Julien Dellier

Urban National Parks and the Rich: Friends with Benefits

This chapter poses the question of the inter-relation between the rich, nature and the national parks. It wants to illuminate the role of the (upper) middle classes in the conservation of the urban environment. What is the influence of protected nature on the territorial strategies of the well-to-do population? Conversely, what is the influence of the rich on the national parks in terms of their creation, management and sustainability? To illustrate the answers to this question, the chapter ends by asking what the situation of the national parks would be without the urban rich, and what would become of the urban rich without the national parks. Urban national parks are for the rich both a tool that allows them to consolidate their privileged situation in the city, and a glass ceiling, given that the governing of a park with relevance to the national scale tends to reduce their range of influence. It must be concluded that the rich can be as much of a nuisance as an asset for these parks.

Introduction: The Quest for Naturbanity

In this introduction, the neologism “naturbanity” is discussed as an expression of the necessity for cities endowed with a national park to integrate it into their functioning. Conversely, such parks must take into account their location in an urban environment, both as a source of heavy pressures on nature and as a nexus of incentives to support its conservation. What we call the principle of non-exclusivity (neither the city nor the park has a right nor even the possibility to negate the other’s presence) summarises the main argument of our book. The fact that park and city must live together, for better or for worse, must be considered empirically: the challenge of informal settlement encroachment and industrial pollution etc., may be balanced by the support of urban “civil society” for funding parks and awareness of ecosystem services provided by the park to the city, etc. It must also be considered philosophically, since naturbanity blurs the old “ modern” dichotomy of nature/culture: animals and human beings can often jump the physical and ideological wall separating many parks from the adjacent city. This introduction concludes by illuminating the structure of the book.