Botanic gardens also bring community and social benefits

This aspect of well-being focuses on nonmaterial benefits that can be hard to quantify, such as political empowerment, improved social networks and community cohesion, reduced vulnerability and a freedom from violence and conflict. Although these benefits may be hard to measure they are nevertheless key to quality of life and are often highlighted by the poor themselves as crucial to their well-being.

Many botanical gardens have projects that directly tackle social problems, which often involve the improvement of neighbourhood environments through "greening". The benefits of such projects are far more than aesthetic: academic research has shown that well designed projects can reduce crime, increase social interactions and improve individual feelings of adjustment.

Greening projects are now run by botanical gardens and healthcare institutions in many diverse locations, from South Africa to Ukraine and Brazil. In the coldest regions of Russia, these projects are especially adapted to meet the challenges of the harsh climate. Botanical gardens such as that of Yakutsk State University investigate and develop plants hardy enough to withstand the harsh climate, and also research suitable combinations of plants to treat the problem of poor interior air quality of buildings that receive little ventilation throughout winter.

Projects can be especially focused on empowering disadvantaged members of society. For example, the Mexican botanic garden "Francisco Javier Clavijero" has worked with local rural women to record their traditional knowledge of plants and their uses, and set up a permanent workshop to help them share useful ideas and knowledge. With the assistance of BGCI this garden is currently supporting the development of a women's tree nursery.

Of course, many projects that focus on other aspects of well-being can also address social problems. Home garden projects have often tackled inequality and discrimination by focusing on helping the poorest sectors of society and working with women. Gardens themselves can also play a valuable role in communities. They are widely recognised as providing valuable 'green space' for urban residents, but they can also have very specific and significant functions for a community.

The Mexican botanic garden of Charco del Ingenio, for example, provides a valuable recreational and ceremonial space for local people, and in 2004 was designated a peace zone by the Dalai Lama. Similarly, Hawaii's National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) at Kahanu is an important spiritual centre as it contains the massive "Pi`ilanihale Heiau", a structure made out of lava rock and believed to be the largest ancient place of worship in Polynesia.

This role can be particularly important in countries that have experienced conflict: a botanic garden to be re-established at Kabul in Afghanistan is specifically designed as a peaceful safe haven for women and children.

Gardens also help record and promote cultural values and traditions that might otherwise be lost. For example, Canadian botanic gardens are involved in 'First Nation' projects to record and promote the traditional uses of plants by the indigenous peoples. This type of project is relevant all over the world, wherever cultures or traditions are eroding. For example, the Botanic Garden of Salvador, Brazil, surveyed native species related to the Afro-Brazilian culture, and its education team visited local communities to identify "terreiros" whose knowledge of plant sacred properties formed the basis of a new garden promoting this culture.

Gardens can also help to bring communities together to build new community values: Garfield Park Conservatory (GPC), Chicago, facilitates a new Communities Program which provides the opportunity for local stakeholders to participate in the development of a plan to improve the "quality of life" for the East Garfield Park area.

It is clear that botanical gardens make diverse contributions to improving social and community well-being, which reflects the diversity of their surroundings and social context. Consideration of this aspect of well-being is particularly important where societies have clear problems of inequality and minority discrimination, but also for any gardens in urban settings, where environmental quality may be poor, and traditional knowledge threatened.

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Botanic gardens also bring community and social benefits

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