A toolbox for garden governance

The ‘GartenApp’: Assessing and Communicating the Ecological Potential of Private Gardens

“…Single gardens are usually too small to have an effect and gardeners would need to coordinate design and management. Decisions on their management and design are being made on the individual level, however, often resulting in what Odum referred to as the 'Tyranny of Small Decisions,' i.e., a degradation due to small-scale and uncoordinated management [13,[22][23][24]. In addition, the awareness for the public value of individual gardens for contributing to GI appears to be low [25].…”

“…In addition, the awareness for the public value of individual gardens for contributing to GI appears to be low [25]. Even if there is awareness, garden practices are strongly driven by perceived norms and do not necessarily reflect the values of the garden owners [24,25]. Hence, no easy solution for increasing the public value of gardens in providing ecosystem services and contributing to biodiversity conservation exists, but social processes play a key role [24,25].…”

“…Even if there is awareness, garden practices are strongly driven by perceived norms and do not necessarily reflect the values of the garden owners [24,25]. Hence, no easy solution for increasing the public value of gardens in providing ecosystem services and contributing to biodiversity conservation exists, but social processes play a key role [24,25]. In keeping with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11.3 [26] and the Habitat III New Urban Agenda [27], these approaches should be inclusive and participatory.Approaches to overcome the 'Tyranny of Small Decisions' commonly build on providing gardeners with relevant information on their role in the urban ecosystem, empowering and encouraging them to contribute, and engaging them through citizens science [13,22,24,[28][29][30].…”

“…Even if there is awareness, garden practices are strongly driven by perceived norms and do not necessarily reflect the values of the garden owners [24,25]. Hence, no easy solution for increasing the public value of gardens in providing ecosystem services and contributing to biodiversity conservation exists, but social processes play a key role [24,25]. In keeping with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11.3 [26] and the Habitat III New Urban Agenda [27], these approaches should be inclusive and participatory.…”

“…Approaches to overcome the 'Tyranny of Small Decisions' commonly build on providing gardeners with relevant information on their role in the urban ecosystem, empowering and encouraging them to contribute, and engaging them through citizens science [13,22,24,[28][29][30]. The latter is also important for improving the evidence-based planning of GI.…”