Contributions of allotments to food security and urban resilience : a case study of Hamburg, Germany

Sammanfattning

As having possibilities for local food production and storage is known to foster food security in urban settings, this thesis explored contributions of an allotment site in Hamburg, Germany, to food security and urban resilience. For this, the following two research questions were formulated: What are the legal structures governing the use of allotments in Hamburg, Germany on food security and urban resilience and how are they perceived? And how does an allotment garden in Hamburg, Germany contribute to the food security of its members and to urban resilience? To answer these, a systematic review of policy documents and semi-structured interviews with eight allotment gardeners were carried out. This thesis identified 17 governance documents for allotments in Hamburg across different levels. In these, German allotments are positioned in way that eliminates challenges community gardens often face in the US and, but the recognition given to allotments fails to acknowledge the full scope and multitude of ES produced by allotments. The interviews revealed that gardeners had an increased food availability, awareness of food sources, utilization of fresher and higher-quality produce, and practices like preserving surplus food. They further showed that allotments contribute to urban resilience through several mechanisms aligned with resilient ES management principles, where diversity and redundancy are maintained, reinforcing and dampening feedbacks are actively managed, and learning and experimentation are enabled. Also, gardeners were aware of the governing documents that directly mention allotments, appreciated specific regulations, and voiced only three changes to the regulations imposed on allotment gardening.