Nature-based park making : interpreting nearby nature narratives to promote environmental justice in City of Tshwane parks

Abstract

Parks are nearby nature places in cities. They provide significant social and ecological benefits to communities, especially marginalised communities without access to private open space. Socioeconomic status, spatial marginalisation and inequitable park conditions, are all aspects of the environmental injustices, linked to local community parks in South Africa. In addition, various social and institutional mechanisms, further contribute to the injustices experienced by local community members and park users. However, parks remain invaluable places of nearby nature, for providing nature benefits and ecosystem services (ESS) to urban communities. The problem on which the study is premised is threefold. Firstly, parks in the City of Tshwane (CoT) as the administrative capital of South Africa, are in a dire condition and appear to be of a poorer condition in marginalised areas. Secondly, there is a relative lack of locally developed ESS discourse regarding appropriate and, place-specific cultural ecosystem services (CES) in urban nearby nature places. Finally, there is a lack of accessible academic literature regarding nature-based park making for local landscape architects and municipal departments involved in designing and provisioning parks.

The greater goal of the study was to describe an expanded, yet contextual view of ESS, as nature benefits for promoting EJ in the CoT. Through the process, a number of landscape design-informants for incorporating community perceptions about place-making and local ESS were identified. However, the focus of the study expanded to consider the social, procedural, and institutional mechanisms that impact on the processes of park making. That is, the processes of park planning, design, provisioning, management and use. The practical outcomes of the study include a set of recommendations for more just nearby nature provision in the CoT, based on park user perceptions. The recommendations are informed by a set of guiding principles that draw on community voices, alongside those of landscape architects and local municipal employees. Four main themes were used to categorise the recommendations related to the findings from the study, namely ‘knowledge’, ‘engagement’, ‘design-informants’, and ‘inclusive praxes’. All of which are discussed in the concluding chapter.