4 days ago
The battle for Brussels' biodiversity hotspot
Just two kilometres north of Brussels' European quarter lies Belgium's largest urban wasteland.
In the mid-1990s, the 24-hectare railway yard in the Schaerbeek neighbourhood was surrendered to the wild. Since then, researchers say it has become a haven for bee species and one of the most biodiverse areas in the country.
"There are so many butterflies, birds, and it is just so quiet," explains Emeline, whose garden is adjacent to the field. "When I come home from work and I see it, I just feel rejuvenated."
But Friche Josaphat , as the site is known, is now the latest flashpoint in a Europe-wide debate over the balance between biodiversity and the need for more homes, especially social and accessible housing.
"Brussels needs green areas, and it needs social housing," explains Katja, who lives nearby.
'No obvious justification'
The Belgian green party Ecolo has tabled a motion in the Brussels regional parliament to suspend all construction on publicly owned brownfield sites until a new approach to reconciling nature and property development is in place.
If approved, Ecolo's proposal would suspend all building projects – including 509 housing units planned for the Josaphat site – on 10 publicly owned plots in Brussels that have reverted to a natural state.
'The first objective is to suspend a certain number of construction projects because we believe there is no obvious justification for them,' John Pitseys, a member of Ecolo in the Brussels regional parliament told Euractiv, 'particularly given the consequences these projects would have for biodiversity in the city".
The moratorium would halt all development until the capital revises its regional land use plan, which has not been changed for 25 years.
'What we are saying is that until we have agreed on a vision of the city, as long as there is no document setting out the vision for the next 20 or 30 years, we no longer want to continue building as if it were business as usual,' Pitseys said.
Weighing the benefits
Whether to develop housing, services or parks, or simply to allow brownfield sites to return to their natural state is a recurring debate in Brussels, Pitseys said.
The green lawmaker acknowledged that the issue of urban land use is becoming ever more pressing as more people live and work in towns and cities.
'These discussions are all the more important because it is in the city that most of human activity will take place in the next 30 or 40 years. Especially as climate and environmental problems get worse,' he said.
Parliamentary hearings began in July, with French-speaking Ecolo gaining allies.
The Reformist Movement (MR), the largest bloc in the regional parliament with 20 out of 89 seats, have signalled their support, vowing to turn the area into a nature reserve, Bruzz reported. Centrist party Les Engagés and the Flemish nationalist party N-VA have also said they would support the move.
Discussions are slated to continue in September.
The housing crisis
The conflict between the housing crisis – a Europe-wide problem, as recognised by the European Commission, which is currently consulting on a forthcoming affordable housing strategy – and the preservation of natural areas is not exclusive to Brussels.
A controversial law was recently approved in Portugal to allow for building on previously protected green-belt areas, raising criticism from opposition politicians, housing experts and environmental NGOs.
The conservative government in Lisbon has defended what it says is a necessary move to solve the countries' severe housing crisis , but critics say it is an excuse to build grand houses to feed the country's growing luxury real estate market. The approach will not solve the acute housing problem as there is already sufficient urban land, experts argue.
In Germany, Berlin's Tempelhofer Feld – a vast field reclaimed from a former airport – has become a focal point for the capital's housing shortage. Although a 2014 referendum argued against new housing on the 355-hectare site, the new government is keen to start building on its outskirts at least.
In the UK, a 2021 biodiversity net gain law determines that planning permission is granted on condition that developers deliver a 10% increase in biodiversity – albeit not necessarily on-site. However, the Labour government is planning to rewrite the rule book, seeing it as an obstacle to achieving their pledge of delivering hundreds of thousands of new homes.
Expect the Commission's upcoming Affordable Housing Plan, scheduled for the spring of 2026, to trigger heated discussions – both in Brussels' European quarter and in the local corridors of power.
(rh, vc, cs)
