In this way a new city park could be won, which incurs lower maintenance costs than usual in terms of maintenance and at the same time develops new qualities through civic engagement. A concept was developed here with many actors in which the experience of nature, joint action and (environmental) education find a suitable place. With innovative forest types and forest combinations, answers to climate change and the energy transition in the biomass park are sought, taking into account social and nature conservation aspects. ma / Klimaschutz / Erneuerbare_Energien / Biomassepark_Hugo.aspx. ‘Grünlabor Biomassepark Hugo’ - a "green laboratory" and a "learning place for education for sustainable development" - and its neighboring city quarters. In the course of the succession, the former open land biotopes develop into forest in the long term.Īs the examples of the Hugo Green Laboratory and the Rheinelbe Forest Laboratory show, the links and synergies to the subject areas of ‘history’, ‘social’ and ‘environmental education’ are very pronounced. In addition to the ecological networking of living spaces, they make a significant contribution to urban biodiversity and are at the same time places for relaxation, nature experience and environmental education. Large and structurally rich industrial wastelands are hot spots for biodiversity, as they are often home to many endangered animal and plant species. As a result, a ‘new type of ecosystem’ has established itself which did not exist in pre-industrial nature. Industrial nature is an expression of the decline in industry and at the same time a signpost for new open spaces. The term industrial nature refers to nature that has developed independently on the areas of the former mining industry, on derelict railway tracks, train stations and commercial areas. The industrial nature or the industrial forest is a specialty in the Ruhr area. In Gelsenkirchen there are around 1,430 hectares of land with a forest-like character (total area of the city: 10,494 hectares) - of these are 100 hectares of forest in parks and 270 hectares of industrial forest and forest areas on slagheaps. At the same time, the biodiversity of these forests is impaired by heavy pollution, eutrophication and a high level of disturbance, which contributes to a certain homogenization of flora and fauna and the promotion of neobiota.įorest in the territory of the Ruhr Regional Forestry Office: 70,000 ha (total area: 340,000 ha) Share of forest cover: 21% (NRW 27%) Forest area per inhabitant: 143 m² (NRW 508 m²) Distribution of ownership: 67% private forest, 32% communal / state forest Here, regulatory ecosystem services (CO2 sink function, fresh air formation, fine dust filtering, flood protection, cooling effect) of the forests are just as important as their function as an important recreational area. The socio-economic and ecological services of the forest represent an irreplaceable social value. They form a significant part of the green infrastructure in the Ruhr area. Therefore, depending on their origin, the forest images range from old forest relics with remnants of potentially natural vegetation to planted forests to pioneer forests on post-industrial areas that have emerged from succession.
The Ruhr area is shaped and reshaped in many parts by anthropogenic influences. Some of these fallow areas were converted into smaller inner-city parks or integrated into urban and regional green and forest areas ("Emscher Landscape Park" of the Ruhr Metropolis) and fulfil functions as "urban wilderness areas", "nature discovery areas", "places for extracurricular learning" ("Biomass Park, Rheinelbe Forest Station") and "Green Laboratories" with a focus on nature experience, community gardening, urban forest and (environmental) education. Around 31% of the people living in Gelsenkirchen are German citizens with a migration background and / or foreign citizens.Īs a result of decades of economic and social change (Gelsenkirchen was previously characterized by the coal and steel industry – ‘City of Thousand Fires’), the city now has renovated and rebuilt numerous former mining sites (coal mines, coking plants, steel works) and given them new uses. Gelsenkirchen is located in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in the middle of the largest polycentric conurbation in Germany, the Ruhr metropolis (Ruhr area) with over 5 million inhabitants and has 264,710 inhabitants (September 25, 2020).
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