Linking Stakeholder Collaboration and Biodiversity Outcomes in Urban Green Areas

Cities face increasing pressures from intensifying climate impacts, urban expansion and land conversion resulting in declining biodiversity and reduced ecosystem services. Loss of vegetated land has contributed to urban heat, pollution, and rising flood risk, which affect the quality of life for residents. At the same time, urban green areas such as parks, cemeteries, green roofs and other vegetated areas can support ecological processes and generate diverse ecosystem services. Biodiversity remains fundamental to these functions, since species and genetic and ecosystem variability regulate underlying ecological processes. Nevertheless, biodiversity in cities continues to decline due to habitat degradation, fragmentation and loss.

Although urban green areas may deliver multiple benefits, the extent to which they support biodiversity depends on vegetation structure, connectivity and land use history. Yet biophysical characteristics are only one part of the picture. Governance of urban green areas influences their ecological performance. Multiple public and private actors engage with these spaces through management, planning and informal stewardship. Their interests, responsibilities and interactions form governance networks that shape how urban green areas are maintained and developed over time. Collaboration within and across these networks can influence how effectively ecosystems are conserved and reconnected, which affects their capacity to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services.

This study investigates how stakeholder networks associated with distinct types of urban green areas relate to varying levels of biodiversity. The research is based on the in-depth study of 20 urban green areas in the city of Zurich, Switzerland, and qualitative interviews with relevant stakeholders. Because biodiversity assessments are available for each area, it becomes possible to link governance arrangements to observed biophysical outcomes in a social-ecological network. We examine how differences in network composition and actor attributes relate to relatively high or low biodiversity, and whether particular configurations such as continuity of management, coordination or inclusive decision making are associated with richer biodiversity outcomes. The study clarifies how collaborative structures may correspond with biodiversity patterns and why similar types of urban green areas show different biodiversity outcomes. Understanding these dynamics is relevant for reflecting on how social processes and ecological conditions jointly shape a city’s resilience.