Case Studies

The Universidad del Norte were the 2023 winners of the International Green Gown Award in the Nature Positive category for their conservation of 10 hectares of tropical dry forest on their campus. Tropical dry forests are of great importance for the conservation of biodiversity in urban environments, due to the range of species that inhabit them and since 2020, the university has been running forest tours to encourage a relationship between students and nature. In 2022, the university started an investigation monitoring the behaviour of nocturnal mammals through camera traps, and as a result have identified animals such as armadillos and ocelots that haven't been seen in the forest before, as well as three new insect species. Through this project, The Universidad del Norte have highlighted that they aimed to preserve the relic of tropical dry forest, encourage students to consider the cultural and ecological importance of biodiversity, and recognise the importance of integrating colleges and universities to create a territorial ecological culture.

At the beginning of 2024 the Estates Department were kindly gifted 50 ancient oak saplings from Windsor Great Park’s natural woodland nursery, home to the largest collection of ancient veteran oak trees in northern Europe. The trees, which are typically home to some of the rarest species of insects in the UK, will help the university regrow their ancient classified woodlands and will fill the spaces cleared by their continuing removal of invasive shrubs from the estate. As the first sapling was planted, Briony Hughes, one of the English Department’s PhD candidates, and co-curator of the "Words from the Wild: The Nature of Poetry" exhibition, read a poem that she’d written based on her time spent in Windsor Great Park and across the University’s grounds.

Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia has been awarded the “Prize for the Excellence in Sustainable Architecture – Andean Glass” for their emblematic building the Torre Sapiencia. The building is a demonstration of the university’s development and infrastructure, which considers aspects of sustainability relying on a landscape design that respects the planning and environment of the city, as well as the well-being of the occupants of the building. It gained the EDGE preliminary certification to sustainable construction, thanks to designs that integrate bioclimatic parameters, energy and water efficiency, and environmentally friendly materials. The recognition of this building makes the university the first in the world to achieve such certification for five of its buildings. The building highlights the coherence between the discourse and actions of the university, as well as their commitment to environmental sustainability.

The Hemisferios Biodiversity Reserve is an ecological reserve containing a 2,168 transition forest between cloud and Andean forests, located on the eastern face of the Antisana volcano in the foothills of The Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest. The Universidad Hemisferios has taken up the initiative to protect this unique natural treasure, preparing their students to work with the local community and encouraging more biodiversity within this reserve and the rivers running through it. They are employing world-class processes and methodologies, and encouraging international partnership with innovative entities for research, environmental conservation and the contribution to the scientific and academic community, that share their vision and objectives of preventing the reduction of biodiversity. This commitment can be seen in the active protection of water sources, the strict control of deforestation and the prevention of illegal mining in the reserve.

Loughborough University has encouraged campus exploration and engagement in wildlife surveys. Students, staff, volunteers and experts have documented biodiversity including insects, fungi, birds and bats, with butterfly and bumblebee transects feeding into national monitoring. Recent studies have shown the wealth of biodiversity on their green campus - a woodland fungal survey found 38 different species including a rare coral tooth fungus, Hieracium coralloides, and 188 moth species have been logged. The university strategy ‘Creating better futures. Together’ puts sustainability and climate change at the heart of their agenda: these wildlife surveys form part of the Biodiversity Action Plan supporting this theme.

Students from Dawson College in Canada ran a 1,000 Species in 1,000 Days initiative. Students, faculty and staff all contributed their talents and curiosity to get as many species identified on campus as possible with the count after one year being 820 species, with 3,916 total observations and 279 people contributing to the project. The goal of the initiative is to highlight biodiversity in an urban setting.

The Government Upper Primary School in Kalvas, Bikaner district, is not only an institutional forest reserve but also home to children with remarkable environmental consciousness. Each of these children has eight to ten trees adorning their homes as green members of their families, embracing the concept of #FamilialForestry. During the school's annual festival, Professor Shyam Sunder Jyani and his wife Kavita had the pleasure of meeting these children and witnessing their environmental awareness. As a token of blessings from their deity, Jasnaath ji, the children were all gifted with blossoming plants cultivated in the Familial Forestry public nursery.

A recent survey of wild bee species in the old botanical garden of the Georg-August-University of Göttingen confirmed the presence of 140 out of 600 species known to occur in Germany. These protected species are specialised plant pollen feeders and require sufficient food sources in the surrounding habitat. In a pilot project, green spaces around the Göttingen State and University Library opposite the old botanical garden will be transformed into flowering areas by perennial plantings beginning of next year. The site will be monitored and used as demonstration site for teaching and public outreach. Featured Image Credit: City of Göttingen.

Dawson College have started a “nurse log area” in their parking lot. The logs are placed specifically around the grounds to attract insects that depend on decomposing trees and for mushrooms. There are 120 year old trees that are being cut down due to structural weakness, but they are being let to return to the earth where they have stood for so long. There is also an indigenous ceremony of gratitude held for any tree over 100 years old before it is cut down.

In 2022, Vanier College's iNaturalist Campus Biodiversity Network project helped 17 colleges and universities in Québec (Canada) create a public snapshot of their individual and combined biodiversity tallies. Biodiversity observations were displayed individually and collectively for 17 campuses. In aggregating these baselines, the project helped colleges have a sense of our combined biodiversity data; tallies can now be used for informing decisions regarding campus greenspace conservation and management. The Campus Biodiversity Network iNaturalist project is an effective tool that remains active and open to *all* Quebec, Canadian, and international post-secondary institutions.