In addition to the fact that land use is the second largest cause of the biodiversity footprint in Tampere, it is currently known to be the greatest threat to terrestrial and aquatic organisms and their habitats. In terms of land use, nature-positivity requires more careful consideration of the special characteristics of species and habitats in urban planning. In a growing city, up-to-date nature surveys must be carried out on the basis of appropriate planning, and current operating models must be developed and new types of operating models introduced. The City of Tampere aims to be nature-positive in land use primarily by utilising a four-step mitigation hierarchy.
According to the mitigation hierarchy, damage to nature caused by land use must primarily be avoided, secondly reduced, and thirdly restored in the area to be degraded. Especially in the implementation of the first phase, zoning plays an important role. Zoning can promote dense urban construction and avoid planning construction projects for valuable natural sites, for example. The aim is to reduce the unavoidable harm to nature at the construction site, for example, by favouring plant roofs and property-specific nature-based stormwater solutions, and to restore them, for example, by planting trees.
If natural damage continues to be caused, the so-called residual damage can be compensated for by improving the state of nature outside the area to be weakened by various means of restoration, nature management, or protection. When the state of nature is improved more than deteriorating, it is possible to achieve a nature-positivity in land use in the overall picture. This last step of the mitigation hierarchy, ecological compensation, has been recorded in the Nature Conservation Act to be implemented voluntarily. In practice, however, achieving nature-positivity in a growing city requires the introduction of ecological compensation, which is why the development of the operating model has been recorded as a measure in this programme.
Nature positivity in land use refers to the increase in nature values, i.e. Net Positive Impact (NPI) in connection with land use projects. In practice, this means that more measures to improve the condition of the same nature value are carried out compared to the adverse effects caused by the project. A Net Positive Impact is achieved when the benefits to nature values outweigh the negative impacts on them.
No Net Loss (NNL) refers to a state in which human activity as a whole, including both positive and negative actions, does not harm biodiversity. In principle, total non-deterioration can be achieved by avoiding, reducing, and restoring harmful impacts, but often the goal also requires measures to improve natural values outside land use sites.
Note: You can translate the measures using your internet browser's translation tool. The measures are written in Finnish, because they are being updated continuously.