Saadetud kiri: Letter of Intent

According to the Master Plan of Tartu (Tartu Üldplaneering 2040+) the property in which the Tartu Emajõe garden (project site of CityFarms4LIFE) is located at is assigned as land for recreation activities. The property is owned by TCG. The property is currently leased out to be used as community garden, the use of which TCG fully supports and encourages to sustain. TCG secures the use of the property of Tartu Emajõe Garden as a community garden and confirms that no alternative uses have been planned for the area (the current planning perspective of Tartu as defined by the masterplan is 2040+, which secures the described use for the area for the next 30 years). TCG is currently preparing a Urban Biodiversity Strategy (UBS) in which the sustainability of community gardens will also be covered, based on which maintenance collaboration models and long-term leases can be handled.

TCG has just launched a large scale project supporting urban biodiversity – urbanLIFEcircles, Introducing adaptive community based biodiversity management in urban areas for improved connectivity and ecosystem health, project number 101074453 under LIFE-2021-SAP-NAT. The project aims for systematic change for urban biodiversity and targets Natura 2000 sites, public parks, cemeteries and sports grounds as well as the green/blue network of the city. However, the urbanLIFEcircles does not specifically target community gardens, the sites which are significant connectivity stepping stones in urban green network. Thereby we see a high potential in aligning the two projects and establishing a strong collaboration to tune the outcomes. As the forerunner of promoting growing healthy food and educating children on healthy food production, we commit to collaborating with the CityFarms4LIFE team to replicate and exploit the outcomes of the project as part of its Community of Interest Network.

CityFarms4LIFE is an important project, which TCG fully supports.