Thriving communities need healthy ecosystems. The conservation of biodiversity is closely tied to the health and well-being of people. In recent years, increasing worldwide recognition of this interrelatedness emphasises the need for preserving and enhancing functional biodiversity. We depend on nature as our substantial infrastructure. Especially in expanding urban and peri-urban areas, living with the pandemic has revealed how healthy, biodiverse green spaces are increasingly frequented by urban dwellers and help foster societal resilience. Biodiversity conservation is therefore high on the international agenda.
The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2021 – Managing landscapes for nature and people
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the French government are holding the IUCN World Conservation Congress from September 3 to 11 2021 in Marseille.
Bringing together the global nature conservation community, the Congress opens the stage to leading conservation scientists, policy experts and practitioners and invites 1,400 Member organisations. Among those organisations, states, civil society and Indigenous Peoples exchange views about pressing issues in nature conservation and ways to tackle them. As one of the main Congress themes, attendees discuss how to manage landscapes for nature and people.
Urban Forests as Nature-based Solutions
As defined by IUCN, Nature-based solutions are “actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems, that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits”.
The Sino-European CLEARING HOUSE Horizon2020 project is developing a novel typology for urban forests, urban green and urban trees. In this context, Urban Forests as Nature-based Solutions (UF-NBS) are built on tree-based ecosystems in urban areas and play a fundamental role in providing ecosystem services for biodiversity benefits, human health and well-being. Focussing on Europe and China, the project’s diverse typology assumes a broad perspective and intends to provide grounding knowledge on UF-NBS beyond the project scope. On the way towards sustainable urbanisation, UF-NBS connect urban and peri-urban ecosystem services with societal demands. Do you want to learn more about the typology and its role to gather and exchange knowledge and integrate models and data on UF-NBS? Join the Humboldt University Berlin, the European Forest Institute (EFI) and the CLEARING HOUSE project in an Online Workshop on October 7th (8:15 – 11:15 CEST) – click here to register.
Urban trees and green spaces provide multiple benefits for people. Through CO2 sequestration and pollutant absorption, urban forests improve air quality. The rapid worldwide urbanisation entails increasing extensive ranges of impermeable hard surfaces in the built-environment, exacerbating the urban heat-island effect. Through shade provisioning and the process of evapotranspiration, urban trees and forests mitigate heat stress whilst saving energy through less use of air-conditioning and increasing urban liveability. Urban green spaces further reduce stormwater runoff, improve water filtration and water storage and reduce soil erosion. No less crucial, urban forests shelter numerous species, serving as a biodiversity hub for declining flora and fauna.
UF-NBS: A focus on health, well-being and inclusivity
Trees and forests in cities invite urban dwellers to connect with nature and provide an open space for physical activities and interactions with others. Why is this increasingly relevant? While projections assume a global urban population of 68% by 2050, nearly 85% of the worldwide population will live in cities by 2100 (UN, 2018). This trend is associated with rising levels of illnesses, stress and anxiety. Peoples’ nowadays communication patterns, characterised mainly by less direct contact and more screen-to-screen interaction, tend to bring communities further away from nature.
Reconnection with nature plays a vital role in preventing the development of illnesses, treating developed illnesses and ultimately in helping to reduce costs of health care. The positive effects of nature on health and well-being are rapidly becoming recognised on a broader scale. To better align stakeholders in the healthcare sector, the last IUCN World Conservation Congress, which took place in Hawaii in 2016, brought the IUCN Resolution 064 ‘Strengthening cross-sector partnerships to recognise the contributions of nature to health, well-being and quality of life’ to life. This resolution includes the urban context as: “Recognising that places, including urban areas, with a rich natural heritage, improve physical and mental health and spiritual well-being, and can increase the appreciation of nature including by the elderly”.
Biodiversity and UF-NBS enhance the health and well-being of urban dwellers in different environments, be it urban forests, parks or trees, public gardens, urban gardening projects or green spaces around health institutions allowing for nature encounters and boosting the well-being of patients and staff. However, it deserves mentioning that to build a flourishing connection to nature for all, inclusivity is essential. In many urban scenarios, opportunities to engage with nature leave out those who may benefit most, resulting in green gentrification and social exclusion. The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2021 invites attendees to discuss initiatives designed to deliver social justice together with benefits for people and the environment. See the latest news from the Congress.
Think global, act local
Looking at how pressing environmental threats such as the global biodiversity crisis evolve and how devastating those effects turn on a global scale, one can easily get frustrated and some of the challenges can appear as very remote. What can be done to drive change? How can individuals contribute to a sustainable transition that acknowledges the importance of biodiversity protection and human well-being? The concept “Think global, act local” has been introduced in 1915 by Patrick Geddes, a Scottish pioneering town planner and conservationist. Following a strong belief to work with the environment, rather than against it, Geddes’ concept shaped the idea in architecture and planning. Putting a spotlight on the impact urban development has on its surrounding environment, Geddes makes an important point that becomes increasingly meaningful in the face of a globalised world. Whilst a local action may not directly lead to saving the Amazon rainforest from deforestation or saving species on the brink of extinction, showing solidarity through local activities must not be underestimated. Enhancing consciousness about pressing environmental topics starts on a local scale.
