Exploring ‘beyond‐food’ opportunities for biocultural conservation in urban forest gardens

Hemmelgarn, Hannah; Munsell, John F.

doi:10.1002/uar2.20009

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 91 publications

(178 reference statements)

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“…In the case of Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture, there is the additional goal of helping to revitalize Hopi culture, knowledge, and traditions, in part, by strengthening local food systems. The Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, which we have Other multifunctional benefits attributed to urban agriculture (Hemmelgarn & Munsell, 2021;Lovell, 2010) were readily apparent at these sites. In the Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood, for example, we noticed a significant cooling effect of being under the trees in the public rights-of-ways.…”

Section: Reasons For Establishmentmentioning

confidence: 92%

Urban food forests in the American Southwest

Allen

Mason²

2021

Urban Agric & Regnl Food Sys

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Food forests are multilayered polycultures of mostly perennial species and an agroforestry practice well-suited to the urban environment. They are gaining increasing attention in temperate regions of Europe and the United States, but, to date, there has been little research on them in the American Southwest. In this study, we visited 14 food forests, all but two of which were in urban or peri-urban areas. At 12 of the food forests, we interviewed a person who established or manages them. The food forests span a significant range of the physical environments, types of communities, and ownerships found in the American Southwest. Despite challenges associated with the southwestern environment, such as the hot, dry climate and difficult soil conditions, we found clear evidence that food forests can be successfully established in the urban areas of this region. In addition to food production, these food forests are providing numerous other benefits such as mitigating the urban heat island effect, increasing local biodiversity, and improving the aesthetics of urban neighborhoods. While there is a need for additional research, a variety of networks and information sources have been established that are providing both practical information and inspiration for the establishment of additional food forests in the region. INTRODUCTIONFood forests, also known by names such as forest gardens, are multilayered polycultures consisting of mostly perennial species. They may include seven or more layers including overstory and midstory trees, shrubs, herbaceous species, ground cover plants, root crops, vines, an aquatic layer, and fungi (Butler et al., 2018;Crawford, 2010;Jacke & Toensmeier, 2005). Food forests are increasingly recognized as an agroforestry practice (Park et al., 2019;Gold & Garrett, 2021) along with the other temperate agroforestry practices of alley cropping, forest farming, riparian buffers, silvopasture, and windbreaks.Abbreviations: CRMPI, Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

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Section: Reasons For Establishmentmentioning

confidence: 92%

Urban food forests in the American Southwest

Allen

Mason²

2021

Urban Agric & Regnl Food Sys

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“…Urban forests also have a variety of positive benefits beyond the recreational and aesthetic (Agbelade & Onyekwelu, 2020;Hemmelgarn & Munsell, 2021;Herwanti et al, 2021;Lamhamedi et al, 2021) benefits that are easily identified and acknowledged by residents (Han & Yeo-Chang, 2021;Macháč et al, 2022). However, residents sometimes do not have a clear understanding of these benefits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Urban Forest Conservation: Assessing Public Attitudes towards Urban Forests in Nairobi City

Binyanya¹,

Mugwima²,

Karanja³

et al. 2022

CUS

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Nairobi city's rapid development has caused urban tree cover loss despite evidence of demand, and values attached to these forests by the residents. This paper investigated these values through an analysis of the residents' attitudes towards the urban forests. Data on urban forest characteristics, composition, problems, causes, and proposed solutions were collected through open ended questions and attitudinal values using a 7-point Likert psychometric scale questionnaire with 40 attitude statements. The findings on urban forest character, problems, causes, and solutions were ranked in order of popularity while attitudes were subjected to a Relative Importance Index (RII) analysis which ranked them in order of importance. The factor "Trees make the city beautiful" ranked as the most important variable (RII = 0.9457), followed by "Urban forests protect the city against climate change effects" (RII = 0.9228). The variable "Forests in the city should be cleared to provide more land for housing" factor was ranked as the lowest (RII = 0.2069). The study recommends that Nairobi's urban forest conservation strategies recognize and prioritize resident's values through participatory conservation strategies. In addition, adoption of the identified proposals, improvements and suggestions in the order tabulated in this paper will promote forest conservation.

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