Urban Forestry & Placemaking: By the people, for the planet

How can cities create networks of urban landscapes which are good for nature and are people-centred? Greening strategies that are co-created with citizens of the city hold the key.

When we think of urban forests, the term is meant as all urban trees in a city, whether on public or private land; these trees form the city's forest network. It's well understood that we need to look after our existing urban forests and that we can use technology to help us monitor and understand the health of urban trees. Along with this, we can build up the quality of our existing green and grey spaces in the city. Critically, strategies which employ nature-based principles such as net gain for nature and co-creation and partnership processes are likely to facilitate connection and long term viability in place projects.

In this webinar, we discussed strategies cities are using to partner with people and businesses to improve places, including the urban forests, that are benefiting citizen's quality of life and connection to nature.

Five Key Takeaways

1. Capacity in local authorities and city councils: There is a need for additional resources - both time and financial - so that skilled people in co-creation and placemaking can be recruited to deliver NBS for urban forests. We know what to do, how to do it, and why; but what's missing is people who can help with this work. While it's true that the value of nature is generally understood in departments of city councils, it shouldn't be assumed as a universal value within local authorities.

 "I think there's a kind of jaded narrative … connected to the green agenda and climate change…so trying to figure out that conversation and how to get more people involved is key." 

- Suzanne O'Connell, Landscape Architect, Dublin City Council

2. Public awareness on the urgency of climate and biodiversity action can lead to the creation of an urban forestry strategy, but delivering this is complex. Max Hislop showed us how the Clyde Climate Forest strategy came about, from political will to the strategy to plant 18 million trees in the Glasgow region in the next 8 years. 

This strategy includes an in-depth of analysis on where and why to plant trees to create necessary mitigation corridors with multifunctional benefits. Looking at delivery in the city, we see an emphasis on social justice coming into play and the need for best practices in communication and co-creation. Find more information about the Clyde Climate Forest on GCV Green Network.

3. If you're actively involved in placemaking, which includes urban forestry and topics, and you want to develop your practice, a good start is education, innovation and entrepreneurship. It is about putting existing solutions and tools for co-creating NBS / urban forests together. 

The projects Connecting Nature and UForest can support you with e-learning resources and guidance to peer-to-peer learning, along with opportunities for networking and building alliances.

4. Quality placemaking is done with engagement from people in the community. Buy-in is vital, but this takes time and commitment from implementing partners along with deep active listening and really understand what people need, and addressing this. There needs to be this commitment to continued listening all the way through the process, from initial engagement to creating and iterating indicative plans, allowing space for feedback and dialogue even as the projects are being delivered.

5. Public – Private Partnerships: WOW Nature is a platform that brings together business partners and public authorities to deliver urban forests, including food forests, and to protect existing forests. It does this by bringing companies towards a path of sustainability and responsibility, through helping them to make their product/service as sustainable as possible.

Starting with measurement of the clients impact, all through to looking into strategies to reduce this impact, and lastly, to look at investment in forestry projects to further reduce this impact.

So it's not just a donation. It is really a green marketing strategy and impactful investment that can be backed up by scientific evidence and by a third party certification scheme such as FSC. WOW Nature's case studies show us how innovation can help us deliver robust nature-based solutions.

Connecting Nature Enterprise Platform (2022) Urban Forestry & Placemaking - By the People, for the Planet - Key Takeaways. Sustainable Forestry and NBS for Urban Landscapes workshop, 11 May 2022.

Funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework. Programme of The European Union. Grant Agreement 730222.

Missed the session? Watch the recording below!