All around the globe, local communities take initiatives to improve the liveability of their urban neighbourhoods. This development enhances cooperation among urban dwellers such as bottom-up and citizen engagement approaches, grassroots movements and urban agriculture initiatives. The positive effect of shaping common spaces in a community is shown through manifold benefits: shaping and meeting in urban green areas has a catalysing impact on social cohesion and social capital, fosters personal and societal resilience and enables early development of landscape stewardship through educational networks.
Life on earth relies on intact ecosystems. However, to collectively shape the healthy planet we want to live on, change does not emerge out of political agendas but also needs to be driven actively from the bottom. Turning ambition into science-informed action, engaging in volunteer programs, harnessing opportunities of citizen science and getting to know the ecosystems in front of your own door are important and impactful steps on the way towards creating environmental consciousness and tackling the biodiversity crisis.
Written by Prof Dr Alan Simson, Chair of the WRF Governance Committee and the WRF Steering Committee
Broughton Sanctuary – a White Rose Forest Project. Credit: Broughton Hall Estate
The White Rose Forest (WRF) was initially launched in the City of Leeds on Yorkshire Day – 1st August – in 2000. Set up as a West Yorkshire Regeneration Initiative, it aims to encourage economic investment and human health and well-being through environmental improvement, in particular through the planting of trees. The WRF has now expanded to include North Yorkshire, and thus now covers an area of some 9424 km².
A Community Forest is a place with a Forestry Plan, and a partnership to deliver that plan. We therefore work in partnership with local authorities, landowners, businesses and communities to plant millions of trees in our urban centres and countryside that will help manage flood risk, combat climate change, create jobs and provide happier and healthier places for us all to live, love, work in and enjoy. The WRF engages with five specific planting zones, comprising the urban forest, the sub-urban forest, the peri-urban forest, the ex-urban forest (commute areas) and rural woodland.
Broughton Sanctuary Community Tree Planting, Credit: Broughton Hall Estate
Each zone requires a specific design approach, and the ex-urban areas are coming under increased pressure to expand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the shift of employment and habitation away from town and city centres to ‘greener’ localities.
WRF activity is transdisciplinary and adopts a multi-cultural community approach. Get to know the three prime themes running at the moment:
Green Streets: Improving the design of urban streets by reducing traffic, increasing urban green especially street trees and providing better facilities for pedestrians and cyclists;
Landscapes for Water: Planting trees in the right places to help slow the flow of surface water into streams and rivers, thus helping to prevent urban flooding downstream;
Trees for Learning: Working with schools and community groups to promote the concept of urban forestry, enhancing the process of widening and deepening community involvement and connection to the planning, planting and management of their trees and woodland.
WRF planted approaching 2 million trees to date. Once these trees are established, they will also store significant quantities of carbon and help to deliver the Government’s commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions in the UK by 2050.
Credit: WTML
The WRF is one of four Community Forests in the north of England working together to create the Northern Forest. The Northern Forest was set up by the UK Government in January 2018 as an environmental counterpart to their Northern Powerhouse Strategy, aiming to plant in excess of 50 million trees by 2032 to significantly increase the canopy cover of the region, and to improve the quality of life there for both people and wildlife. The Government has set up a Nature for Climate fund, which has earmarked £12.1 million (over €14 million) for tree planting this season, led by the Community Forests, and the White Rose Forest has benefitted from received £3.7 million (over €4.29 million) from this fund to plant 218 ha of new woodland this season, which has also enabled WRF to increase staff by three.
A Current White Rose Forest Project: Broughton Sanctuary, Broughton Hall Estate
Broughton Sanctuary at Broughton Hall, an estate some 30 km north-west of the City of Leeds, has become home to the largest tree planting scheme to take place in England this season. WRF has planted 160 ha of resilient woodland between December 2020 and April 2021 – the equivalent of 224 football pitches. Tree species have been selected to meet the objectives of biodiversity and to offer maximum resilience to climate change. The genetic provenance of the native species used were carefully considered prior to planting. The woodland area comprises 57% of high to medium forest; 28% of medium forest to scrub (no more than 20% of which are scrub species) and 15% of open ground. The tree planting marks the beginning of an ambitious nature recovery programme that will transform one third of this 1200 ha estate into a much wilder state, thus increasing biodiversity and wildlife. As well as tree planting, early interventions to kickstart the recovery process will include the natural regeneration of trees, scrub and grasslands, the creation and restoration of wetland habitats and sensitive woodland management.
The project has generated considerable media interest, having been featured in five national newspapers, and has appeared on Channel 4 News in the UK. WRF tried to get the title of the video changed – it isn’t the biggest tree planting operation ever undertaken in England – only the biggest undertaken this season. Guess that’s the media for you!
