Moderation within the framework of the large-scale nature conservation project “Hamburg, your river nature”

corsus was commissioned by the Hamburg Authority for the Environment, Climate, Energy and Agriculture (BUKEA) with event moderation and strategic process support for the large-scale nature conservation project “Hamburg, your river nature”. The urban project aimed to create an overall concept to ecologically develop and enhance Hamburg’s flowing waters and at the same time enable the experience of nature and recreation along living water corridors. In particular, the biotope network was promoted, which means that the second large-scale urban nature conservation project in Hamburg followed on from its predecessor “Naturally Hamburg!” in terms of content, space and time. While the first large-scale urban nature conservation project in a major city in Germany was dedicated to the areas of protected areas, parks, green spaces and main roads, “Hamburg, your river nature” now promotes nature development on selected Hamburg watercourses. Increasing drought and extreme weather conditions, coupled with diverse demands on limited available space, are particularly noticeable in urban watercourses. The aim was to make the watercourses fit to develop increased resilience to the effects of climate change.

This was the first project phase 2022 – 2024, during which preparatory planning and the preparation of an overall maintenance and development plan took place. The NGP was being implemented under the leadership of the Elbe Habitat Foundation.

The task of corsus was to lead the actors involved with their respective interests into a constructive and goal-oriented dialogue. This included a detailed stakeholder and situation analysis as well as the conception and workshop planning, which wass carried out in close consultation with the project leader, the Elbe Habitat Foundation. In this comprehensive moderation process, the departments responsible for environment, landscape, open space and green space planning, as well as for climate and nature protection were involved, as are relevant associations (nature conservation) and clubs (e.g. water sports, anglers). Other stakeholders were boat rentals, restaurants and residents, as well as the participating districts and their building yards or the protection of historical monuments. In addition, the project team, the project-accompanying working group (PAG) and commissioned planning offices (urban and landscape planning) were involved with their respective goals. corsus designed, moderated and documented the event and dialogue formats and summarised the results in a final report at the end of the project. The workshop phase has been successfully completed and the maintenance and development plan was finalised. The funding application for the implementation phase was submitted by the end of 2024.

Duration: 08/2022 – 12/2024