Multicultural gardeners and park users benefit from and attach diverse values to urban nature spaces

Abstract

Cities across the world increasingly reflect the ethno-cultural diversity of a globalized society. How people interact with, and experience urban nature varies with the form, structure, and function of the space, but also with peoples’ ethno-cultural identity. In this study, we investigated the values that gardeners and park users of different ethno-cultural identities associate with urban community gardens, parks and trees and the well-being benefits that they derive from them in Melbourne, Australia. We collected data from park users, and gardeners using intercept questionnaires with open-ended questions about motivations to garden and the importance of parks and trees to understand values, and standardized metrics on personal well-being to understand well-being benefits. The results show that gardeners and park users of different ethno-cultural identities than Australian and European, derived from the country of birth, language spoken, and region of origin, associate different motivations, importance, and well-being benefits to these different urban nature spaces. Community gardens provide food and a strong sense of community and security, particularly for gardeners that speak English as a second language. For these ethno-culturally diverse people, urban parks, like community gardens, are associated with sociocultural and psychological importance, but also with aesthetic importance. Finally, and also for these diverse people, urban trees are associated with aesthetic, naturalness and biodiversity importance rather than sociocultural importance. The results highlight that people involved in the planning and design of urban nature spaces should consider the many values associated with and benefits derived from different types of spaces for multicultural cities.