“We surely have to wake up to the fact that respecting and supporting nature has to be a high priority on the ground now. Our lack of a harmonious existence with the Earth is causing the extinction of species across the globe, as well as a deep lack of belonging for humanity […]. We believe that the change we need to see will come through the union of rewilding our ‘outer nature’, such as the nature recovery and rewilding project at Broughton, along with the rewilding of our ‘inner nature’, which perhaps has been the root cause of deforestation and degradation of nature in England. Our health and future as a species depend on the holistic health of our land […]. We are enormously grateful to everyone who has been involved in our nature recovery project so far. A huge thank you to the White Rose Forest, Defra, Kirklees Council and the Environment Agency.”
Roger Tempest, the custodian of the Broughton Hall Estate, and his partner Paris Ackrill, co-founder of Avalon Wellbeing
Community Tree-Planting at Broughton Sanctuary, Credit: Broughton Hall Estate
“We are committed to tree planting and natural regeneration on an unprecedented scale, and part of that will be a major focus on regenerating land alongside our watercourses. The benefits of doing so are vast, from helping biodiversity recover and absorbing carbon, to slowing the flow of surface water and reducing the risks of floods downstream. The rewilding of Broughton Sanctuary is a fantastic example of this, helping to plant trees where they are needed most and offering vital protection from flooding for communities all along the River Aire”.
Lord Goldsmith, UK Government Forestry Minister
Finally…The successful delivery of this project during a particularly challenging planting season has been achieved through close collaboration between Broughton Sanctuary, the White Rose Forest Delivery Team and the Forestry Commission. The new woodland forms part of WRF’s Landscape for Water Programme, that aims to reduce flood risk for urban areas close to major rivers and waterways in North and West Yorkshire, whilst also improving local water quality, biodiversity and recreational opportunities for local communities. The White Rose Forest is proud to support the Broughton Sanctuary in delivering this hugely important project that will help to protect our environment and the local communities along the River Aire, including Leeds. Broughton Sanctuary joins local authorities across Yorkshire in the leadership they have shown in responding to the climate emergency. Thanks to the support we have received from the Government and businesses, the White Rose Forest has never been in a better position to support this response by working with landowners, communities and fellow professionals across the region to plant trees and to deliver the essential long-term environmental and community benefits they can bring.
England’s Community Forests have been early adoptors and frontrunners regarding community and #urbanforestry in Europe. Great to see they are continuing their wonderful work with a new 12 million GBP grant.
The COVID 19 pandemic is transforming our society. All the basic elements of living together have radically changed in the past weeks: Where and how we work, whom we spend time with, whom we care about, what tasks and activities keep us busy. During the lockdown those that can, have been flocking into green spaces and urban forests for physical exercise and mental calming. At least this applies to those who are not locked down totally. Recent charts by Google, for instance, show an impressive increase of mobility toward places like national parks, public beaches, marinas, dog parks, plazas, and public gardens, amidst a general fall in mobility trends (e.g. the case of Germany).
Read more on the blog of the CLEARING HOUSE-project.
The Geographic Arboretum of Tervuren is a hidden gem at the heart of the Sonian Forest near Brussels. Its collection includes 30,000 trees and shrubs over 120 ha, representing over 600 species originating in 80 different forest types of the northern hemisphere. The selected plants are grouped together in a manner that replicates the typical forest landscape of the region of origin.
In their new book about the Geographic Arboretum of Tervuren, the arboretum managers – Patrick Huvenne (former EFUF delegate), Kevin Knevels and Wilfried Emmerechts – share their know-how and passion. They guide us through the amazing diversity of forests in America, Europe and Asia. They explain the specialised problems of managing a living collection of this kind and outline the challenges of sustainable forest management in an era of climate change. Their texts are supplemented with a large number of maps, graphs and historical documents.
The book will be published in May 2020 and will be available for 40 EUR (in Dutch, French, English and German). A pre-sale offer at 35 EUR (free shipping included) is available for those who order their copy through info-at-arboretum-tervuren.be (mention name, address and prefered language).
A recent study by Boston University suggests that “tree planting initiatives alone may not be sufficient to maintain urban canopies”.
Ian Smith and his colleagues indicate that “efforts to aid in the establishment and preservation of tree health are imperative for increasing urban tree cover and maximizing the wide range of ecosystem services provided by the urban canopy”.
The COVID 19 pandemic is transforming our society. All the basic elements of living together have radically changed in the past weeks: Where and how we work, whom we spend time with, whom we care about, what tasks and activities keep us busy. During the lockdown those that can, have been flocking into green spaces and urban forests for physical exercise and mental calming. At least this applies to those who are not locked down totally. Recent charts by Google, for instance, show an impressive increase of mobility toward places like national parks, public beaches, marinas, dog parks, plazas, and public gardens, amidst a general fall in mobility trends (e.g. 
The 