EL PROBLEMA DEL AMARGOR EN EL ACEITE DE OLIVA VIRGEN

Town of Victoria Park Urban Forest strategy: a case study of Asset Based Community Development in a volunteer framework

Heather Johnstone

Risk reduction of vulnerable neighborhoods, foresting hillside slopes in Lima-Peru Josè Sato, Felipe Parado

City of Forests, City of Farms: The Governance and Discourse of Urban Sustainability in New York City

Lindsay K. Campbell

Perspectives on environmental justice in planning and delivery of urban forestry goals Amber Grant, Andrew Millward, Sara Edge

Urban forest values recognised in unique legislation David Galwey

Ecosystem service provision by urban trees: opportunities and challenges to enhancing delivery through policy and management

116

Town of Victoria Park Urban Forest strategy: a case study of Asset Based

Community Development in a volunteer framework.

Heather Johnstone*

Vic Park Collective, Millennium Kids, Vic Park Trees.

In May 2017, two grassroots community groups, place-makers The Vic Park collective and urban trees advocacy group Vic Park Trees (previously Victoria Park Urban Tree Network), began a partnership with local government authority the Town of Victoria Park. The Urban Forest Strategy Working Group (UFSWG) was born, the intention was to write an Urban Forest Strategy (UFS) using Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) in a volunteer framework. This presentation explores the challenges, benefits and achievements of this process and makes suggestions to strengthen this model.The Town has undertaken restructuring and extensive community consultation prior to and during the UFSWG’s formation and is progressing to a more inclusive and collaborative organisation. The UFS project is both the first Urban forest strategy for the Town and their first ABCD partnership in a volunteer framework to produce a strategy. The success or failure of this endeavour will determine the direction of future ABCD and volunteer partnerships for the Town.The outputs of the project were 5 workshops run in collaboration with the Australian Urban Design Research Center and Millennium Kids, community consultation, developing a strategy to increase canopy to 20% from 10% and a tree planting guide and tree matrix. Promoting the project through print and social media and liaising with a wide variety of stakeholders over twelve months to develop partnerships has involved managing 35 volunteers with a very small budget of $20,000AUD (€12,500). The strategy has begun final stages with community consultation before council endorsement. Despite challenges and mis-steps the UFSWG has completed tasks and maintained a cordial and professional relationship with Local Government staff and volunteers. This project shows that limited resources with an ABCD approach in a volunteer framework can decrease costs, increase productivity and offer residents a greater sense of ownership of their environment.

Keyword: Volunteering, asset based community development, urban forest strategy, community, partnerships *Corresponding author: David, Lindner, [email protected]

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Risk reduction of vulnerable neighborhoods, foresting hillside slopes in Lima-

Peru

Josè Sato*_{, Felipe Parado}

PREDES - Centro de Estudios y Prevención de Desastres

With only 6 mm of rain per year, it is challenging to afforest in Lima, the world´s second largest city located in a desert after Cairo. Its steep hills slopes (more than 20°) are being occupied informally, by more than a million people of limited economic resources, who build their homes without proper technique and destabilizing slopes, which puts them at risk in case of the impact of an earthquake or extraordinary rains by the El Niño Phenomenon.Facing this, the "Risk Reduction in vulnerable areas of Independencia district – Lima Province" program executed by PREDES in agreement with the Municipality, with the financial support of USAID/OFDA, implemented the afforestation of 2.5 hectares, with the purpose to stabilize the slopes and control the fall of rocks towards the lower parts where the houses of El Volante II and El Volante III neighborhoods are located. Afforestation is carried out with native tree-plants (molle serrano, tara, etc.) that are adapted to the desert climate of Lima and are more resistant to pests; the use of treated wastewater; drip irrigation; the improvement of soils with compost; and neighbors’ participation in the whole process. The Municipality plans to incorporate afforestation at district level, in its proposal for "Sustainable Eco touristic Forest Parks", which considers agronomic and urban-landscape criteria for recreational use as a sustainability strategy, over 50 hectares of hillsides suitable to be forested. This experience of afforestation of hillsides in Lima has been a concurrent factor that has allowed to articulate interests for the environmental quality of the area, ecotourism, land use planning, disaster risk management and mitigation of climate change.See: FAO (2018), Forests and sustainable cities: Inspiring stories from around the world. Pp. 15-18, http://www.fao.org/3/I8838EN/i8838en.pdf Video (4 minutes): https://youtu.be/dmWcS8siU04

Keywords: disaster risk management, neighborhood approach, urban resilience *Corresponding author: Josè Sato, [email protected]

118

City of Forests, City of Farms: The Governance and Discourse of Urban

Sustainability in New York City

Lindsay K. Campbell*

USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station

This presentation explores how and why urban nature is constructed in New York City using the case of PlaNYC2030—the municipal, long-term sustainability plan launched in 2007. From this entry point, it analyzes sustainability planning as a process that unfolds through the strategic interplay of actors, the deployment of different narrative frames, and the manipulation of the physical environment—including other living, non-human entities. In contrasting the top-down, centralized investment in the urban forest with the decentralized social movement around urban agriculture, the talk traces two very different processes underpinning what sort of nature is produced in the city. PlaNYC launched the MillionTreesNYC campaign, investing over $400 million in city funds and leveraging a public-private partnership to plant one million trees citywide. Meanwhile, despite the city having a long tradition of community gardening since the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, the plan contained no mention of community gardens or urban farms. Yet public interest in urban agriculture and local food systems has burgeoned, and civic groups and elected officials subsequently crafted a series of visions and plans for local food systems that informed the 2011 update to PlaNYC. Understanding how and why the sustainability agenda is set provides lessons to scholars, policymakers, and activists alike as they engage in the greening of cities.

