Abstract
Within-city green infrastructure can offer opportunities and new contexts for people to become stewards of ecosystem services. We analyze cities as social–ecological systems, synthesize the literature, and provide examples from more than 15 years of research in the Stockholm urban region, Sweden. The social–ecological approach spans from investigating ecosystem properties to the social frameworks and personal values that drive and shape human interactions with nature. Key findings demonstrate that urban ecosystem services are generated by social–ecological systems and that local stewards are critically important. However, land-use planning and management seldom account for their role in the generation of urban ecosystem services. While the small scale patchwork of land uses in cities stimulates intense interactions across borders much focus is still on individual patches. The results highlight the importance and complexity of stewardship of urban biodiversity and ecosystem services and of the planning and governance of urban green infrastructure.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-014-0506-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The rate of urban growth is unprecedented
As historical (Walker 2007) and social movement research has indicated (Ansell 2003; Ernstson et al 2008), urban green areas attracting a high diversity of interest and user groups seem to have higher chances of being protected and creating a social environment that nurture stewardship of ecosystem services because of increased potential for effective collective action and combination of knowledge and skills
The high concentration of people, the diverse preferences that individuals, groups, business, and the state have for the city and the various demands for ecosystem services will cause continuous tension, which urban planning systems should be set up to handle
Summary
The rate of urban growth is unprecedented. The Earth System has become urbanized in the sense that decisions by the majority of the human population living in cities affect the resilience of the entire planet (Seto et al.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-014-0506-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.2011). Keywords Biodiversity Á Ecosystem services Á Property rights Á Stewardship Á Urban ecology Á Urban social–ecological systems
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