How Urban Forest Managers Evaluate Management and Governance Challenges in Their Decision-Making

A global systematic review of forest management institutions: towards a new research agenda

CONTEXT

Globally, forest landscapes are rapidly transforming, with the role of institutions as mediators in their use and management constantly appearing in the literature. However, global comparative reviews to enhance comprehension of how forest management institutions (FMIs) are conceptualized, and the varying determinants of compliance, are lacking. And so too, is there knowledge fragmentation on the methodological approaches which have and should be prioritized in the new research agenda on FMIs.

OBJECTIVES

We review the regional variations in the conceptualization of FMIs, analyze the determinants of compliance with FMIs, and assess the methodological gaps applied in the study of FMIs.

METHODS

A systematic review of 197 empirically conducted studies (491 cases) on FMIs was performed, including a directed content analysis.

RESULTS

First, FMIs literature is growing; multi-case and multi-country studies characterize Europe/North America, Africa and Latin America, over Asia. Second, the structure-process conceptualization of FMIs predominates in Asia and Africa. Third, global south regions report high cases of compliance with informal FMIs, while non-compliance was registered for Europe/North America in the formal domain. Finally, mixed-methods approaches have been least employed in the studies so far; while the use of only qualitative methods increased over time, the adoption of only quantitative approaches witnessed a decrease.

CONCLUSION

Future research should empirically ground informality in the institutional set-up of Australia while also valorizing mixed-methods research globally. Crucially, future research should consider multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to explore the actor and power dimensions of forest management institutions.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-022-01577-8.

Construction and Proactive Management Led to Tree Removals on an Urban College Campus

Urban trees in lawns and along streets are anthropogenically constructed systems, in that these tree communities are formed by human planting and removal actions. Tree mortality studies are essential to understanding the temporal dynamism of urban forests, and in particular, it is critical to incorporate institutional records and human decision-making regarding tree removals. In this study, we investigated tree removals on a highly urbanized college campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (US) by analyzing field inventories and institutional records, and by considering firsthand accounts of the University Landscape Architect. The annual mortality rate was 4.3%, higher than typical for comparable studies, which we attribute to construction pressure and proactive management to promptly remove unhealthy trees and manage risk. Capital projects and other construction caused 48.5% of all removals, other human land use decisions caused 2.0%, and tree health decline and risk management collectively accounted for 48.7%. The number of removed trees exactly equaled the number of new trees, and the campus has high taxonomic diversity, reflecting the extensive oversight by university tree and landscape professionals regarding tree removal and planting decisions. This study demonstrates the value of mixed-methods and transdisciplinary research to understand how urban forests change over time.

Social Preferences of Young Adults Regarding Urban Forest Recreation Management in Warsaw, Poland

The paper presents results of questionnaire research conducted to determine social preferences regarding leisure in Warsaw municipal forests (WMF) (Poland). The preferences pertained to frequency of visits and willingness to pay for recreational infrastructure in a forest depending on its appearance, level of development, and the respondent’s income. The data were processed using statistical analysis (ANOVA Friedman test, U Mann–Whitney test, logistic regression). The results show that the higher the development level of a forest, the more often young people choose it for leisure. Willingness to pay for a forest depends on its development level, with respondents more willing to fund forests with a higher development level. No such correlation with the respondents’ income was found. Preferences regarding the selection of a specific type of forest for leisure were dependent on per capita income of the respondents only in the case of forests at a lower level of development. A forest’s preference level affected the willingness to pay for it and varied depending on the development level.