In our podcast Wait a minute !, how do cities participate in the safeguarding of endangered species? How to transform our municipalities so that they become a sustainable habitat for nature? How to reinvent biodiversity in the city? Biodiversity, a concept that appeared in the 1980s, designates all living beings as well as the ecosystems in which they live, but also the interactions of species with each other and with their environments.
The urgency is great. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in France 1,900 species are threatened with extinction. If the national parks are refuges for them, it is also in cities that these living beings try to survive. In Paris, 60 species are critically endangered, are on the regional red list of threatened species.
Cosmetic actions or real change in town?
“Integrating biodiversity into the city is not greening, as many cities do today, judge Philippe Clergeau, professor emeritus at the National Museum of Natural History. Rows of plane trees or ivy on the walls are not biodiversity at all! “.
Recreating what is observed in nature, this is what the author of the book emphasizes Urbanism and Biodiversity ( Apogee editions): “You have to install a variety of plants and trees to create a real ecosystem,” he says in this episode.
Many cities are already setting up green corridors, green paths that join parks or woods together. They allow animals to move over long distances: “It has a real effect, believes Philippe Clergeau. We must also think about animals with low mobility. Birds, butterflies travel easily. Others much less”.
Montreuil, city of refuge?
To allow these animals to move around its city, the Town Hall of Montreuil has set up a “biodiversity trail”. A walking area for people and a refuge for animals. Located in the heart of the fishing walls district, the first deputy mayor Gaylord Le Checkertakes us, in this episode, to this site in full transformation.
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