Pressures and Threats to Nature Related to Human Activities in European Urban and Suburban Forests

Abstract

This review regards the pressures and threats linked with the human use of European urban and suburban forests. They can be divided into the following major categories: urban development, fragmentation, and isolation of forests; human pressures on soil and vegetation (e.g., changes in vegetation due to trampling, environmental and especially air pollution); human pressures on animals (e.g., wildlife losses due to collisions, frequent presence of dogs accompanying the visitors); and other threats and damages (e.g., littering and acts of vandalism). The directions of negative relations between people and forests shown in this review draw attention to the high complexity of the discussed issues. Awareness of this complexity (when planning and implementing forest management) can limit or counteract conflicts arising from the use of urban and suburban forests by people. This is of particular importance in the era of progressing urbanization and the evolution of human needs regarding the use of forests.

Management and Social Problems Linked to the Human Use of European Urban and Suburban Forests

“…It is an open list, that can be improved and completed with further items on the basis of practical experience and any other further described problems related to the management and social use of woodlands. Together with an analogous list of pressures and threats to nature related to human activities [67], they will constitute a complete list of possible problems related to the maintenance of European urban and suburban forests.…”

“…The methodology of information search, applied in this literature review, is analogous to that used in the author's article on pressures and threats to nature related to human activities in European urban and suburban forests [67]. Thus, these articles complement each other and cover all issues associated with the management of urban and suburban forests in Europe.…”

“…In the two last thematic sections ("Social reception of forest works and forests"; and "Relations between forest users"), as part of the author's analysis of the results obtained, directions of negative relations (DNR) between humans and urban/suburban forests were specified to show the high complexity of the issues discussed in the article (Tables 2 and 4). A similar solution has been adopted in the abovementioned review concerning pressures and threats to nature related to human activities in European urban and suburban forests [67]. The following question has been raised: considering each particular issue, what are the possible ways of negative interactions in the forest/people system?…”

“…16), and intentional or unintentional ignition, which are widespread problems in European urban and suburban forests (e.g., [21,52,67,91]) as well as the lack of understanding of forestry works, including tree felling (e.g., [82]). It also concerns large-scale mushroom picking (especially in Slavic and Scandinavian countries, Romania, Switzerland, and Italy) and mushroom poisoning, which are more regional problems, depending on the local tradition of using wild edible fungi [67,[92][93][94]. The lack of funds may also block the repair of tourist infrastructure destroyed by vandals, as well as the creation of additional infrastructure (Problem no.…”

“…In contrast to areas mostly attractive to holidaymakers, those forests are important for people all year long, often every day (e.g., in the United Kingdom [21], Finland [9,22,60], Austria [25,61,62], the Czech Republic [63], Poland (e.g., [7,28,52,64]), or Norway [65]). This phenomenon, as well as the continuous development of cities and related infrastructure, results in problems not only related to pressure on both inanimate and animate nature (e.g., deforestation, fragmentation, habitat alteration, or introduction of alien species [66,67]), but also related to social and management issues resulting from historical, legal, organizational and financial conditions, but also from the expectations, needs and feelings of people using these forests. For example, an obstacle to good forest management may often be the lack of sufficient data about forests and the phenomena occurring in them [68], which leads to the loss of biodiversity [69] at the same time reducing the aforementioned environmental value of forests.…”