Keywords: sustainability planning, urban forestry, urban agriculture, governance, discourse

119

Perspectives on environmental justice in planning and delivery of urban forestry

goals

Amber Grant*_{, Andrew Millward, Sara Edge}

PhD Student at Ryerson University in Geography and Environmental Studies

Urban trees are essential components of green infrastructure and their presence is critically important to urban sustainability. City trees provide a myriad of ecological, social and economic benefits to citizens; however, they are frequently disproportionately distributed across urban neighbourhoods, raising concerns of unequal access for disadvantaged groups. To improve equitable tree canopy cover in cities, many municipalities have developed and implemented urban forest management plans (UFMPs). This research investigates how equity goals and engagement strategies, are perceived and implemented by urban forestry managers, decision-makers and practitioners in forestry departments in San Francisco and Seattle. A range of stakeholders who were directly involved in implementing or influencing UFMPs were engaged through in-person key informant interviews. Interviews attempted to: (1) Better understand how they define or measure equity and justice; (2) Explore their capacity (e.g., knowledge, staff resources, will) to make decisions that support equity and justice goals; and (3) Examine who makes or is consulted on these decisions, and which identities are represented during public consultations. This research focuses on how to implement and realize equity goals in UFMPs, where successful delivery of these goals has broad implications for the sustainability and livability of these cities.

Key words: city trees, urban forest management, environmental justice, equity, decision-making *Corresponding author: Amber Grant, [email protected]

120

Urban forest values recognised in unique legislation

David Galwey*

Urban forest values recognised in unique legislation

To better protect the significant area of urban forest on private land, New South Wales – Australia’s most populous state – enacted legislation to resolve neighbourhood tree disputes: the Trees (Disputes Between Neighbours) Act 2006 (NSW). Importantly, the Trees Act requires the Court to consider the benefits of the tree to the broader community and environment when determining an appropriate outcome. The Trees Act falls within the jurisdiction of a specialised court: the NSW Land and Environment Court, a superior court of record. It provides property owners or occupiers with a means to seek a just, quick and cheap resolution to their dispute. Trees are a major cause of disputes between neighbours in Australia. Trees drop branches and debris, their roots can disrupt structures, and their canopies can obstruct access to sunlight and views. When neighbours cannot resolve disagreements through discussions, or the next step, mediation, they may seek resolution through the courts. Traditionally, tree disputes in Australian courts have been dealt with under the common law torts of nuisance or negligence. In common law, judicial decision makers such as magistrates and judges have considered the impacts of the tree on the aggrieved neighbour, and the onus on the tree’s owner of carrying out any works. As such, little thought need be given to the benefits of trees to the broader community. A significant portion of the urban forest in Australia’s major cities is on privately owned land. Given the numerous economic and social pressures on urban space, and thus vegetation, our policies, and indeed our laws, must reflect the values we now understand are provided by urban forests. In this presentation, I examine the benefits and limitations of this legislation to the urban forest in this jurisdiction, and discuss further possibilities for considering urban forest values in the legal system.

Key words: Trees, values, legislation, disputes, courts

121

Ecosystem service provision by urban trees: opportunities and challenges to

enhancing delivery through policy and management

Kathryn Hand*_{, Kieron Doick} Forest Research

Trees provide a range of benefits, or ecosystem services (ES), which help create sustainable, liveable and healthy urban spaces. ES delivery varies between trees depending on factors such as the tree’s stature, species, age and condition. However, how a tree is managed can also significantly affect its ability to provide ES. In Great Britain (GB), local governments play a leading role in governing how urban forests are managed. Yet reviews of GB urban forest management identify a lack of long- term, strategic planning and little consideration of the ES provision by urban forests. Changing local government management of urban forests could help to enhance the benefits that urban forests provide. This study aimed to illustrate the direct relation between urban tree management practices and ES delivery, to help inform management approaches that account for ES provision. The study comprised, firstly, an examination of how ES delivery varied with tree species, age and condition using data from over 6000 GB urban trees modelled in i-Tree Eco. This information was used to assess the implications of different management decisions on ES delivery. Secondly, the study sought to understand the context to GB local government management of urban forests. A review of urban tree policies was undertaken to identify the drivers behind current management practises, as well as any targets for the future of the urban forest. Combining these two streams of research provided conclusions that can inform on the relative benefits of the management actions: species selection, planting, management, and tree removal. The study highlighted the drivers that can lead to management actions that are detrimental to urban forest ES delivery, but also identified opportunities to enhance ES delivery by urban forests through improved management strategies.

Key words: management, ecosystem service, i-Tree Eco, policy

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PS 4.3: Changing Spaces and Places – Chaired by Urmila