Urban forestry and governance: Assessing the capacity of governance arrangements in peri-urban woodlands

In urban forestry (UPF) scientific literature, urban forest governance (UFG) – described as the structures, rules, interactions, and processes that influence decisions and actions and lead to the establishment and maintenance of trees and woodland resources in urban environments - is considered as key to establishing an enabling environment (e.g. policies, regulations, resources, partnerships, and activities) able to set inclusive, effective, and efficient decision-making processes aimed at optimizing the delivery of expected benefits to society and, in this way, contributing to addressing urban challenges. Scholars, however, have paid limited attention to this interdisciplinary topic in the last few years. Despite UFG-related issues are recently gaining momentum, most studies about UPF tend to focus on technical challenges and benefits associated with the establishment and management of urban forests (UFs) – here understood as socio-ecological systems including all trees and woodlands resources located in and around urban areas, but relatively few contributions have investigated governance and decision-making aspects. Studying UFG is particularly relevant to understanding its complexity due to its multi-actor and multi-level nature, typical bottlenecks (e.g. fragmentation of responsibilities; lack of knowledge; limited resources allocated) and relevant changes related to the introduction of several innovations in the environmental policy domain during the last decades. In this context, scientific literature calls to deepen the understanding of factors influencing the success, or failure, of urban green space governance, including UFs, and how to assess them. Therefore, a deeper investigation of UFG issues is needed to comprehend how decisions are made by governmental and non-state actors and influenced by stakeholders, and what their performances are. In this regard, this study aims to investigate the capacity of UFG, meant as the ability of actors to effectively collaborate and implement policies to achieve targeted goals and address societal issues, combining governance processes and impacts assessment, to identify those factors influencing their success as a precondition for their improvement in contexts of change by providing a guide for scholars and practitioners. In particular, the study’s objective is to answer the following research questions: (i) what are the criteria that a UPF initiative must satisfy to be identified as successful from a governance perspective? (ii) how can these criteria be used to understand how actors’ decisions are made and their related impacts? (iii) what lessons can be learned to improve UFs management from the assessment of their governance arrangements? To answer research questions, a conceptual framework was developed deductively. Taking the Giddens’ Structuration theory as the foundation of this study, related concepts of ‘political modernization’, ‘Policy Arrangement Approach’ (PAA), and ‘Governance Capacity Approach’ (GCA), were introduced to guide the development of the methodological framework. In particular, the GCA – defined as the ability of actors and stakeholders to cooperate to successfully limit or solve societal problems and enhance people’s quality of life in cities – was central to conducting the assessment. In this light, a set of qualitative and intertwined criteria were identified - i.e. participation, inclusiveness, integration, direction, resources allocated, learning, and effectiveness - and linked with the PAA’s analytical dimensions – i.e. actors, discourses, rules, resources/power – to which activities-dimension was added, to build the governance capacity assessment framework addressing both institutional capacity and governance performance. Criteria were operationalized to investigate UFG arrangements in two flagship multifunctional peri-urban woodlands selected as case studies – i.e. BoscoInCittà (Milan, Italy) and Amsterdamse Bos (Amsterdam, Netherlands) adopting a mixed research approach including several methods i.e. document analysis, semi-structured interviews, site visits, and web-based surveys. Aiming to contribute to the UPF international scientific debate, findings illustrate several differences between the cases assessed, especially in terms of citizens engagement process, institutionalization, management approach, and resources allocated, confirming a not straightforward relationship between institutional capacity and governance performance for the success of UFG. Indeed, as emerged from the cases assessed, this study shows different ways in which peri-urban woodlands can be effectively steered and, in doing so, it highlights several lessons learned. The main insights it provides refer to the importance of establishing collaborative and multi-level networks as a key factor to carry out activities finalized at achieving expected benefits. However, collaboration should not be limited to the operational level, since external actors and stakeholders may represent an added value also in co-producing knowledge and creating shared visions. In line with this, horizontal and vertical integration constitutes another critical factor for the success of UFG, both to gain political and local support over time, and to develop comprehensive management plans aligned with municipal and supra-municipal planning tools. Finally, this thesis suggests that the allocation of adequate economic resources, for which governmental actors still play a key role, and the development of specific capacities to attract diverse funding sources, are crucial to achieving UFG effectiveness, even in absence of comprehensive and formal management, implementation and monitoring plans.