60 URBANIZATION PRESSURES ON THE NATURAL FORESTS IN TURKEY: AN OVERVIEW Erdog ˘an Atmis, Sezgin Özden, and Wietze Lise Forests used to be the main field of interest for rural communi- ties, but now they attract the attention of urbanites too. The forest-public relationship is important as forests protect water resources, preserve the soil and increase its productivity, provide positive effects on climate and health in general, and can be used for recreation and tourist purposes. This study aims at assessing how the current rapid urbanization process in Turkey affects forests. Urban requirements such as biomass for heating, educa- tion facilities, settlements, recreation, tourism and employment exert various pressures on the forest. In this study we assessed these pressures and suggest that forest legislations should be developed to respond to expectations of urbanites from forests, new recreation areas should be developed and urbanites’ interest in and knowledge of the forests should be increased, where all social groups including the forestry authority should work to- gether. (Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 2007. 6:83–92) COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SCIENCE, POLICY AND CITIZENS IN PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN URBAN FORESTRY—EXPERIENCES FROM THE NEIGHBOURWOODS PROJECT Gerben Janse and Cecil C. Konijnendijk The demand for sound scientific information and public partici- pation is particularly great in urban forestry. Urban society’s manifold perceptions, preferences and demands for urban forest Arboricultural Abstracts goods and services need to be considered, indicating the neces- sity for socially inclusive planning processes. Successful policies can only be formulated by establishing close links with, for example, urban planning and municipal policies. Inherently, this means that close ties between research and policy are required. This article discusses the outcomes of the NeighbourWoods re- search and development project in which a wide range of tools for public participation were tested in six urban woodland case studies across Europe. A distinction was made between charac- teristics of the specific participatory tools and those of the com- munication process between the facilitators (scientists) of the participation process and the end-users of information (local policy-makers). Public willingness to participate depends on fac- tors such as existing controversy, emotions attached to the forest, and perceived dangers, e.g., in terms of threats to the status quo. Policy makers’ willingness to involve themselves depends on political interests, on prior experience with public participation processes, and on their trust in the facilitators of the public participation process. Findings confirm that a set of tools com- prising a step-wise process from informing the public in an at- tractive way, collecting information on public opinion, towards fully participatory approaches such as direct involvement in de- cision-making is most likely to ensure socially inclusive plan- ning. Communication with policy-makers requires a high degree of openness, clearly explaining every phase of the process, being open about each other’s expectations, in short, by developing relationships based on mutual trust. (Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 2007. 6:23–40) ©2008 International Society of Arboriculture
January 2008
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