Meditation in the Vogelzangbeek valley

Brussels Environnement has joined forces with the Erasmus hospital (ULB) to co-create a project linked to well-being. In the Vogelzangbeek valley in Anderlecht, they combined “naturalness” and a meditative path with a therapeutic objective aimed to reduce stress and anxiety. A sheltered place close to the centrum of Brussels.

The park will be extensively managed. This approach prioritizes the preservation and enhancement of natural ecosystems within the park, while minimizing human intervention and maximizing ecological processes. It involves adopting practices that mimic natural ecosystems and allows them to function with minimal disruption. A combination of late mowing with export of the mowed product and extensive pasture with low livestock load will result in increasingly impoverished soils leading to higher biodiversity richness. The non-profit organization ‘Les Moutons Bruxellois’ is responsible for the ecological management of permanent meadows and agroecological pastoralism in the park. Specific wet habitats (wet meadows, reeds beds, alder/willow groves) will maintained by retaining water on site via natural basins and infiltration. Wooded areas can freely develop, expect along the paths for safety reasons, and dead wood will be retained on site (circular biomass).