Vertical Gardening Systems in Agege, Nigeria - A nature-based solution for all?

Lagos, Nigeria's smallest yet most populous state, self-proclaims itself as a "Centre of Excellence" for its achievements in business, entertainment, and technology. However, these accomplishments go along with rapid urbanization and consequently lead to a significant decline in its vegetation. Despite a state law requiring homeowners to allocate 30% of their land to greenery, only 3% of Lagos’ entire metropolitan area is currently covered by vegetation. Lagos is now dominated by high-density built-up areas to thereby resulting in environmental challenges like the urban heat island effect, air and water pollution, and biodiversity loss. The state also grapples with traffic congestion and a housing crisis.

Air pollution and traffic congestion in Lagos (left). Dense settlement lacking greenery (right)

SOURCE: Pius utomi ekpei/atp (left). Nyancho nwanri/reuters (right)

 

Moving towards a greener Lagos

To address these challenges, the state government has set up policies aimed at creating a greener and healthier Lagos. The most notable policies focus on public-private partnerships (PPPs) and the Lagos State Park and Garden Agency (LASPARK).

PPPs are collaborations between private investors and the government to develop urban infrastructure, which form a key component of Lagos' urban development and sustainability strategy. However, PPPs have been criticized for prioritizing profit over equitable access to public resources as well as their lack of transparency, among other criticisms. Regarding greening, PPPs mainly focus on establishing new "eco-cities" that often involve land reclamation activities and lead to the destruction of marine ecosystems and displacement of local communities. Ironically, they are often advertised as “green”. Generally, PPPs hinder efforts of environmental and social justice, as they often result in exclusive mega-projects that benefit only the elites. A prominent example of such a PPP is the “Eko Atlantic City” project in Lagos.

Eko Atlantic city concept design (left). Floating informal settlements in Lagos (right)

Source: eko Atlantic city website media gallery (left). Urban hell/reddit (right)

Unlike PPPs, LASPARK is a government-led agency tasked with developing, maintaining, and managing parks, gardens, and open spaces in the state for public use. While LASPARK has successfully established over 200 parks and gardens, constructed recreational facilities, and planted more than 6 million trees, not all residents of Lagos benefit equally from these initiatives. One study found that many residents were unaware of LASPARK, and only those with high literacy levels utilized the parks. This lack of equitable access undermines the agency's goal of creating a greener and healthier Lagos for all Lagosians.

Two of the parks created by laspark. muri okunola park in eti-osa (left) and ndubuisi kanu park in ikeja (right)

Source: Destiny azuka (left). laspark website (right)

 

Greening as a grassroots approach

Despite the city’s efforts to tackle the multiple environmental and social challenges, the need for actions that support vulnerable communities remains. People living in one of Lagos’ several “squatter” or “informal” settlements are particularly exposed to environmental hazards and the effects of climate change. Here, there has been an increased interest in community-driven greening initiatives. One example is the Vertical Garden Systems (VGS) project, which was brought to life by a team of researchers from Cardiff University in 2014. The group contacted community leaders of Agege, a low-income neighbourhood in the northern suburbs of Lagos, to implement these VGS and enable residents to grow crops on walls, balconies, or rooftops, even in small spaces. Over the course of two years, several prototypes were installed along residential buildings.

A highly sealed street in Agege, Lagos. Source: Wikimedia Commons. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Agege_Road%2C_Agege_Lagos_State.jpg

This nature-based solution has several objectives, the first being to improve the thermal climate and biodiversity of this dense and highly sealed neighborhood. But the project also took into consideration the social and economic benefits of the VGS. The low-cost Vertical Gardening Systems allow residents to grow crops and medicinal plants, thus providing a source of income and food security. Furthermore, the community-driven aspect was central to the project: residents were encouraged to participate in the planning and implementation with the aim of enhancing citizen empowerment and raising awareness for environmental issues. By building relationships with key community members and co-designing the installations with residents, the project leaders were able to gain approval and benefit from local expertise.

 Vertical Gardening System Prototypes in Agege. Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132318300349#sec5

The ecological sustainability of VGS
VGS have gained popularity as a sustainable agriculture method with many benefits including the promotion of biodiversity in urban areas, flood prevention by efficiently using rainwater and thermal climate regulation. For instance, the Agege VGS project reduced thermal internal air temperature by an average of 2.3^oC, thus facilitating high internal comfort conditions for residents. However, VGS can lead to structural and irrigation problems if poorly designed and can be environmentally problematic if made with unsustainable materials. Additionally, VGS may be difficult to maintain. Even so, with proper design and maintenance, VGS can be ecologically sustainable.

Community benefits of small-scale actions

Beyond the ecological values, the VGS project shows that a grassroots approach to greening can bring multifold benefits for local communities that top-down programs fail to achieve. As the researchers from Cardiff University point out in one of their publications on the VGS project: “innovations that are affordable, visually comprehensible and adaptable to social needs have higher likelihood to succeed in poor communities” (Akinwolemiwa et al. 2018: 285). However, as the Cardiff University research team stresses, the design and implementation processes must involve residents to benefit from local expertise and reach a high level of acceptance. One survey showed that most of Agege’s population seemed to be interested in VGS for personal use of growing crops and medicinal plants. In Nigeria, where low-income groups allocate 61% of their incomes to food and beverage provision, VGS therefor offer great potential for increasing self-sufficiency.

A long way to go

Despite the success of VGS projects, the limits of this grassroots approach also should be recognized. First, gaining acceptance of local communities can be challenging, yet crucial to the success of these projects. Furthermore, the small-scale benefits of the Agege project cannot compensate for the damage done by private investors and PPPs on a larger scale – for example through the construction of exclusive mega-projects. It also bears the risk of putting responsibility on residents where the state government fails to act. While other rapidly urbanizing cities should therefore consider promoting Vertical Gardening Systems as a low-cost nature-based solution for thermal regulation and urban food security, these attempts should not distract from the profound transformations cities must undergo to mitigate and adapt to the changing environment and to ensure green justice.

 

 

Word Count: 1093

Authors:

Ganiyat Temidayo Saliu & Alexandra Heitplatz

Sources:

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