Time: Monday, July 14, 2025, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Venue: Public Garden Esenler District, Istanbul-Türkiye
Organizers:
Esenler District Administration, Istanbul, TURKIYE
Liao Rong (rosyliao@outlook.com), CHINA
Meryem Hayir Kanat (meryemhayir@gmail.com), TURKIYE
Jing Gan (jinggan@tongji.edu.cn), CHINA
Jürgen Breuste (juergen.breuste@plus.ac.at), GERMANY (SURE)
Moderator:
Jürgen Breuste, Meryem Hayir Kanat, Jing Gan
Schedule:
10:00am -12:00am Presentations and discussions
12:00am – 1:00pm Lunch
1:00pm – 3pm Discussions
3pm – 6pm Field work in Esenler Garden
Targeted Outcome:
A Charta as joint declaration on importance, targets, methods and cooperation on Conservation and Perception of Urban Nature. Establishing of a network of partners (institutions and practitioners) for constant exchange, consultations, and support of local and regional activities on urban nature conservation.
Explanation:
European cities attach great importance to nature and biodiversity. As most European countries started urbanization process earlier, many of them have accumulated rich experience in urban natural environments conservation. At the EU level, a series of policies such as the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 have been issued. In Netherlands, the New Strategy of Randstad put forward the concept of Greenheart Metropolis; In Germany, the Master Plan of Urban Nature (Masterplan Stadtnatur) was proposed. At the city level, Biodiversity Plan for 2025-2030 (Le Plan Biodiversité 2025-2030) of Paris, Mayor’s Biodiversity Strategy Update of London, and Action program of Berlin’s Urban green 2030 (Handlungsprogramm Berliner Stadtgrün 2030) all demonstrate a strong emphasis on urban nature conservation in the city development.
For cites in China, Europe, and even countries all over the world, it is a key task in spatial planning to find better approaches to protect nature in different gradients of urban areas, to enhance urban residents' perception and love for nature, and thus to achieve the coexistence between man and nature in urban developments.
The Sino-European workshop on Conservation and Perception of Urban Nature targets to support and promote the exchanges between China and Europe regarding urban nature. Invited are scientists from European and Chinese cities, local decision makers and gardeners from Istanbul to share their respective research and practices in the fields of urban nature conservation and perception. The workshop will be followed by a dialogue session in the 5th International SURE Conference discussion the outcome of the workshop in a broader forum. With the Sino-European workshop and dialogue, we are also looking forward to establishing deeper exchanges among the Society for Urban Ecology (SURE), the Research Center of Territorial and Spatial Planning (CSP), Ministry of Natural Resources of PRC and other Sino-European partners such as Tongji University in China, Yildiz Technical University in Turkey, Hildesheim University in Germany, and others.