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The socio-cultural role of periurban
ecological networks
Carolina Solar
Laboratoire de Recherches de l’Ecole
Nationale Supérieure du Paysage de
Versailles LAREP ENSP/ABIES. France.
Abstract
scientific and political context of ecological and
periurban networks
Since the Rio Conference on biodiversity in 1992,
the loss of nature, biodiversity and landscapes of
European urban regions has become a scientific and
a political preoccupation for environmental, social
and cultural development. A large scientific body
and several international organizations of nature
and landscape protection agree about the positive
relationships between landscape connectivity and
sustainable development in the context of planning,
design and management of urban and periurban
ecological networks. In fact, there is an emergence
of political programs of ecological networks in urban
regions: Geneva, Lille, Florida, Valencia, Barcelona,
Singapore, Montreal, Sydney, Lisbon, Rennes and
Montpellier, are some examples. Over the last eight
years, there has been considerable spending by
the Lille and Geneva societies in efforts to improve
environmental and landscape connectivity conditions in
periurban territories with ecological planning networks
Through a method proposed in this paper, two political
programs of landscape connectivity of open spaces
(private and publics) are going to be compared. What
are the convergences and divergences between
these two cases? How can socio-cultural needs be
managed in the context of ecological networks?
Key words
Urban regions, ecological networks, conservation,
multifunctionality
Introduction
Contemporary scientific and political context
The study of ecological networks is an interesting subject
for the science of landscape ecology and for several
disciplines such as landscape architecture, landscape
planning, urban ecology and urban landscape ecology
and urban wildlife ecology. The Forman research (1986,
1995, 1999, 2000, 2004 and 2008) about landscape
structure and biodiversity, in the fields of landscape
ecology has had an important influence on all the other
disciplines mentioned. The last Richard Forman books,
Urban regions, Ecology and Planning Beyond the City”,
From Boston to Lisbon and the articles by Ahern ( 2002,
2003 ) and Briffet (2001) are very goods examples about
trends, definitions, theories and methods to analyse
ecological networks of urban regions. An article by Jack
Ahern (Ahern 2003) analyzed transfer process as a very
beneficial and reciprocal influence between a natural
science like landscape ecology and a practical discipline
like landscape architecture. In the historical context,
several authors recognize the Boston Parkways (1860)
network, designed by Olmsted, as a reference model of
how to organize and manage nature for the enjoyment
of people and the need for nature in urban regions by
landscape connectivity. The Emerald Necklace is appreciated
as the first masterpiece of landscape architecture
principles, because of its connectivity and inherent
multifunctionality (Fabos 1995, Forestier 1997, Burel &
Baudry 1999, Ahern 2003).
The loss of natural landscapes and biodiversity in urban
regions worry several international organizations like
UNESCO (MAB, Rio 1992, Stockholm 1972, 2002),
FEDENATUR (Manifest Fedenatur and Barcelona Symposium
2003). I believe that it is pertinent to affirm that
in an international political context, a process of renaturation
by ecological networks of periurban landscape
is emerging to maintain and improve the environmental
conditions for biodiversity and to give better conditions
for socio-cultural development. To protect water resources,
natural habitats and rural landscapes has become
a common goal between the natural science and the
political policies of nature and landscape protection.
The role of the urban regions to maintain and improve
biodiversity by ecological networks has become an
important scientific subject and an international political
preoccupation. But, how can we introduce landscape
ecology into the political programs of periurban ecological
networks? How can we restore, renature and
socialize our natural resources where more than 50%
of the worldwide population lives by ecological regional
and local networks? What are the political programs of
ecological networks of urban regions? How are social
and cultural needs incorporated in the political programs?
Which role of the State (top-down) and the local stake
holders (bottom-up)? Which new ecological landscapes?
Scientific discussion
The scientists have analyzed biodiversity erosion in the
80ies in rural contexts (Forman & Godron 1986 and
Burel & Baudry 1999). Several studies have shown that
corridors can help organisms move from one patch to
another, since they connect suitable habitat conditions.
They are used for biodiversity migration and dispersal,
because they link habitats and reduce the isolation of
metapopulations. In fact, it has been demonstrated that