Klaus Seeland

Benefits and Uses of Urban Forests and Trees

Trees and forests are, because of seasonal changes and their size, shape, and color, the most prominent elements of urban nature. Their benefits and uses range from intangible psychological and aesthetic benefits to amelioration of urban climate and mitigation of air pollution. Historically the main benefits of urban trees and forests relate to health, aesthetic and recreational benefits in industrialized cities. Moreover, green areas have provided people with subsistence by providing food, fodder, fuel, wood and timber for construction (see Chap. 2). Today, woodland, woods and trees are important to people especially through symbolizing personal, local, community and cultural meanings. They provide aesthetic enjoyment and create a pleasant environment for different outdoor activities. Woodland can provide an experience of nature in the middle of urban life. In particular, old woodland with big trees may provide urban people with the opportunity to recover from daily stress, revive memories and regain confidence. There is also an important educational value of urban forests. Contact with trees, in particular for children, can help people learn about nature and natural processes in an otherwise artificial environment. Urban trees and woodland also contribute to an attractive green townscape and thus communicate the image of a positive, nature-oriented city. Indirectly, urban trees and forests can promote tourism and enhance economic development. At the local level trees contribute to the quality of housing and working environments and their benefits are reflected in property values. The same urban woodland areas and trees may have multiple benefits that reinforce each other. Recreational woodland, for example, also reduces wind speed and traffic noise as well as improves the landscape in a nearby residential area. To a certain extent the distinction between different categories of benefits is artificial. However benefits have their own special features and therefore can be presented separately (Table 4.1). While these benefits of urban woodland, other tree stands and individual trees are not new they are still insufficiently recognised in urban planning and development processes (see Chap. 5). There is need to provide more knowledge on the role of urban woodland and trees in improvement of the environment and relate this to their social functions such as fostering mental and physical health. This chapter aims to give insight into the current state of knowledge about benefits and uses of urban forests and trees in Europe. This is a difficult enterprise due to the complexity of the European continent. Urban forest research is largely national or even Benefits and Uses of Urban Forests and Trees

Restorative qualities of indoor and outdoor exercise settings as predictors of exercise frequency

Positive environmental determinants of exercise frequency remain poorly understood. Knowing that people often value exercise for psychological restoration, we investigated the restorative quality of indoor and outdoor exercise settings as predictors of exercise frequency. We surveyed 319 members of fitness centers in Zurich that offer indoor and outdoor exercise alternatives. Outdoor settings were rated as more restorative. For each type of environment, restorative quality predicted the frequency of exercise in the past 30 days, independent of socio-demographic characteristics, expectations of exercise benefits, and personal barriers. We discuss the results with regard to the provision of exercise settings for urban populations.

National Park Policy and Wildlife Problems in Nepal and Bhutan

In this paper the National Park policies of the two Himalayan Kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan are put in a complementary perspective. It aims at investigating the effects of national parks, established by initiatives based on a global discourse having evolved from economically developed countries, on food sufficiency and economic security of the people living in these protected areas. The history and socio-economic perspectives of these policies in general and recently emerging wildlife problems in particular are highlighted. The administrative and financial capacities of both countries turn out not to be adequate to meet emerging stress in the sphere of protecting nature, and wildlife in particular. To meet the goal of integrating prospects of human survival and the conservation of habitats for rare plants and animals locally accepted and appropriate ways of management have to be developed. The management of protected areas in Nepal and Bhutan shows a rather poor capacity or a low degree of acceptance on the side of government administration. The daily life of farmers in protected areas is threatened either by policing or abundance of wildlife and inadequate measures to assist the local population to overcome the shortcomings of nature conservation administration. Compensation schemes for wildlife damages, for instance, could be a helpful instrument to meet ambitious schemes to protect nature and relief the local population in remote areas of least developed countries, where means to make a living from other than subsistence farming are not easily available.

Public acceptance of restrictions imposed on recreational activities in the peri-urban Nature Reserve Sihlwald, Switzerland.

Abstract The peri-urban Nature Reserve Sihlwald is an important part of the recreational green belt in the vicinity of the city of Zurich (Switzerland). This contribution is an inquiry of the reaction of forest users towards restrictions that will be imposed on past time activities in the future. A research method developed in social psychology (Theory of Planned Behaviour) is applied to test whether behaviour intentions with regard to imposed restrictions are adhered to by the visitors or not, and how this is to be explained. The acceptance of various past time activities between different forest user groups is looked at in order to predict conflicts and achieve adequate regulations well in advance. The empirical results of applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour model favour a support of collective self-obligation among user groups to increase the acceptance of restrictions in the Nature Reserve Sihlwald.

A Close-to-Nature Forest Economy Adapted to a Wider World

Abstract Lempunah, a Dayak Benuaq village in East Kalimantan, Indonesia covers 9,200 ha of managed secondary forest consisting of tropical lowland evergreen rain forest as well as alluvial freshwater swamp forest. A combination of swidden agriculture and extracted and cultivated forest products provide the basis of livelihood combined with a long-established external market influence. Patterns of resource use in Lempunah are the result of an extended subsistence economy with the annual swidden, perennial forest gardens and the ‘forest in-between’ securing household subsistence as well as a broad variety of other resources providing additional financial income. Provided that these forest management practices could be maintained in a difficult political environment, this could be a contribution to sustainable forest management in this region.

The National Park Management Regime in Bhutan: Historical Background and Current Problems

This paper gives an account of the recent history and the international and national policy background with respect to the planning and administration of Bhutans nine national parks, nature reserves and sanctuaries, and sheds light on their current problems. Although more than 25 per cent of Bhutanese territory has been declared protected area over the last three decades, little data is available on the local populations perception of the aims, present status and the benefits of national parks, and their future role in the regional political setting and national resource use policy. Local communities are exposed to the legal limitations of resource use. A national park regime faces the problems of integrating issues of local management with the international communitys demands on biodiversity preservation and conservation, and with the objectives of a national resource use concept.