Kortrijk wants to tap both public and private potential. From forest-poor region to largest forest in Flanders?

We sound out the initiatives being taken, bearing in mind the specific circumstances of his or her city or municipality, for the benefit of nature experience, green management or biodiversity. This time we head to the Green City.

In 2007, Bert Herrewyn became a municipal councilor in Kortrijk for the first time. Six years later, as alderman, he was given responsibility for Environment, Climate, Biodiversity and Nature, a role he continues to fill in this legislature. The fact that Kortrijk is today one of the most forest-poor regions in Flanders poses a special challenge for the alderman who is committed to strengthening biodiversity in and around the city.

Strengthen existing forest cores

Kortrijk manages a total of about 220 hectares of green space, from parks and public gardens to a few more extensive green poles on the outskirts of the city. In the current legislature, Herrewyn wants to add 100 hectares of nature and forest. "That is an ambitious, but achievable goal. In fact, on our territory there are still 350 hectares of land that are either already zoned for nature but not yet developed, or have the potential to do so. We will work on these systematically, starting with the strengthening of existing forest cores. For example, around the Preshoek forest and in the Interfluvium, we are already actively looking at which land is eligible, which we still need to acquire and which we may need to
repurposing." 

Green network to the city center

If the ambition to create an additional 100 hectares of nature sees its fulfillment mainly on the outskirts of the city, Herrewyn also wants to explicitly extend the boost in biodiversity into the city center. "This will require more than efforts from local government. Just look at the figures. Kortrijk may be poor in woodland, but in terms of private garden area, with 11.7% of our domain, we are well above the Flemish average of 8%. It is even more than the average proportion of forest in Flanders. Knowing that most gardens today are not very ecologically designed, there is still a huge potential there. Crudely put: if everyone converted one square meter in their garden to nature, we would have the largest forest in Flanders."

Targeted support

Obviously Herrewyn cannot intervene in the private property of his citizens; lowering the threshold is. Following the example of the renovation coach, Kortrijk launched the garden coach last year. "Many people want to take steps to support biodiversity in their gardens, but don't know how. Or they fear that it cannot be combined with the morphology of their garden or other wishes such as play space, a terrace... With the garden coaches - a team of five professional garden experts - we give them free advice, tailored to their wishes and their garden, so that they can then proceed to realization themselves or through a garden contractor."

At least the original goal of guiding 500 gardens to a more nature-friendly infill during the current legislature will not be a problem. A year after its launch, more than 500 applications have already been submitted and several realizations completed. "The large number of applications shows the willingness of citizens to contribute to a biodiverse city. To respond properly to this, we are launching a new call for interested experts this year. We want to double our team of garden coaches."