Introduction

On 3 October 1926 the “Office International des Jardins Ouvriers” was founded in Luxembourg. Later the organization was renamed “Office International du Coin de Terre et des Jardins Familiaux”(short: Office International). The office of the Office International is still located in Luxembourg.

The past decades subjects like nature and environment protection, urban living quality, sustainable development, protection of biodiversity, healthy food and the social functions were discussed within the Office International.In the vision of the Office International it is important that allotment gardens should not only be useful for allotment gardeners, but also to society and towns in general and have an additional value for(urban) nature and biodiversity.

To stimulate the goals several activities were introduced like:

• a European Day of the Garden
• a diploma on ecological gardening
• a diploma for special social activities carried out by allotment gardeners.

The aim of these activities is to stimulate the allotment associations to contribute to nature and environment protection en to develop social activities.

In 1994 the “Golden Rose” was created in order to emphasise and to recognise the merits of persons and organizations who particularly support and help allotment gardens and to thank them for their commitment.

In 2011 the 14 national federations are member of the Office International. They represent over 3.000.000 families.