“The limit? Believing that nature in the city can compensate for the biodiversity crisis” – Liberation

Conferences and debates; meetings with biologists, ecologists, architects, philosophers or sociologists… From May 20 to 22 in Rouen, the BioGée federation organizes “Naturally!” days with one goal: to explain and understand the importance of nature in the city. An event of which Release is a partner.

Hervé Daniel is a teacher-researcher at the Institut Agro Rennes-Angers and a lecturer in urban ecology. “We often tend to oppose the city and nature, explains the researcher. However, one of the points of urban ecology is to understand our change of outlook on the way nature adapts to the city. How do species adapt to the urban environment? How do they use space?

Because Hervé Daniel affirms it: “You can have greater wealth in the city. There is habitat available that can serve as a refuge for many animals.”

For the academic, these spaces must lead us to reconsider the city differently. “This involves green spaces and their development. We can have natural spaces that develop on their own, require less management pressure and can accompany another ecological mode of operation. The city is not made only for man.

“Wake up to the nature of proximity”

Hervé Daniel points this out. You have to maintain “paying attention to this ordinary everyday biodiversity”, “waking up to this nature of proximity”, “having another look at the city”. With a question: should we imagine dense or more spread out cities? What type of nature will we favor? How can it be integrated into the planning approaches of town planners and landscape architects? What about eco-grazing, mowing, mowing? “Herbaceous spaces, in the city, there are plenty of them. Maybe it is not necessary to mow the lawn every fortnight. A weaker, less intensive management will allow the development of many species.

An example : “In Paris, there are now plenty of species that can be found in cemeteries. Sports fields and cemeteries have been the most reluctant to stop weeding. Now it is acquired. There is a real acceptance of nature in urban spaces.”

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