Collective and ecological gardens in Zabalgana de Vitoria-Gasteiz
- The neighborhood of Zabalgana, in Vitoria-Gasteiz, was created about ten years ago on the initiative of a group of neighbors and neighbors, five years later the Zabalortu project was launched: “We had in mind starting the ecological and self-managed garden from the very beginning and, according to the City Hall, we got a land five years ago,” explains Gorka Perea Salazar, a project member. So the neighborhood orchard began to take its first steps, and now that Zabalortu has become small to the neighbors, they are on their way to create a new project: Ortubi. However, the City Hall has not yet responded to the neighborhood’s request.
Since its inception, numerous groups of friends and associations have joined the Zabalortu project, working on a total of 60 sites in the ample space of the neighborhood garden. “The Zabalortu Association was the only one that was presented to the competition of the City Council for the management of a large territory,” explained Perea. The association requires a group of at least five people to award the land, taking into account criteria such as being a social association or being a neighbour, for example, gives more points to people who want to cultivate the land.
The 60 groups working in it have a number of requirements: they have to produce in the ecological model, without using any chemical: “To participate in the Zabalortua project it is essential to receive a minimum of training today, and we also organize many voluntary courses.” In addition to the official courses, according to the project drivers, the relationships and knowledge established between the orchard groups and the neighbors greatly enriched the project.
Call to the City Hall for the implementation of the Ortubi project
Seeing the good march and demand of the garden in recent years, the neighbors decided to launch a new project: Ortubi orchard. “Within the Gasteiz Hobetuz program, an offer is made for different projects in which citizenship chose the Ortubi project in 2018.” This project aims to create a new self-managed garden in the area of Orinbizkarra, in the district of Zabalgaina, in the face of the paralysis of Zabalortu txiki.
The members of Zabalortu have been talking and publishing the project with the City Hall of Vitoria-Gasteiz for two years, but have denounced that no steps have been taken by the City Hall: “Within the strategic axis of ecology led by the City Hall, we do not understand that a project such as Ortubi, which is low cost and highly profitable, does not get underway.” They have therefore asked the City Council to respond as soon as possible to the vote and to award a new space of vegetable gardens to the Zabalgana district.
