Factors encouraging and restricting participation in urban forestry (Case study of Tehran, Iran)

Abstract

It has been widely recognised that the participation of different groups of people is crucial to urban forest management. This paper aimed to focus on the motivating factors and conditions that foster participation in urban forest management. Also, the main constraints which limit participation were explored. Therefore, a survey using a researcher-designed questionnaire was used to gain information from forest visitors. Exploratory factor analysis was used to categorise all the effective factors and constraints into summarised factors. Using a principal component analysis, it was found that the most important factors encouraging participation in urban forestry were health and environment improvement and involvement spirit. These two factors explained about 60% of citizens' participation variance. The constraints also were categorized into four categories namely "lack of legal support", "lack of cooperation spirit", "lack of motivation" and "lack of time and awareness". The stepwise regression model with socio-economic features and factors affecting citizens' participation in forest management also showed that five variables, namely health and environment improvement, having a child, involvement spirit, lack of motivation and income were predicting 45.1% of the effective factors on citizens' participation. The results suggest that to enable more participation of citizens, the legislative structure should change and institutional support increase. In addition, motivation, particularly economic and increasing awareness are necessary for attracting citizens to participate in forest management plans.

Stakeholders’ Engagement on Nature-Based Solutions: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Civic consciousness has been increasing; in recent years, more and more people started to display a positive attitude and strong willingness toward participation on NBS [108,110]. Some citizens are motivated by the prospect of improving their physical and/or mental health, and others are only moved by collective purposes (e.g., building friendly relationships) [109]. Usually, the degree of engagement is directly connected to the individual's proximity to the disturbance [119], and some types of environment are more difficult for people to involve in [111].…”

“…Some authors have found that most of the citizens are willing to participate in NBS planning, implementation, and management to ensure social, and environmental benefits, e.g., [25,108]; some found further that citizens were willing to contribute financially, e.g., [64,69]. Zare et al [109] found that people were more willing to participate as a "membership in a public conservation committee" than in practical management activities. According to Green et al [113], for example, to engage or encourage citizens as stormwater managers, we must go beyond the technical aspects and invest in social factors to motivate behavioral change.…”

“…Asah and Blahna 2012[107];Shan 2012 [108];Zare et al 2015 [109];Chelleri et al 2016 [25]; Beery et al 2018[110].Characteristics of the physical environment (n = 2) Fors 2019[111]; Murphy 2019[112].Protect the community/improve collective health (n = 2) Zare et al 2015 [109]; Beery et al 2018 [110]. Promote social interactions (n = 2) Asah and Blahna 2012 [107]; Zare et al 2015 [109].…”

Participatory intention and behavior towards riparian peri-urban forests management; an extended theory of planned behavior application

“…This can lead to more successful and sustainable management of urban and PUFs. A growing body of research have studied factors that influence the willingness of individuals to participate in urban forest management ( Kirkpatrick et al, 2012 ; Zare et al, 2015 ; Dawes et al, 2018 ). These studies mainly focused on socio-economic factors, such as income level, education, gender, and occupation, which can significantly influence individuals’ willingness to engage in forest management.…”

Here comes the flood……

“…The work involved a socio-economic survey of stakeholders in the case study area of the Cross River State in Nigeria. Zare, Namiranian, Feghhi, and Fami (2015) consider the motivational factors and conditions encouraging community involvement in urban forest management in Tehran, Iran.…”