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MURBAN FORESTRY AND GREENING: TOWARDS ACHIEVING THE MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
By Michelle Gauthier
Six years ago, leaders from every country agreed on a vision for the future – a world with less poverty, hunger and disease, greater survival prospects for mothers and their infants, better-educated children, equal opportunities for women, and a healthier environment. A world in which developed and developing countries work in partnership for the betterment of all. The question regarding the potential of trees and forests in cities and their surroundings for achieving these Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) leads mainly to goal 7 for ensuring environmental sustainability. The MDG Report 2006 (UN-DESA, 2006) emphasised the following targets for this goal: i) to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources; ii) the access to safe drinking water; and, iii) to achieve a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers.
Achieving these targets requires wellmanaged trees and forests, particularly in urban areas. Challenges related to urbanization are very complex. This is especially true for developing countries, where the provision of food, housing, water, sanitation and employment is urgent. Cities in developing countries face specific problems such as poverty, slums and urban sprawl, and the supply of essential goods, including agricultural and non-wood forest products, wood-energy and water. Mismanagement of the land surrounding cities may lead to soil erosion, landslides, sand encroachment or floods. These disasters are likely to affect the urban poor most. The fight against pollution and search for recreational and leisure areas are common worldwide.
A green city is more than a pleasant environment to live. In the quest for healthy, liveable and sustainable cities, urban green spaces with an optimum tree cover have a key role to play: they temper harsh urban climates and save energy for airconditioning; maintain corridors between ecosystems to conserve biodiversity; reduce air pollution; and contribute to human health. In the peri-urban area, forests and trees can protect water catchments; provide fuel, food, medicine and areas for recreation. Therefore, a green sustainable city should : i) be planned against the principles of watershed and landscape management, using trees and forest to protect soil, land, biological diversity and water; ii) develop or support a multifunctional network of urban green spaces and trees to respond to food, energy and income needs of the poor. The conditions to achieve this include secure resource and land access or tenure; inclusive participation and good governance; interdisciplinary and sectoral work. Urban forestry planning must be strategic, with long-term policies and plans responding to the needs for tree resources and urbanisation prospects, connecting to different sectors, agendas and programmes, and taking into account the continuous tendencies of expansion and densification of cities (Mock, 2004; Ottitsch & Krott, 2005). This is particularly true when poverty, conflicts and natural disasters force the rural population to migrate into cities (UN-Habitat, 2004).
Economic valuation translates urban forest services and functions into terms that enhance public value. For example, the Urban Ecosystem Analysis of the Washington , D.C. , metropolitan area concluded that tree cover had reduced storm water storage costs by US$4.7 billion and generated annual air quality savings of US$49.8 million. (Wolf, 2004). Over the past 40 years, most of the urban forestry research and capacity development has taken place in Europe and North America , followed by Latin America and Asia in the past 20 years. In Africa , urban forestry receives very little attention, despite the fact that in practice, urban and peri-urban agroforestry is an important source of food, fuel and income in African cities. For instance, a study conducted in 2003, in the state of Abia in Nigeria , on the agroforestry practices of 180 households in peri-urban areas showed that 31 percent of the respondents were involved in multi-storey home gardening, to ensure family food security, provide different fruits all season long, maintain soil fertility and generate additional income (Odurukwe, 2006)
Strategic Urban forestry in China
China plans to expand the cover of urban forests and trees to 45 percent in 70 percent of its cities by the year 2050. Today, several Chinese cities, e.g. Changchun , Nanjing and Guangzhou , have a forest cover of more than 40 percent. Urban forests are managed for multiple purposes, including recreation, protection of water sources, biodiversity conservation, atmospheric CO2 sequestration, air pollution reduction, and others. Cities located in different parts of the country may emphasise different urban forest functions. Due to the heavy air pollution in most Chinese cities, however, all of the trees and forests in a city are expected to have a high capacity to retain dust and absorb SO2, NO2 and other pollutants (Guan & Liu, 1999, Wu et al., 2004).
