© Tom Watson

Urban green areas play a significant role in supporting biodiversity, mitigating heat-related health risks and contributing to public health and resilience against climate change.

This project aims to enhance biodiversity in such areas through participatory citizen science. It is based on Leith Community Croft, a model ‘urban croft’ which includes a market garden, an orchard, a community area shared by over 100 growers, and wild plant areas and woodland. The proposal addresses three main research areas: assessing biodiversity on the Croft, evaluating the accessibility of citizen-science methods for community members, and using collected data to inform management actions that promote biodiversity. Over 2026, the community will gather data on biodiversity components, such as cultivated and wild plants and pollinators. This information will help formulate strategies for biodiversity conservation and inform a guidance manual for urban green spaces across Scotland, empowering communities to enhance their environments.

Evie Murray, CEO of Earth in Common, said, “We are delighted to receive this award, which will boost our mission to demonstrate that urban crofts, such as our model Leith Community Croft, a community-run project on Common Good land inspired by the Gaelic concept of dùthchas, can effectively address multiple societal and environmental issues. With its orchard, wild areas, market garden and unique system of group-shared food-growing plots, it has already been shown to foster great biodiversity.

Now, we shall empower our “Crofters”—local residents—to develop citizen-science skills to monitor and further increase biodiversity. This should benefit them as individuals and foster pride and engagement in land stewardship in densely populated Leith. We hope that the methodology we collectively develop will be widely shared and can have a significant positive impact on nature and people’s relationship with it across Scotland.