Involving people in urban forestry-a discussion of participatory practices throughout Europe

Abstract

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. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.