Climate plan: Biodiversity policy 2020-2030

As a major landowner, Ghent University can make a difference through a visionary policy on green spaces and biodiversity.
Moreover, greenery contributes to more attractive campuses for students, staff, and visitors/passersby.

Objectives

Ghent University is committed to preserving and enhancing green spaces and biodiversity on the properties under its management. It aims to make progress in both quantity and quality, at both campus and institutional level, using a ‘net gain’ in greenery and biodiversity as a guiding principle.

This means that Ghent University:

  • Preserves existing greenery and biodiversity on its grounds;

  • Works toward expanding and improving the quality of green spaces across its campuses;

  • Treats green spaces and biodiversity as key considerations in policy decisions.

Key Milestones

  • Structural vision "Ghent University Imagines 2050", outlining a forward-looking, sustainable campus development strategy.

  • Translation of this vision into campus plans, providing clear direction for preserving and qualitatively designing open spaces and biodiversity. These plans guide engineering firms in infrastructure projects and help ensure coherent communication with permitting authorities and campus users.

  • Use of the biodiversity metric as a tool to monitor not just the quantity but also the quality of greenery, to guide choices in campus and construction plans, and to calculate green and biodiversity compensation.

  • Ecological green management plans for the campuses Sterre, Merelbeke, Pharmacy, Ardoyen, and Melle.

  • Phasing out and clustering of surface-level parking at the UFO, Sterre, and Coupure campuses, and converting parts of parking garages into bicycle parking at the UFO, Dunant, and Blandijn campuses — enabling de-paving and greening.

Actions 2025–2028

  • De-pave and green underused or unnecessary paved areas.

  • Conduct thorough alternative assessments before any new use of green space.

  • Use planned construction and renovation projects as leverage to implement parts of the campus plan.

  • Act on opportunities or quick wins to accelerate the implementation of approved campus plans — e.g., through grant applications, setting up living labs, and supporting bottom-up initiatives.

  • Further integrate the biodiversity metric into biodiversity policy:

    • as a decision-support tool for making informed choices in construction projects,

    • and as a monitoring tool to map biodiversity every five years.

More information

More information about our achievements and what you can do can be found on the webpage biodiversity.