Cultivating a “Greater Paris Residential Park” from a mosaic of private backyards and gardens

In the Greater Paris metropolitan area, the backyards and gardens of detached houses account for a total surface area of 10,700 hectares (five times the size of the Bois de Vincennes park). This endless variety of environments and ecosystems creates a mosaic of green spaces, influenced by the size and shape of each lot, the amount of vegetation, and the unique vision of each individual resident. When taken together at regional scale, this mosaic landscape forms a vast and biodiverse ecological resource. Our aim is to transform how we cultivate and design private gardens, fostering landscape practices that expand tree cover, protect and increase permeable surface area, and prioritize the use of permeable barriers along property lines. The uniqueness of each backyard and garden is maintained even as spaces become interconnected, forming continuous landscapes and ecological corridors at regional scale. Encouraging residents to plant more trees in their backyards and gardens, all the way up to the edges of their properties, is a key part of tapping into the power of this mosaic landscape. Individual environmental initiatives can be scaled to implementation at the policy level: local urban planning strategies centered on region-wide landscape visions will boost climate resilience across communities and cities.