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From Conservation to Connection: Exploring the Role of Nativeness in Shaping People's Relationships with Urban Trees

journal contribution
posted on 2023-08-22, 06:43 authored by Haylee Kaplan, Vishnu PrahaladVishnu Prahalad, Dave Kendal
Deciding whether to plant native or non-native trees in public urban green spaces is becoming complex and conflicted, and decisions purely based on biotic nativeness are likely to be hamstrung as climate change and rising urban heat push many native species beyond their natural ranges. Importantly, tree selection considerations by urban planners and environmental managers will have to move beyond a primary focus on securing conservation and ecological outcomes, to elucidate and engage with a growing interest in the socio-cultural values and services of urban trees. Building on emerging theoretical perspectives, this place-based study explores the role that perceptions of nativeness have in shaping people's relationships with native and non-native urban trees and landscapes in an Australian city. Nativeness was associated with a range of subjective meanings including cultural identity, political expression, nature connection, desirable and undesirable traits, and environmental and cultural compatibility. Our findings emphasise that the ways in which urban trees and green spaces are valued and experienced is likely mediated by people's perceptions of nativeness and its importance relative to other attributes. To provision and sustain green spaces that meet the diverse needs and preferences of urban publics, planners and managers need to elucidate and incorporate the nuanced, place-based and multifaceted subjective meanings of nativeness into urban greening decision-making and practice.

History

Sub-type

  • Article

Publication title

Environmental Management

Medium

Print-Electronic

Volume

72

Issue

5

Pagination

1006-1018:13

eISSN

1432-1009

ISSN

0933-0437

Department/School

Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences, Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences

Publisher

SPRINGER

Publication status

  • Published

Place of publication

United States

Event Venue

Healthy Landscapes Research Group, School of Geography, Planning, and Spatial Science, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia. Haylee.Kaplan@gmail.com.

Rights statement

Copyright 2023 The Authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made

UN Sustainable Development Goals

11 Sustainable Cities and Communities