Social Equity Considerations for Cities’ Decision Making Related to Inner, Nearby, and Faraway Forests

Purpose of this guide

This guide is developed by Cities4Forests to direct cities toward positive, equitable, and inclusive forest-related programs. This guide follows the Learning Guide How Cities Can Strengthen Urban Forests and serves as a reference point for cities to increase their awareness about social equity considerations related to their forest-related programs and policies. For cities that have already integrated some or all of the relevant considerations, this Learning Guide may serve as a checklist or a reminder to identify relevant social equity goals and provide additional resources to track progress on them. The topics covered here are intentionally broad in scope, and users are advised to adapt them to their own social, economic, cultural, and political context.

Who is this guide meant for?

City- and community-level leaders, urban planners, government and NGO officials, and other decision-makers and stakeholders involved in the planning, implementation, and management of urban forests.

What will you gain from reading this guide?

• A better understanding of the opportunities and challenges of including social equity considerations in cities’ forest-related programs and policies
• An awareness of entry points, resources, and information to make forest-related programs and policies more inclusive and equitable across multiple forest scales
• Inspiration and insights from case studies to design and implement equitable forest-related programs and policies