Unlocking the Potential of Urban Forests: Developing a Local Urban Forestry Action Plan

Green infrastructure approaches – which focus on planned networks of natural and semi-natural areas – reflect the need to look at the urban environment as a whole, moving away from a focus on individual spaces. Indeed, multiple benefits can only be generated through a well-connected and well-functioning green and blue network. In this context, urban forests are crucial contributors to greener, healthier, more resilient and liveable cities.

However, there is still a need to stimulate urban forestry approaches and further explore innovation at all levels. In particular, there is an urgent need to scale up initiatives, explore and strengthen collaboration across disciplines and sectors, and support the creation of knowledge as well as specific learning and training opportunities. At the same time, urban forestry should go hand in hand with entrepreneurship, which offers opportunities that need to be further investigated.

This document aims to provide background and guidelines for developing a local Urban Forestry Action Plan, based on an overview of the status, benefits and potential opportunities of urban forestry at European scale. These guidelines are aimed principally at non-specialist audiences who wish to gain a quick overview of the enormous potential of urban forestry to address social, economic and environmental challenges in cities, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The document will therefore be of particular interest to policymakers working at European, national and local level, as well as to officers in local authorities.

Citation

Owuor, J.A., Whitehead, I. and De Vreese, R. (2022). Unlocking the Potential of Urban Forests: Developing a Local Urban Forestry Plan. Erasmus+ project UForest, Deliverable 3.4. ISBN 978-952-7426-28-9.