Legal, policy and institutional aspects of urban and peri-urban forestry and greening: the case of West and Central Asia.

Owing to increased global urbanization, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) initiated a study on the relationship between the urban green resource, with a primary focus on urban and peri-urban forests and greening (UPFG), and urban livelihood and poverty alleviation in West and Central Asia (WECA). The present study is based primarily on a comprehensive review of scientific literature and legal, policy and institutional documents found via the Internet. Policies at national and sub-national levels related to UPFG focus mainly on environmental aspects. The present study found no policies promoting UPFG as a source of income for the livelihood of the urban and peri-urban poor. However, UPFG in the context of poverty alleviation might be addressed by related policies, such as forestry policies. Further, this study found that no particular national or international law governs UPFG; however, most countries of the WECA region are parties to the international conventions related to UPFG. It is concluded that UPFG is not comprehensively addressed at a country level but various laws exist that address UPFG in a fragmentary way. This may be because of the lack of awareness of UPFG as a multisectoral, multifaceted discipline. It is important to pursue the objective to turn degraded elements of urban green resources into environments that can be put to productive use by poor families, thereby offering them income opportunities and/or food for household use. Decentralization is becoming increasingly important in the WECA region. In this context, responsibilities related to UPFG tend to shift to lower government levels. The effect of decentralization policies will also lead to greater involvement of local community groups, municipalities and grass-root organizations in the various aspects of UPFG development and management. However, this requires capacity building and awareness-raising campaigns and sufficient financial resources.