Urban Biodiversity Spaces

An environmental education program to teach people about urban biodiversity, its importance and threats, and the creation of Urban Biodiversity Spaces to make cities greener and healthier

Our aim is to educate people about Urban Biodiversity and its importance, to stop the crisis of biodiversity in Urban areas and make cities greener, which will also contribute to improve its inhabitants mental and physical health, as well as social life

Lack of environmental education and loss of biodiversity in Urban areas, which leads to the 38.8 millions of Spaniards who live in Urban areas not knowing about the biodiversity around them nor trying to protect it, as well as living in less green environments and, therefore, being more vulnerable to physical and mental health issues, as well as leaving in less peaceful environments, since studies show that, in Greener places, there is usually less violence and people tend to have a better social life.

Air, noise and light pollution, lack of green spaces and the way buildings are built, which make it more difficult for birds to build their nests, along with lack of environmental education and  social awareness, are some of the reasons why this huge declive of urban biodiversity is taking place. 

As an example of this, according to SEO birdlife, Spain has lost 30 million sparrows over the last decade

People living in Urban areas and, specially, those who take part in our environmental education programs. This project aims to help them learn about the importance of biodiversity and how to appreciate and take care of the species living next to them, and to provide them with the opportunity of making their own neighbourhoods and cities greener and healthier spaces to live in, as well as giving them a chance to meet other people and promote social life within their communities

Reading about the loss of biodiversity in cities its effects on people´s quality of life and volunteering with people with mental Health issues to help them get in touch with nature to improve their existing conditions and taking part in SEO Birdlife´s courses and activities

Loss of biodiversity. The decrease in species such as pollinators have a tremendous impact in our economy and way of life. Biodiversity enables us to enjoy ecosystem services, provides us with raw materials, prevents plagues and helps minimize the effects of climatic change and pollution. Besides, it has been proven that loss of biodiversity is detrimental for people´s mental health and social relations

We are already offering and testing our services at IES Profesor Julio Pérez, a high school in Madrid. 70 students are taking part in our project.

First, we gave them an environmental education talk about the importance of biodiversity. Then, we created our own "Urban biodiversity space" with house nests and feeders we made using recycled materials, and recipients with water and pieces of fruit to help pollinators get through the winter, and we taught them how to use the platform iNaturalist to help them identify the species they see with Machine learning and keep a record of them. In spring, we´ll teach them about some of the most common plants they can see in their area and we´ll plant some of them which are specially attractive to pollinators. Finally, they´ll complete a questionary in Googlr Docs so we can see what their participation in the project has brought them and we´ll ask them for suggestions.

Besides, a Universidad de los Andes´professor has contacted us showing interest in this project, and he told us about the possibility of contributing with him to carry out this project with his students.

We´ll use machine learning to help us identify and keep a record of species, specifically, we are currently working with iNaturalist

We are currently serving 70 people, 70 students taking part on this project. As for how many people we´ll be serving next year, it will depend on the opportunities we are offered to continue with this project

To have a functional biodiversity space and an iNaturalist project which helps identify and keep record of the species which can be seen, and to offer our service in new places.

To achieve this, we are working with the High School students and keeping in touch with the teachers so, at the end of the year, they´ll be able to continue with this project on their own, and we are trying to get in touch with people and organizations who may also be interested in our services.

Our indicators are;

-The number of people taking part in our projects

-The people registered in our iNaturalist Project, the number of identifications and notes

-The results of the questionary the participants will complete at the end of the year

The difficulties to coordinate with the High School teachers and their lack of cooperation and some students´lack of discipline, since some of the students taking part in the project (14) are regarded as "Problematic students" and are included in a special program there at the High School given their behavioural problems and academic failure, so integrating them and not letting them alter everything is quite a challenge, and this makes it more difficult for us to make sure the high school will be able to continue with this in the years to come, as we panned. Besides, this may affect our results this year, which may make it more difficult for us to find new opportunities.

Laura Bermúdez Garrido, is a Biology student interested in combining natural science and social entrepreneurship. She has volunteered with people with mental health issues to help them get in touch with nature to improve their existing conditions and quality of life. She was chosen, along with Begoña, to take part in the Preincubadora Bio, a program of the Biology School of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid to support students who want to carry out entrepreneurship projects. She took part in the Small World Initiative, disclosing about antibiotic resistance in High Schools, and she helped organize the 18th Enthomology Congress.

Begoña de Frutos Martínez, is a Biology student in the last year of her degree, and she is specializing in environmental biology. She was chosen for the Preincubadora Bio along with Laura, and she has also taken part in the organization of the 18th Enthomology Congress and the Small World initiative, as well as in two scientific disclosure congresses organized by Hablando de Ciencia, in Spain. She has also worked as a special collaborator for the "¿Y Tú qué opinas" Local Radio Program, which is an initiative of Asociación Asperger Madrid, and she has talked about topics such as Climate Change and Vaccines. She has experience and training in volunteering with people with functional Diversity, and she has volunteered for different associations, which may enable the team to offer this service to some of them. Besides, she has taken part in courses and activities organized by SEO Birdlife.

Universidad Complutense de Madrid, they have offered us guidance through the Preincubadora Bio program, and IES Profesor Julio Pérez, where we are currently offering our service

This project has been planned and is being developed by two girls who constitute the team, so I think our project can serve as an inspiration and role model for girls interested in science and/or entrepreneurship, proving to them that these are not things exclusive to boys, and, we would like to think, we are helping redefine womanhood and femininity by doing this. We are proving that we girls are making our contributions to society and we are earning more and more presence and representation everywhere each day, and no one will stop us from taking part in society along with men, as we deserve

We are addressing an environmental issue which is less known and discussed than many others, but not at all less important;Biodiversity loss, and we think by doing this we are helping raise awareness about this issue and we will help people taking part in our project develop a better understanding of the importance of protecting biodiversity, as well as gain knowledge about the biodiversity in their own areas, and we also think we can improve people´s life quality in many ways by addressing this particular issue