A living city is not only about efficient buildings, modern infrastructure, and smart solutions. It is also about green spaces that function ecologically, provide food and shelter for species, reduce dust, capture carbon, and create healthier places for people.

On 22 April, the team of Propark – Foundation for Protected Areas, together with volunteers from Flashnet, planted 48 shrubs on 59 Griviței Boulevard in Brașov. A 40-square-metre green space was transformed into a small oasis of urban biodiversity, right in the heart of the city.

The action was carried out with the support of Flashnet, our partner in this initiative and a company that understands that smart cities must also be living, green, and nature-friendly cities.

Why Shrubs?

In Brașov, approximately 95% of woody vegetation is represented by trees. Trees are essential for the city, but they cannot support, on their own, the full diversity of life that a healthy urban ecosystem needs.

Shrub islands bring an important component that is often missing from urban green spaces: the intermediate vegetation layer, between grass and trees. This layer provides food, shelter, and movement corridors for many species that live in the city or pass through it.

The planted shrubs can support songbirds, pollinators, squirrels, and hedgehogs. At the same time, they contribute to rapid carbon capture, dust retention, the creation of a more pleasant microclimate, and the aesthetic value of the green space throughout the year.

Such interventions are not merely acts of urban beautification. They are concrete steps towards a more responsible way of thinking about nature in the city.

Eco-Responsible Green Spaces, Inspired by the Logic of Protected Areas

For Propark, this action is part of a broader direction of work: the development and promotion of eco-responsible green spaces. Through this approach, we bring into cities principles inspired by protected area management: respect for biodiversity, interventions adapted to the specific site, the use of vegetation with an ecological role, and the creation of spaces that support healthier relationships between people and nature.

An eco-responsible green space is not just a “beautiful” space. It is a space with clear ecological functions. It supports life, provides refuge for species, contributes to the city’s adaptation to climate change, and helps the community rediscover nature up close, even among apartment blocks, boulevards, and office buildings.

The shrub island on Griviței Boulevard is a small but important example of how urban areas can be reimagined for biodiversity. It is a model that can be replicated in many other places in Brașov and across Romania, wherever there are underused green spaces, street alignments, courtyards, neighbourhood areas, or small surfaces that can become useful for nature.

Smart Cities, Living Cities

Flashnet’s support made this new urban intervention for biodiversity possible. We thank our partners for supporting a model in which technology, environmental responsibility, and care for the city can go hand in hand.

The cities of the future will not be resilient only through technical solutions, but also through their ability to integrate nature into everyday life. Shrubs, flowers, trees, living soil, pollinators, and birds are part of this discreet but essential infrastructure.

Through such actions, Propark continues to show that biodiversity does not belong only to remote protected areas. It can also be supported in the city, where people live, work, go to school, and meet every day.

We thank Flashnet for their support and all the volunteers who contributed to transforming this green space into an island of urban life.