The Informal Network of Experts on Sustainable Urban Forestry (INESUF) provides a forum for knowledge exchange and capacity-building as well as peer to peer learning to strengthen sustainable urban forestry. This includes both horizontal engagement across disciplines and sectors, as well as vertical engagement with various levels of government to provide support to practitioners to identify, share, and adopt best practices and replicable solutions. By engaging a diverse group of stakeholders, it also aims to facilitate the identification of needed policy actions to enhance the enabling environment for sustainable urban forestry at the local, national, and regional levels.
The first meeting of the INESUF was held on 19 October 2021. During the meeting, participants identified topics of interest for discussion, exchange and collective action through the network, The second meeting of the INESUF will focus on two of the themes of interest identified during the first meeting: 1) sustainable urban forestry master planning, and 2) cross-boundary collaboration.
Sustainable urban and forestry (SUF) is a complex matter, and cities are highly dynamic and constantly changing. On the other hand, it takes a long time it takes for trees and forests to reach maturity. SUF programs need a longer-term vision, developed together with the local community, to provide ambition and direction. Overall visions need to be translated into clear objectives, targets, and performance measures. Development a SUF Master Plan for a city can help with making this explicit and help ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to SUPF activities.
SUPF is not only a matter of cities, nor of only one specific department or unit in the municipal administration. It involves a wide range of authorities, landowners, interest groups, businesses, communities, and demographic groups. This highlights the need for collaborative approaches that account for and mobilise the specific needs, skills, mandates, and resources of different partners. UPF governance and management requires ‘horizontal’ integration e.g., between different municipal departments and other stakeholders, as well as ‘vertical’ integration by e.g., better linking of national, regional, and local policies, legislation, and programs.
The meeting will provide a space for more in depth discusson and exchange among experts on these two topics, and is also intended to discuss areas for cooperation within the network in relation to the needs and opportunities identified. Subsequent meetings of the INESUF will provide a space to discuss other topics raised during the first meeting in more detail.
The meeting will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams, in English only.
If you are interested to attend, please register for the meeting using the following link: https://forms.office.com/r/1Ce5ehKGcZ
