The value of the urban forest
What does one urban tree provide?
- Aids reduction of airborne pollution
- Mitigates urban heat island effect
- Mitigates urban flooding and wind turbulence
- Benefits biodiversity and wildlife
- Provides health and wellbeing benefits
- Adds economic value and investment
- Enhances landscape character and interest
What is the urban forest?
Trees give us the very air we breathe. With every breath comes life itself. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it?
The urban forest is the ecosystem containing all of the trees, plants and associated animals in the urban environment, both in and around the city.12
However, recent research and polls have shown that people have become disconnected with our relationship with trees and the natural environment. For example, in a recent poll conducted by One Poll for Trees for Cities, 18% of respondents think that WiFi is more important than trees and 24% don’t know where conkers come from. The importance of trees in society should not be underestimated and the urban forest needs to flourish.
Coventry's urban forest
- 9,864ha CCC area
- 360,000 CCC population
- 24 parks
- 17 woodlands
- 44,000 individual trees
- 200,000 trees in open spaces
- 15% canopy cover
Demonstrating value
The value of trees and the urban forest cannot be underestimated. But how can we demonstrate the value of our urban forests? What do urban trees provide and why are their presence in our 21st Century streets and urban centres crucial?
The Urban Forestry Strategy focuses on three interrelated themes.
- Trees for Health and Wellbeing: a ‘state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease’ (WHO, 2010).
- Trees for Ecosystem Services: the ‘benefits provided by ecosystems that contribute to making human life both possible and worth living’13 which are broken down as products or goods such as food and water; and non-material benefits or services such as recreation.
- Trees as Natural Capital: the set of ‘environmental assets that may provide benefits to humanity’ (Defra, 2017).
The themes sit at the heart of the Strategy and are used as the basis to reinforce future actions and policies.
