Trends in forest terminology Urban forestry

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Trends in forest terminologyUrban forestry

• Michèle Kaennel Dobbertin
• Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and
  Landscape Research WSL
• IUFRO Working Party 6.03.02
• Renate Prüller
• SilvaVoc Special Project on multilingual forest
  terminology
• IUFRO

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Trends in forest terminology - Urban forestry

• Terminological resources at IUFRO
• SilvaVoc and Working Party 6.03.02
• Common guidelines
• Urban forestry an analytical presentation of
  definitions
• Methodology
• Results
• Exploration of related concepts
• Overview
• Community forest(ry)
• Urban green(ing) urban forest(ry)
• Conclusions and recommendations

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Two complementary initiatives

• SilvaVoc
• A service within the IUFRO Secretariat
• A clearing-house for terminological resources in
  forestry
• A partner in discussions with other international
  bodies

• WP 6.03.02
• A unit within the IUFRO Structure
• A network within the network
• A self-defined programme of activities based on
  the commitment of volunteers

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SilvaVoc

• Information and documentation
• On-line Bibliography of dictionaries and
  glossaries
• Cooperation with the IUFRO Structure
• Editorial activities
• On-line terminological database SilvaTerm
  (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian,
  Portuguese, Hungarian, Swahili, Japanese)

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WP 6.03.02 Trends in forest terminology

• On-line Directory of experts
• Electronic discussion groups (B. Haddon, Canada)
• Old-growth forests, natural forests, primary
  forests
• Reforestation, afforestation, deforestation
• Low forest cover
• Forest health
• Terminological awareness (J. Helms, USA)

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Common guidelines

• Show terminological differences
• Apply descriptive rather than prescriptive
  principles
• Include all languages (in so far it is
  technically possible)
• Benefit to and from the cooperation with IUFRO
  forest experts

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Can urban forest(ry) be defined?

• Over the years, much time has been spent (and
  perhaps wasted) in trying to define urban
  forestry. (G.W. Grey, 1996)
• The term urban forestry is applied to many
  different situations in a variety of countries
  not surprisingly this has led to imprecise
  definition. (B.G. Hibberd, 1995)
• To date the term urban forest is little used in
  Europe, nor in Sweden in particular. (R.
  Gustavsson et al., 1999)

• As in all relatively new professions, a lot of
  effort has been spent trying to define Urban
  Forestry. (G. Kuchelmeister, 1996)

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Urban forestry an analytical presentation of
definitions

• Methodology
• A corpus of 90 printed and on-line documents,
  mostly in English, was searched for explicit or
  embedded definitions of urban forest or urban
  forestry
• A questionnaire was sent to all authors of papers
  and posters at this Conference
• The 55 resulting sources (texts pers. comm.)
  were analysed for presence or absence of semantic
  elements of definitions
• What is an urban forest?
• Where is the urban forest?
• What are the objectives of urban forestry?
• What are the benefits and values of urban
  forest(ry)?

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Results1. What is an urban forest?

• Mentioned in 81 of the analysed sources.
• In Europe, (tree-)related vegetation and
  organisms are not mentioned.
• In developing countries, the urban forest tends
  to include mostly trees and parks.
• Woodlands do not seem to belong to the
  North-American urban forest.

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Results2. Where is the urban forest?

• Mentioned in 65 of the analysed sources.
• In North-America vs. Europe and developing
  countries, the urban forest includes green space
  (or forest) in small communities.
• In North-America vs. Europe and developing
  countries, the urban forest is not located close
  to urban areas.

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Results3. What is urban forest(ry) good for?

• Mentioned in only 62 of the analysed sources.
• Grey blocks generic typology of benefits.
• Economic benefits are secondary in European
  countries.
• Difficult to analyse definitions containing only
  generic typology of benefits -gt what can
  non-specialists and new comers understand behind
  these definitions?

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Related concepts overview

• Methodology
• Concepts related to UF were listed from corpus
  and answers to questionnaire
• Subjective interpretation of definitions was made
  and frequency of occurrence of various elements
  was highlighted in order to reveal trends.
• Coverage of the concepts was presented using
  similar elements as in overall analytical
  representation.
• Questions
• Can synonyms be identified?
• Can generic terms be identified?
• Do other terms need clarification in this
  context, e.g. urban/urbanized areas, rural,
  peri-urban, town, woodlands, community forest(ry)?

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Related concepts overview
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Related conceptsCommunity forest(ry)

• The notion of community is a fundamental idea
  with a myriad of definitions surrounding the
  concept. (W.F. Elmendorf)

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Related conceptsCommunity forest(ry)

• Community
• A group of people who reside in a specific
  locality, share government, and often have a
  common cultural and historical heritage.
• A locality inhabited by such a group.
• A social, religious, occupational, or other group
  sharing common characteristics or interests the
  business community.
• The public society.
• Joint possession, enjoyment, liability, etc.
  community of property.(Random House Websters
  College Dictionary, 1992)

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Related conceptsCommunity forest(ry)

• Community is diversely defined (if at all).
• Location is a significant element in Europe and
  in N.A.
• Participation is not essential in Europe.
• Benefits go to the community in developing
  countries.
• Ownership by the community is the main element in
  developing countries it is not even mentioned in
  N.A. and Europe.

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Related conceptsUrban greening - urban forestry

• Urban greening is a newer concept and field of
  study than urban forestry and shares this more
  people concentrated view. (J. Park, Trees for
  Africa)
• Today there is a consensus among practicians
  that the term urban forestry can be used
  interchangeably with urban greening. (G.
  Kuchelmeister, Tree City, Germany)

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Related conceptsUrban greening - urban forestry

• Confusion about the concept
• Is urban greening urban forestry?
• Is urban greening a part of urban forestry ?
• Is urban forestry a part of urban greening ?
• Elements in definitions might allow better
  distinction
• Green - forest
• Environmental aspects
• People participation

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Conclusions

• Urban forests can be anything from large
  peri-urban forests to virtual collections of
  street and park trees.
• Benefits of urban forest(ry) potentially meet the
  full range of human and environmental needs, but
  these needs have different priorities over the
  world.
• Related concepts and pseudo-synonyms increase the
  confusion.

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Recommendations

• Pseudo-synonyms should be avoided.
• Conversely, concepts covering a scope too large
  throughout the world should be designated by
  different terms.
• Universal definitions will necessarily be vague.
  Geographical and cultural differences in use
  should instead be highlighted in widespread
  definitions.