Wild Belgrade
Wild Belgrade is a citizens’ initiative, a participatory and creative project about city of Belgrade as a living ecosystem. It is investigating and learning about urban ecosystem - its members, relations, beneficiaries and also about how to enable a creative, harmonious, sustainable relationship of man and nature. Main part of this initiative’s activity happens on a facebook group page.
Engaging citizens of all age, education or social status, together with professionals and specialists from ecology, biology, education, culture, but also architecture, urban design or urban planning, Wild Belgrade is raising awareness of Belgrade’s citizens about the realistic possibility of development and flourishment of wild natural world even in the heart of urban environment. Wild Belgrade embarks upon a journey of recognizing and reaffirming nature as part of our urban everyday life and as a crucial part of sustainable, healthy and happy cities.
There is no real border between man / civilized life and wild / natural life. We are nature. We are part of a dynamic system and main actors in a dramatic context: a drastic ecological crisis and an accelerated climate change.
Wild Belgrade’s goal is to:
• Initiate and develop a bottom-up approach on raising awareness, changing of attitude and designing responsible strategies regarding the role, impact and responsibilities of man in relation with natural life within an urban environment;
• Raise awareness and learning about: biodiversity within an urban environment (Belgrade) + man’s impact on it, role and responsibility in enabling a sustainable urban ecosystem;
• Create a platform of knowledge and communication (education, information), an interactive database of natural life in the city (Belgrade), actions and agents of positive and creative adaptation;
• Participate in creating a platform for dialogue, exchange of knowledge and social engagement, engaging and linking professionals and organisations active in the diversity of domains related to, dealing with, or playing a role in the sustainable development of a happy city;
• Participate in creating a network of cities with similar values and views on facing the challenges of the Anthropocene era enabled by our very way of life.
Our bottom-up approach comprises of:
• learning about the biodiversity of the city and how to creatively treasure, maintain and help revitalize natural life within the urban environment (building a data-base through direct action of participants to and beneficiaries of the project – citizens of Belgrade);
• sharing knowledge and experiences (built data base, through social media and interactive social media account and/or webpage);
• engaging participation of citizens, professionals, specialists, organisations and institutions;
• organizing of public presentations (project, participants, supporters);
• developing creative workshops for children and adults;
• organizing conferences, lectures, public debates;
• organizing working groups (inspiring collaborative transdisciplinary approaches in designing urban development).
Wild Belgrade was initiated in 2016 by In Akt association. Since In Akt closed down Wild Belgrade is mainly managed by plavoizeleno.rs regional ecological platform and eco activist Milja Vuković.
