Three Square Meters of Death

 

Authors: Gaia Pilia, Ivan Kliuchnikov

 

 

Cemeteries are often seen as places of mourning, grief, and remembrance. However, they can also be valuable spaces for urban biodiversity and ecology. In fact, cemeteries can increase biodiversity, especially in urban areas where natural green spaces may be limited. Cemeteries are often designed with a significant amount of vegetation, such as trees, shrubs, and flowers, which can provide habitats for a variety of plant and animal species. As places of burial, cemeteries are a necessary part of the urban environment in human settlements all over the world. Mega-cities, in particular, have a rapid land-use change, making cemeteries crucial for plant variety (Yılmaz et cetera, 2018). 

 

Cemeteries are unique locations, because they blend natural and cultural elements, including burial sites, vegetation and built structures. But especially their use differs from that of other green spaces in cities. In many European countries the visiting rules are strict and don’t allow jogging, picnicking as well as being loud or making music. Cemeteries are one of the few “slow places” in our hectic cities (Długonski, 2022). What makes cemeteries special is their ability to be places of retreat. For wildlife as well as native plants and insect species, but also for groups that are predominantly marginalised from city life, such as the elderly, hypersensitive or depressed people. The spaces are not just spaces of burial, but have an environmental value. They provide a refuge for ecological niches and deliver ecosystem services like “improved health and well-being, flood risk management, improvements in soil, water and air quality, pollination and climate adaptation” (McClymont & Sinnett, 2021, p. 1). Thus, cemeteries contribute significantly to the preservation of biodiversity in cities and are part of its green corridors. Furthermore, cemeteries have great cultural value. The former city dwellers, buried in the cemeteries and the sculptures of the gravestones tell a history of the city and the rituals of its inhabitants, which even formed a touristic niche called thanatourism (Długonski, 2022). Despite cemeteries play an important role as cultural heritage and green infrastructure in our cities, they are often overlooked or underrepresented. In order not to make the same mistake, we wanted to take a closer look to this inconspicuous actor in cities and reveal the diversity of its plant and animal species.

 

The living among the dead

"Our cemetery has to look like a big park", said Brussels Mayor Julien Anspach at the inauguration of its new cemetery in 1877 (La Ville de Bruxelles, 2016). The 41 hectare large cemetery of Brussels is to date the largest of the Brussels Capital region. It holds a great variety of flora and fauna and the administration calls it the “green lung” of the city (Cimetière de Bruxelles, 2023). Located in Evere, the Cimetière de Bruxelles was a response to the increasing urbanization of the 18th century and the saturation of its former, smaller cemeteries located in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Saint-Gilles and Molenbeek-Saint-Jean. Today, in the Cimetière de Bruxelles one can find the graves of the mayors of Brussels as well as monuments that pay tribute to for instance the soviet soldiers fallen during the second world war. 

 

On a sunny day in early April, unlike what one might expect from the usual visitors to cemeteries, we set out to look for living things among the gravestones and went to the Brussels cemetery. It had massive stone gates with sculptures at the entrance and meticulously curated flower arrangements.  

 
(copyright: Muriel Piazza. Source: Cimetière de Bruxelles, Brochure by La ville de Bruxelles, 2016.)

 

From the very beginning, we saw a green wall of trees and tombs and noticed the incredibly soft earth in which one easily sank in. The low compaction of the soil is a sign that few people walk on it and provides the perfect terrain for flora and fauna. We headed to the graves and looked for places to set up sampling quadrats, using rope and measuring tape. Within the quadrats we counted the different species (to assess the species richness) as well as their occurrence, meaning how many objects of each species we could find within the squaremeter (called species evenness). One square meter is a method to sample small areas for biodiversity and survey the organisms in a certain area.

Like the size of a tomb, that is about three squaremeters big, we set up three sample quadrats in different spots. Our first search site was in the middle of the cemetery, next to the monument of soviet soldiers. The next square was placed on a lawn empty from any tombs. The third square was bordered next to an ancient broken tomb.

Our three quadrats captured Spiny sowthistle, Stinging nettle, Square-stalked Willowherb, Winter grass, Sweet violet, Lesser Celandine, Yellow avens. Through a species-recognition app we were able to find out that those species were native to Europe. The fauna found in our square meters was represented by Blacktail wolf spider and Red Wiggler earthworm. Otside of our quadrats we could observe rabbits and mole holes as well as many birds.

Cemeteries are often described as places of tranquillity, but that is in the eye of the human observer. For the variety of birds here, in contrast to other places in the city, is considerable. You can listen to the birds singing during our visit through this link.

(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qfNgY8SvnENPJv0B-qzab-Qe5leV0mpU/view?usp=sharing). 

 

Looking behind the facade

Seen how tabooed death is in our society, it comes as no surprise that cemeteries are overlooked as green infrastructure with a big potential of ecosystem services, in academia as well as in city planning. But experts suggest that taking a closer look to cemeteries reveals a myriad of functions and possibilities to design more resilient cities and in adapting to climate change. Instead of focusing on new, technological and high-costly “green” solutions to the problems cities of today are facing, it could be fruitful to look at what is already there. And find ways to foster and adjust and improve it according to the challenges cities today are facing.