Search

The article describes the state of the art of governancing urban and peri-urban forestry in Europe

The demands of modern, urbanising society require major changes in forestry and other types of natural resource management. More cross-sectoral, participatory, multi-disciplinary approaches have been called for, as well as better integration between science, policy and implementation. The concept of urban forestry offers an interesting example of innovation in forestry to meet current challenges. This article draws upon examples from urban forestry related to scientist-practitioner networking, knowledge brokers, and decision support, with the aim to provide inspiration for enhanced science-policy-public linking in forestry at large.

Een algemene beschouwing over het verschijnsel stadsbos

Planning and acting on issues relating to people’s living environment have increasingly become a socially embedded practice, shifting from serving an abstract public interest to actively engaging the public. Central to this approach is a greater emphasis on the exchange of knowledge and the development of ideas through communication with relevant stakeholders, including users, residents and community groups. This trend towards greater communication in urban environmental or ‘green’ planning parallels the current success of various concepts such as collaborative planning, citizenship, social capital and participatory democracy. In addition, urban renewal strategies and environmental improvement schemes for creating livable cities, the establishment of Local Agenda 21, and the growing attention to the social dimensions of sustainable forest management, all provide a context to develop new interactions between society and forestry. Cities, towns and suburbs are increasingly rich in different types of green spaces. In addition to traditional public areas such as urban woodland and parks, many different types of areas and new kinds of ownership or comanagement arrangements are now evident. As outlined by Agate (1998), these include community wildlife gardens, children’s farms, school nature areas and community forests. This new diversity provides many opportunities for community involvement – including training and education, consultation and active participation – the realization of which will fully develop many of the ‘real’ benefits from the urban forest: health and well-being, community development, environmental education, sustainable urban design and planning (see Chap. 4). The urban population represents a huge potential, often largely untapped, to deliver creative ideas, skills and manpower to take care of these spaces and to maximize their contribution to the quality of urban life. In various places throughout Europe, urban foresters, local authorities and community workers as well as individual activists are placing a higher priority on urban greening and a greater emphasis on ensuring that many different groups get as much benefit from it, using approaches that tap into the energy and commitment among local people. Very different projects all over Europe owe their success to the active participation of citizens. Examples of local initiatives are tree planting schemes and clean-up days. There are positive experiences with partnerships between city authorities and residents for the establishment and the maintenance of green spaces around high-rise housing blocks, for example in four city districts of Sofia, Bulgaria (Van Herzele and Denutte 2002) and in the suburb of Holma in Malmo, Sweden (Beer et al. 2003). At a larger scale, much of Involving People in Urban Forestry – A Discussion of Participatory Practices throughout Europe