Initiating Maastricht’s transition

Strawberries, children, falafel sandwiches, students, Maastricht residents and the sun. These elements are seldom to be found in the same place at the same time. Yet, the inauguration of the Community Garden 6211 on Friday May 21st brought them all together at Capucijnenstraat 21 for the opening of Maastricht’s first Buurttuin (lit. neighbourhood garden).

Transition Town Maastricht opens a Community Garden in Maastricht

After several months of shoveling, digging and planting the members of the Transition Town Maastricht network were finally able to present the result of their hard labour: the metamorphosis of an abandoned cemented space into a colourful, lively Eden.

For the occasion, a small crowd of all ages gathered to admire the green architecture of strawberry towers and herb spirals, boxes with budding tomatoes and courgettes and the walls around the garden which had been painted by children living in the neighbourhood.

“I’m very happy about the outcome of this project ,” said Bart Dekker, a member of Transition Towns Maastricht. “This should be a park where people can grow their vegetables, sit and enjoy, but also for hosting activities for children and older people.”.

From now on, the garden will be open twice a week. Depending on people’s wishes, opening hours may be extended in the future.

Change your surroundings
The initiative was born six months ago at the cultural freezone Landbouwbelang, when Bart together with a small group decided to embark on a mission to transform Maastricht into a sustainable community.

The inspiration came from examples of Transitions Towns in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands which responded to the challenges of thinning oil resources and economic slowdown through imaginative citizen projects.

Although there is no universal recipe for becoming a Transition Town, common ingredients are raising interest, connecting people and getting them engaged in concrete projects.

Yet, there is no finish line. A Transition Town is an ever-evolving experiment which grows through collective learning.

In Maastricht, the initiative started with movie nights and smaller events to raise awareness on the topics of sustainability.

Neighbourhood 6211 in Maastricht

The Community Garden was undertaken as a pilot project. If successful, the group will implement the idea in other neighbourhoods.

In its green lush the garden captures the spirit of Transition Towns. “It is about the resilience of the people,.” explains Bart. “With the increasing shortage of oil and food supply, it becomes crucial for people to learn to produce their own energy and their own nourishment in a more sustainable way.”

Necessity is turned into virtue. “We will probably have a harvest party here at the garden, so that people not only learn how to grow their own vegetables but also how to prepare them,” Bart continues. “We are going to do it as a social activity, so that people are inspired to come and learn from each other.”

As a matter of fact, linking up people through face to face contact is the primary concern of any Transition network. The idea is to share knowledge among generations, professions and cultures, and to start a chain reaction.

Hands-on, bottom-up
Key to success is that both vision and action come from grassroots level: government support steps in later.“The national government, in particular the Ministry of Agriculture, are particularly keen on projects like this,” says a Maastricht citizen who belongs to the network. “They have recently contributing some funding and there have been several conferences about Transition Towns experiences in Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Leiden”.

Municipalities are also starting to take interest in the phenomenon. In the case of Maastricht, Transition Towns worked hand in hand with the neighbourhood 621l to create the Community Garden.

Stephanie Timp supported the initiative from its dawn: “The difficulty is that when we think about the environment and pollution, the problems seem so huge that we almost freeze. But starting to work in our own surrounding gives an answer to the question: what can I do?”

Transition Towns aims at empowering people again, make them conscious of their influence in bringing about change. Therefore, though not associated to any ideology or political colour, Transition Towns comes across as a highly political movement.

Prospects of transition
Whether the positive domino effect has taken place is yet to be assessed. During the gardening gatherings, it was mostly students who took up the shovel. Nevertheless, the intergenerational exchange did occur during the painting session organized with children from the neighbourhood and indeed at the launch event itself. “I see a lot of people here and what is most important is that those who come are truly interested,” Stephanie says. “Maybe they will take home a bit of inspiration and think about sustainability and ecological issues.” .

Yet, for such grassroots initiatives to expand and be succesful, one factor is crucial: an ever growing network of active citizens. One way to achieve this is to get more hooked up with existing initiatives. “We want to organize an evening and bring together as many people as possible to see where we stand as a Transition Town,” Stephanies explains. “We would like to hear about and get inspiration from ongoing activities.”

Exchange of information is also paramount. A meeting with the University of Wageningen is planned for September, and closer work with the Maastricht University is also on the agenda. Certainly, synergies with the students will be deepened. “The fun was doing the work,” says Dutch student Lieke. “Now I feel like getting back to work again.” This enthusiasm, despite the interest, is harder to be found among those who have a job, a family and feel less prone to get dirty in the mud. Nevertheless,it is exactly the type of spirit which concretely brings Transition Towns projects into being.

Strong hands and inventive minds however will not be the whole story. Despite the good turn-out, the little group gathered at the Capucijnestraat seemed a drop in the ocean when compared to the Friday afternoon shopping crowd in the city centre. Moreover, in order for a transition to be effective, it must move from the periphery to the centre, something the Transition Towns network in Maastricht is working on by involving different actors.

“If we want to change Maastricht, we have to do a lot of work”, Bart acknowledges. In fat, making a community sustainable is not too different from gardening: it requires planting, growing and harvesting, without any guarantee of a yield.

It is also important to take the broader picture into account: for gardening, weather variables and soil quality. For sustainability, the national and global framework.

In any case, even if the journey ahead may be long, the Transition Towns team in Maastricht is driven by the conviction that many good things will be found on the road to sustainability.

By Sofia Tussis

Sofia Tussis is an Italian student at University College Maastricht, specialising in European Studies. She loves the town, its people and its bicycles, its weather a little less.

Links:

• http://www.transitionnetwork.org/
• http://maastricht.transitiontowns.nl/
• http://www.landbouwbelang.com/lbb2/
• http://www.wur.nl/UK/
• http://www.mitra.biz/howto_herbspiral.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture

Rob Hopkins’ Transition Handbook

Founder of the Transition Network spreading throughout the world, Rob Hopkins talks about Transition Town Totnes and moving towards a post-peak oil society. His book The Transition Handbook gives an account of the founding of Transition Town Totnes, and the global spread of Transition towns.