Unpacking Stakeholder Perceptions of the Benefits and Challenges Associated With Urban Greenspaces in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Urban greenspaces underpin ecosystem service provision in cities and are therefore indispensable for human well-being. Nevertheless, they are increasingly disappearing from cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Understanding how the stakeholders influencing urban greenspace management perceive the benefits provided by urban greenspaces and the challenges to its conservation and management is critical for reversing this trend. Using Malawi’s capital city, Lilongwe, as a case study, we conducted 44 semi-structured interviews to explore the profiles and perceptions of stakeholders who currently hold influence over greenspace planning, conservation and management. Stakeholders with influence over urban greenspace management described the main focus of their organisation as relating to urban planning, natural resources protection and management, development work, or the hospitality business sector. Critically, only a third of all stakeholders focused on natural resources protection and management. Stakeholders had nuanced and varied appreciations of the benefits that greenspaces provide. Regulation and maintenance ecosystem services, as well as cultural services were frequently mentioned. However, provisioning services were mostly mentioned by those in development work. Stakeholders also identified an additional suite of societal benefits that do not directly map onto ecosystem service frameworks, such as the generation of financial income and the provision of employment opportunities. Challenges identified as hampering the planning, conservation and management of greenspaces included inappropriate urbanisation, lack of coordination and participation, and population growth. Lack of coordination was however not widely acknowledged among those focusing on natural resources protection, who conversely identified population growth more often than any other groups. Highlighting how stakeholders with varying priorities perceive ecosystem services a first step towards improving greenspaces management both for their better acceptation and for improving their potential for biodiversity conservation. Specifically, we bring attention to need for stakeholders working with natural resources protection to recognise more the need for collaborations and engagement. Additional research is also necessary to understand how those different perspectives might be integrated into ongoing processes and procedures to manage greenspaces in Sub-Saharan Africa.

How urbanisation alters the intensity of the urban heat island in a tropical African city

“…Fast urbanisation and climate change accompany complex and changing land-lakeatmosphere interactions, requiring city planners and policy makers to carefully determine the direction of their urban growth strategies and consider the cooling effect provided by greenspace and bluespace. Efforts should be more targeted to ensure that they optimise the health and wellbeing of vulnerable inhabitants by maximising ecosystem services, as well as utilising collaborative approaches involving different groups of stakeholders [128].…”

Public Perceptions of Urban Green Spaces: Convergences and Divergences

“…Respondents in Romania perceived green features as helpful to the ability of a company to attract customers and enhance work environments (Gavrilidis et al, 2020). Stakeholders in Malawi who were involved in urban green space planning, maintenance, and conservation perceived green spaces as potential places for educational activities where, for example, people could receive training on agroforestry practices or environmental issues (Guenat et al, 2021). These stakeholders also identified economic revenue, employment opportunities, and cultural services associated with green spaces.…”

“…The establishment and expansion of urban green spaces is the responsibility of departments associated with adaptation, so it could be assumed that urban green spaces support this strategy for minimizing the negative effects of climate change; urban planners should take this into consideration when considering options for urban green development. If inappropriate urbanization is seen as a barrier to the development of urban green spaces (Guenat et al, 2021), such planning outcomes can be expected to slow the pace of implementing climate change adaptation and mitigation. Planners of UGSs can incorporate findings from studies which have indicated that these spaces can be defined quite broadly.…”

“…Conedera et al (2015) and Hadavi et al (2015) defined urban green spaces as publicly accessible urban and peri-urban open spaces which are either partially or entirely covered by a large amount of vegetation. In the context of increasing urbanization and urban population, which have a had significant impact on environmental sustainability (Haq, 2011), biodiversity, human health and well-being of people living in urban areas (Farahani and Maller, 2018), UGSs provide a number of key benefits, including several on an ecosystem level (Guenat et al, 2021;Randrup et al, 2021), which influence and improve the quality of life of urban residents (Kothencz et al, 2017;Lo et al, 2017;Gwedla and Shackleton, 2019). UGSs also offer direct benefits to urban residents, including but not limited to health promotion.…”

“…The aim to meet the needs of urban residents and visitors to green spaces influences urban planning, management, and use patterns (Jim and Shan, 2013). Urban green spaces can serve as promising tools by which to address some of the challenges associated with climate change, such as heat island effects and pollution in cities arising from urbanization (Farahani and Maller, 2018;Guenat et al, 2021). By increasing the extent to which people can access nature, otherwise limited as a part of the increasing complexity of urban life, UGSs may positively affect the social life and psychological behavior of those who use them (Sen and Guchhait, 2021).…”