Best Practices

 

Urban Nature

Best Practices

The Urban Nature Accord of the UN Environmental Accords includes Parks, Habitat Restoration and Wildlife.

Ecological systems provide a myriad of services to human societies. Trees and green spaces are elements of the ecosystems that clean air and surface water, provide or renew potable water, and reduce energy consumption. Urban nature also provides other benefits – for example, small business owners ranked parks/recreation/open space as the highest priority in choosing a new location for their business and the presence of trees can reduce crime. Habitat restoration helps provide space for native species that are increasingly under siege from development.

Parks and urban trees play an important role in combating climate change. Nationwide, approximately 800 million tons of carbon are stored in urban forests and trees provide shade, reducing fossil fuel use.

Local government actions in this area include ensuring access to open space, conducting tree canopy inventories and establishing canopy coverage goals, and adopting policies that protect critical habitat corridors and other key habitat characteristics like water features, food-bearing plants, and native species.

Last updated September 1, 2009

URBAN NATURE BEST PRACTICES