Whether food, flowers or crops: The Urban Agriculture Network Basel (UANB) provides flourishing greenery in the city of around 170,000 inhabitants in Switzerland. The network brings together around 60 projects, all of which are committed to local, social and ecological sustainability. The aim? The preservation of nature, biodiversity and people.
Co-founder and Vice President Bastiaan Frich in an interview about committed members, living ecosystems and internal change.
Fromfood sharing to community gardening: the projects of the Urban Agriculture Network Basel are wide-ranging. Are there any topics that are particularly close to your heart?
Bastiaan Frich: We see ourselves as a breeding ground that allows a wide variety of sustainability projects to grow. From cultivating the plants to distributing, refining and sharing them to recycling, these cover a very broad range. There are no areas that are more important or more valuable than others. However, if we sense that a particular topic is resonating strongly, we will focus on it in phases.
The network has grown rapidly since2010 - 40 projects were set up in the first four years, now there are around 60. Were there any particular challenges in setting up the network?
Frich: Looking back, working with the authorities was probably our biggest challenge. Non-profit organizations are often ridiculed, nobody really wants to have anything to do with them. Accordingly, cooperation was not as easy as we had initially thought. But apart from the bureaucratic hurdles, we quickly got the network up and running. We were a very committed team right from the start and had a lot of fun.
Nowthe Urban Agriculture Network Basel has won several international awards. What advice would you give to someone who wants to set up such a network?
Frich: In my opinion, a sustainable and integral organizational structure is important. You can think of it as a living ecosystem. We rely on a dynamic, natural hierarchy. Everyone is on an equal footing and anyone can take on a leading role in this network - from student to professor, depending on their knowledge and enthusiasm.
Andhow do you manage to keep everyone involved motivated?
Frich: That is indeed an important point. In an organization that functions primarily through volunteer work, appreciation plays a huge role. It is our most important currency. Otherwise, at some point nobody will want to get involved. However, this is preceded by inner change. Only then is external change possible. Peace work begins within each individual.
Today,the network has around 1,200 members and is known beyond the country's borders. Do you think that Basel offers particularly fertile ground for sustainable projects?
Lampert: The Urban Agriculture Network Basel forms a great contrast to the Basel region itself: It has the highest purchasing power in the world and is well stocked with large transnational corporations. Companies such as Roche, Novartis and Bell have their headquarters here. There were several environmental disasters in the 1980s and 1990s. This is why environmental movements have a strong resonance among the population. However, the power of the corporations also presents us with challenges: Negotiations often go in their favor - because they have the capital in their hands.
How doyou still manage to be successful here?
Frich: At the end of the day, I think a lot of it is down to our damn good team. It is therefore difficult to say whether the Urban Agriculture Network Basel would be as successful elsewhere. However, we are on the right track here and still have thousands of ideas. There is no end in sight.
So you're already busy making plans for the future?
Frich: Carrying on as before is not an option, because life never stands still. What does this mean in practice? The next step is to revise and coordinate our educational offering. After all, there are a lot of requests from schools - for which we have only ever had ad hoc solutions up to now. We are also working on an important milestone: the development of a food policy for the region. That will take a lot of time. And new projects are never long in coming.
About Bastiaan Frich
Bastiaan Frich is co-founder and vice-president of the Urban Agriculture Network Basel. He studied non-violent communication, permaculture and biology. As a thought leader and pioneer, he has already initiated numerous national and international sustainability projects.
