Trees for the urban millennium: urban forestry update

TLDR: In this paper, the authors highlight the importance of urban trees and related vegetation in and around densely populated areas in both industrialized and developing countries and highlight the implications of urbanization for development cooperation, benefits of urban forests, poverty alleviation, innovative publicprivate partnerships and multiresource management.

Abstract: Urban dwellers are increasingly recognizing and articulating the importance of urban forests as a vital component of the urban landscape, infrastructure and quality of life. Municipalities together with diverse stakeholders around the world have launched often quite ambitious urban forestry programmes. Much progress has been achieved in urban forestry research and development in industrialized countries. However, multipurpose urban forestry in developing countries is still in its infancy. In addition, forestry work is conspicuously absent from urban development cooperation initiatives, despite the accelerated urbanization process taking place in developing countries. This article highlights the importance of urban trees and related vegetation in and around densely populated areas in both industrialized and developing countries. The focus is on implications of urbanization for development cooperation, benefits of urban forests, poverty alleviation, innovative publicprivate partnerships and multiresource management. URBANIZATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES Accelerated urban growth in developing countries Urbanization is a worldwide trend. In 1995 some 73 percent of Latin Americans lived in cities, making the region roughly as urbanized as Europe and North America. In Asia and Africa onethird of the total population was classified as urban. The new millennium will be an urban millennium. Urban areas in developing countries will account for nearly 90 percent of the projected world population increase of 2 700 million people between 1995 and 2030. By the year 2030, almost 85 percent of Latin Americans and 50 percent of all Africans and Asians will live in cities. The most explosive urban growth is expected in Africa and Asia. Asia will have the largest urban population in the world, with almost twice as many people living in cities as in Africa and Latin America combined (UN, 1998). Peri-urban areas have the highest growth rates and receive up to 70 percent of the migrants from rural areas as well as migrants from the city itself. These areas are in most ways integrated with the city, yet most forestry projects in peri-urban areas are designed as rural projects. If not integrated into urban planning, they are doomed to fail.