SPEA Insights
Solutions for Sustainable Urban Forest Governance and Management
by: Sarah Mincey and Burnell Fischer
Current urban expansion is the greatest in history. By 2050, three billion additional people will live in cities. While urbanization is frequently linked to environmental problems, it also offers solutions for global sustainability if cities can move from net consumers to net generators of ecosystem services. Moreover, with urban forests declining (in the U.S., four million city trees are lost annually, while the average city gains 2.8 percent impervious cover – e.g., roads, parking lots), not surprisingly, urban forestry professionals, academics, and agency-based managers desire a policy-based research agenda to determine adequate policy for sustaining urban trees. But how do we develop policy to meet this end with growing urban populations and development?
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