Making green work for health

Abstract

Cities are embracing greening initiatives to mitigate climate change. Planting trees is popular due to their capacity for carbon sequestration and for improving human health. Certainly, trees remove air pollutants and particulate matter, lower the heat island, promote an active lifestyle, and reduce depression. Planting trees isn't sufficient to support human health: urban trees need to be healthy too. There is a significant interdependence between the deterioration of urban environments (expressed either in terms of climate and air pollution) and the health of urban trees. Up to a point that it is possible to link adverse adverse effects to human health to markers of pollution accumulation and physiologic stress in trees. Environmental quality issues, in addition to being a health issue, are related to people's fundamental rights. The correlation of negative health effects with urban poor, urban degradation and lack of access to green spaces is known but ineffectively addressed by public policy.Little is known about how to formalize and measure the impact of innovative multi-actor experimentation in urban greening projects: experiments that transfer power to local actors, and build capacities in shared design, management, and care. Such new economies of green care can help tackle inequalities and ensure a just green transition. The cost of inaction is that millions of urban jobs, and the health of many, relying on well-functioning ecosystems will be under threat. The aim of this research exchange is to identify the criteria and methodology central to amplifying the concept of a new generation of successful greening projects grounded on local economies of green care. These criteria can be used to identify "next" practices, based on "best" practices, and to monitor the effectiveness of existing policies and possible adjustments, which can improve municipal governance outcomes. By originally combining local practice and multidisciplinary knowledge, this exchange initiative can help to trace creative possibilities for positive intersections, and think about new socio ecological values and shared governance approaches. (AU)