Forestry outlook study: urban and periurban forestry in West and Central Asia
The Forestry Outlook Study for West and Central Asia (23 countries), by FAO with member countries, examined the trends in the development of forests and forestry, with a special attention to the urbanization process and the livelihoods of urban and periurban populations. Specific case studies in the cities of Amman , Abu Dhabi , Izmir , Kabul and Yerevan confirmed the potential of urban forestry, but highlighted the general lack of technology, best practices and knowledge, the lack of harmony and coordination between sectoral institutions, disciplines, and inadequate policy and legislative frameworks.
Ways forward: how urban and periurban forestry can contribute to achieving the MDGs
The potential of trees and forests to contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals needs to be communicated widely, and taken up in policy development. Ideally, this potential should be translated into the MDG progress indicators.
Current research results should be used and replicated elsewhere. Recent USbased research has for instance provided policy information for national and municipal governments; including the quantification of environmental benefits of urban forests, such as air pollution reduction and climate amelioration (Dwyer et al., 2000), the social and community impacts of urban forests (Kuo 2003 for an overview), and the economic impacts of trees (Wolf, 2004). Innovative research projects involving country-based scientists include: the impacts of urban forests on human health (Grahn & Stigsdotter, 2003); economic valuation of urban forest benefits (Tyrväinen et al., 2005); and the development of participatory tools for the planning and management of urban woodlands (Van Herzele et al., 2005). Recent urban forestry research in Latin America has included a study on the role of Santiago de Chile’s urban forest in air pollution reduction (Escobedo et al., 2005), and a first compilation of experiences with municipal forest management (CIFOR & IDRC, 2003). The link between urban forestry and livelihoods, poverty reduction and food security, particularly in the context of developing countries has not been gathered and analysed on systematic basis and requires further research.
Networking, partnerships and capacity building initiatives such as city twinning are essential tools supporting the development of local evidence-based policies and actions, based on research and practical experience. Existing initiatives include the EC COST Action E12 on Urban Forests and Trees, funded by the European Commission’s Directorate for Research; the Resource Centre for Urban Agriculture and Forestry (RUAF, http://www.ruaf.org), USbased TreeLink (http://www.treelink.org), and the European Urban Forestry Research and Information Centre (EUFORIC, http://www.sl.kvl.dk/euforic); the International Union of Forest Research Institutions (IUFRO) working group 6.14.00, http://www.iufro.org/science/divisions/division-6/60000/61400/ ; United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG, http://www.cities-localgovernments.org/uclg/); the International Development Research Centre (http://www.idrc.ca) (IDRC, Canada) and its Guidelines for policy-making on urban agriculture in support of sustainable municipal development; the Urban Management Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean of UN-Habitat (http://www.pgualc.org); Africities “Building local coalitions for the implementation of the MDG in Africa Local Governments” (http://www.africites.org/index_eng.php) ; as well as the FAO programme on urban and periurban forestry and the FAO Multidisciplinary Area Group “Food For The Cities”, which promotes integrative and comprehensive actions in urban and periurban environments for poverty alleviation, e.g. considering nutrition, health, agriculture, forestry and fisheries (http://www.fao.org/fcit/index.asp).
A sustainable city responding to people’s needs has to value its green capital and adapt itself to the environment. Trees and forests are indispensable assets to reach the MDGs. Significant steps will need to be taken to highlight their importance and to put them on the agenda of all those concerned. A first step would be to identify indicators for their contribution to food security, poverty alleviation and livelihoods in urban and periurban environments.
Note: This article is mostly based on Cecil Konijnendijk and Michelle Gauthier. Chapter 14 “Urban Forestry for Multifunctional Urban Land Use”. P. 314-342. In: Cities Farming for the Future. Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities . Edited by René van Veenhuizen. IIRR/RUAF/IDRC 2006. 474 pp.
References
For further information, please contact:
Michelle Gauthier
Forestry Officer, In charge of Urban and Periurban Forestry
Forest Conservation Service, Forestry Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
Rome 00100
Italy
Email: michelle.gauthier@fao.org