Malmo Harbour Restoration
NBS Action
Malmö municipality's project aims to boost biodiversity and encourage the return of vanishing species, focusing on eelgrass—vital as a breeding ground for juvenile fish. They're pioneering a natural re-wilding approach in Sweden for seabed restoration by allowing nature to spontaneously recover, anticipating the eelgrass to regrow independently. Another option which will be explored is cultivating eelgrass beds, which is costlier yet yields quicker results.
Description of the Learning Site
The Malmö harbor is an experimental project for other city areas in the future and a distinctive kind of project in various aspects. It is a site where human activity has ruined the environment and wiped-out biodiversity but where the city has chosen to clean up and improve the environmental quality at the same spot where the harbor operations have harmed it.
- The Malmö municipality have an interest in exploring re-wilding by letting the environmental improvements happen in a natural way without any human involvement (after the sand-capping and reduced water depth). This is cheaper than active restoration, but more uncertain and it takes time. They need to collaborate with researchers, but they also need more information about re-wilding.
- Although rewilding is cheaper, funds are needed. In particular, if this is to be scaled up. Right now, the municipality plans to fund this through taxes. But there is an interest in other financial solutions, including money from sales of land/residential development around the area.
- Some people involved are rather knowledgeable but would like to know more about what is happening at both the national and EU-level when it comes to biodiversity policies.
Surveys to a random sample of individuals living in the region Skåne (region where the city of Malmö is located).
The aim with this project is to investigate individuals´ preferences for restoring the harbor area and increasing the level of biodiversity through eelgrass beds. In addition, we investigate the importance of time of restoration, i.e. how important it is for people to have a fast recovery of biodiversity. This is important for several reasons, not the least for the choice between re-wilding or actively planting eelgrass beds.
