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Mapping of urban forest managers in protected areas in Serbia
Đorđević, Ilija
Češljar, Goran
Urban forests and protected areas are interconnected components of the broader ecological landscape, working together to provide essential ecosystem services, to support sustainable land use, particularly where protected natural spaces extend into or border urban environments, and to protect biodiversity. Their connection is particularly evident within the frameworks of green infrastructure and landscape planning. Urban forest includes all trees, forests and green spaces within and around urban areas. These spaces are managed to enhance citizens well-being and to support various recreational, aesthetic and ecological functions. From the other side, protected areas are legally and formally designed spaces aimed at long term protection of nature, biodiversity and ecosystem services. The effectiveness of both systems in delivering their intended functions is strongly dependent on the quality of urban forest management and urban forest managers play a critical role in this interface. To gain insight into who manages urban forests in Serbia, specifically within the context of protected areas, official database of the Agency of Nature Conservation was used. From this dataset, all protected areas located outside urban environments were excluded, allowing for the identification and mapping of urban forest managers operating within cities. To examine differences in the size of urban forests under various management types, non-parametric statistical tests, the Mann-Whitney U test (two groups) and the Kruskal-Wallis test (three and more groups), were applied. The analysis identified two main types and four categories of urban forest managers, which were subsequently mapped and spatially visualized (Figure 1 and Figure 2).
engleski
2025
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urban forests, protected areas, public vs private sector, managers