Become a member
Membership of IUFRO is open to any institution concerned with the promotion, support or conduct of research related to forests, trees and forest products.
Ongoing urbanisation of society has led to the increasing importance of urban green spaces as contributors to the quality of the urban environment and urban life across the globe. Forest and tree resources have a wide range of socio-cultural, economic and environmental values. In order to optimise these values in a sustainable way, within the framework of a range of urban pressures and problems, integrated approaches and research for the planning & design, selection & establishment, and management of urban forests and trees are asked for.
Urban forestry offers considerable potential to meet this demand. It can be defined as the art, science and technology of managing trees and forest resources in and around urban community ecosystems for the physiological, sociological, economic and aesthetic benefits trees provide to society (Helms 1998). Its study topic, the urban forest, ranges from urban and peri-urban woodland to parks, private gardens and street trees.
IUFRO Unit 6.07.00 has the aims to:
- Develop urban forestry as an area of scientific attention.
- Improve networking between urban forestry researchers worldwide.
- Promote multi-disciplinary research into urban forestry issues.
- Improve the exchange of information and experiences between urban forestry science and practice.
STATE OF KNOWLEDGE
Reports on the state-of-knowledge of urban forestry (research) in Asia, Europe and North America have appeared in the following IUFRO publications:
- Sievänen, T., Konijnendijk, C.C., Langner, L. and Nilsson, K. (eds.) 2001. Assessing the social values of forests. Proceedings of IUFRO Research Groups 6.01, 6.11.04 and 6.14 sessions In the XXI IUFRO World Congress 2000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa.
- Konijnendijk, C.C., Schipperijn, J. and Hoyer, K.K. (eds.) 2004. Forestry serving urbanised societies. Selected papers from the conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark, 27 to 30 August 2002. IUFRO World Series Volume 14. IUFRO, Vienna. See: www.iufro.org/publications/series/world-series/worldseries-14/
Key references for the current state of urban forestry in Europe respectively North America are also:
- Miller, R.W., 1997. Urban forestry: planning and managing urban green spaces. Second edition. Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
- Konijnendijk, C.C., Nilsson, K., Randrup, T.B., Schipperijn, J. (eds.) Urban Forests and Trees. Springer, Heidelberg.
