Urban nature management is usually guided by the most common, frequently mentioned, or easily elicited perceptions expressed by a dominant cultural group. This is unlikely to encourage widespread community support or foster urban nature stewardship in the long run. Considering how people representing diverse cultural identities perceive the value of urban nature is key to meeting diverse community needs. In this study we explore how people not born in Australia, people who speak a language-other-than-English (LOTE), and people who self-identify as speaking a minority language, perceive the value of urban treed sites, trees at these sites, and the wildlife at these sites. We used an intercept questionnaire to collect empirical perception data, delivered in 12 different sites, including parks and streets, located in and near the Greater Melbourne Area, an ethno-culturally diverse urban area in the state of Victoria, Australia. We analyzed 1127 responses collected over 2 years using contingency- and regression-based procedures. We found that people who were not born in Australia rated the importance of treed sites and trees at these sites higher than other respondents, and LOTE respondents rated the importance of treed sites and trees at these sites lower than other respondents. Also, LOTE and some language minority respondents associated more psychological themes (i.e., stress reduction, feeling good) with treed sites than other respondents. These differences account for the influence of other cognitive, behavioral, and social-ecological context factors, such as nature relatedness, knowledge of trees, exposure to trees, demographics, and type of site (i.e., parks or streets). We discuss what these results mean for urban nature research with consideration of diverse cultural communities in cities, including integrating cultural diversity as a complement to the dominant consideration of socioeconomic patterns for understanding urban nature dynamics, accounting for conflicting values, and better communicating with and engaging these communities.

The post The role of diverse cultural identities in the perceived value of urban forests in Melbourne, Australia, and implications for urban ecosystem research and practice first appeared on Ecology & Society.

城市自然管理通常以主导文化群体表达的最常见、最常提及或容易引发的观念为指导。从长远来看，这不太可能鼓励广泛的社区支持或促进城市自然管理。考虑代表不同文化身份的人们如何看待城市自然的价值是满足不同社区需求的关键。在这项研究中，我们探讨了非澳大利亚出生的人、说英语以外语言 (LOTE) 的人以及自认为说少数民族语言的人如何看待城市绿地、这些地方的树木的价值。地点以及这些地点的野生动物。我们使用拦截调查问卷来收集经验感知数据，这些数据在位于大墨尔本地区及其附近的 12 个不同地点（包括公园和街道）提供，大墨尔本地区是澳大利亚维多利亚州的一个民族文化多元化的城市地区。我们使用基于应急和回归的程序分析了 2 年来收集的 1127 份回复。我们发现，非澳大利亚出生的人对绿化地点和这些地点的树木的重要性的评价高于其他受访者，而 LOTE 受访者对绿化地点和这些地点的树木的重要性的评价低于其他受访者。此外，与其他受访者相比，LOTE 和一些语言少数族裔受访者将更多的心理主题（即减轻压力、感觉良好）与树木林地联系起来。这些差异解释了其他认知、行为和社会生态背景因素的影响，例如自然相关性、树木知识、与树木的接触、人口统计和场地类型（即公园或街道）。我们讨论了这些结果对于城市自然研究的意义，同时考虑到城市中的多元化文化社区，包括将文化多样性作为对社会经济模式的主要考虑的补充，以了解城市自然动态、解释相互冲突的价值观以及更好地与人沟通和参与这些社区。

这篇文章《多元文化身份在澳大利亚墨尔本城市森林感知价值中的作用以及对城市生态系统研究和实践的影响》首先发表在《生态与社会》上。