to have a detailled view of the situation in the affiliated federations.

All the associations are kindly invited to answer the following questionnaire and mail the answers to the Finnish federation (sgarden@siitolapuutarhaliitto.fi)