When nature recovers areas abandoned by humans

Kasper Jakubowski visits the Liban quarry and talks about how the place where limestone was mined from the 14th century to 1986 was reclaimed by nature. Over the course of 36 years, these areas have developed a new ecosystem, an enclave of biodiversity.

The platforms created as a result of limestone mining are now covered with numerous plant species – both native and of foreign origin. This diversity is independent of human intervention. As time passes and the ecosystem grows, pioneering species are displaced and replaced by others.

Kasper Jakubowski talks about the benefits of the existence of wild green enclaves in cities. He emphasises that urban jungles created in abandoned areas require a new narrative. The term “wasteland” has negative connotations, while the disordered greenery in the city has many advantages, including absorbing smog and lowering the air temperature.

dr Kasper Jakubowski – ecological educator, landscape architect, advocate of the fourth nature. Currently, the president of the Children in Nature Foundation. Author of texts about thickets, the potential of wastelands, wilderness in the city, natural revival, and ecological education in the urban jungle. He published an e-book entitled „Czwarta przyroda”, in which he writes about the hidden potential of areas abandoned by humans.