Environmental tip 5: Your contribution to more biodiversity!

Balconies and gardens can serve as vital habitats for pollinators such as wild bees and butterflies, as well as many other animals. Especially in urban areas, such spaces offer diverse opportunities to provide food and shelter for them. By designing your space to be biodiversity-friendly, you can actively help promote species diversity. It’s worth creating a small biodiversity meadow - even on a small patch of open land or in a pot - to attract pollinators:

Tips for your balcony or garden

• Plant native wildflowers: they are particularly valuable for pollinators like wild bees and butterflies.
• Combine plants with different flowering times to ensure enougb food throughout the season.
• Avoid using pesticides to protect insects and soil organisms.
• Use climbing plants or green facades. They create additional habitats and can help to reduce heat

Additional tips for a flowering meadow

• Do not mow areas too frequently so plants can bloom.
• Leave small structures such as deadwood, rocks, or leaf piles as habitats for insects and small animals.

Invasive neophytes are non-native plant species that spread rapidly and can displace native species. As a result, they alter natural habitats and can impair biodiversity in the long term. Therefore, do not plant neophytes and remove any that are already present. Here you can learn how to combat and control neophytes: Management of Neophytes

Artificial light at night can disturb animals and plants - for example, the foraging or reproductive behavior of birds, bats, amphibians, small mammals, and insects. Plants are also sensitive to artificial light.

Here’s what you can do:

• Use outdoor lighting only where it is truly necessary.
• Keep lighting duration and intensity as low as possible.
• Use warm light colors instead of strong, cool white light.
• Use motion sensors or timer-controlled lighting whenever possible.

The grounds used by the University of Bern also feature numerous green spaces that provide habitats for plants and animals. Students and staff can support this biodiversity and help preserve it in their daily lives.

Here’s what you can do on and around campus:

• Respect green spaces and flower meadows and avoid walking through planted or natural areas.
• Appreciate natural areas, even if they appear less manicured. They provide vital habitats for many species.
• Support sustainability initiatives and university groups that advocate for the environment and biodiversity. Examples include:
  • The University of Berns spin-off Boum offers a smart irrigation option powered by solar energy for easy growing of potted plants.
  • Engaged UniBE Project GreenCampus: The “GreenCampus” of the CDE project aims to redesign the courtyard at Mittelstrasse 43 (a model site for the University of Bern) in a transdisciplinary process to make it climate-adapted, biodiversity-promoting, and socially sustainable.
  • Postgasse project “Greenest Alley in Switzerland”: Although the project of the Institute of Plant Sciences is complete, the alley remains: it will be maintained by its residents in the future.
• Visit the University of Bern Botanical Garden: if you would like to experience biodiversity you can visit the University of Bern Botanical Garden to draw inspiration from the variety of plants for their own greening projects.
• Share ideas for biodiversity-friendly greening or design with the relevant university departments: the maintenance of the university’s green spaces pays special attention to ensuring the greatest possible species diversity and biodiversity.