Citizen Participation in Urban Forests: Analysis of a Consultation Process in the Metropolitan Area of Rouen Normandy

Charlotte Birks (1) , Damien Féménias (2) , Charly Machemehl (2)

1 APCOSS - Activité Physique, Corps, Sport et Santé
2 CETAPS - Centre d’études des transformations des activités physiques et sportives

The article examines the results of a “citizen consultation” organised by local public officials through a questionnaire-based consultation approach to the management of urban and peri-urban forests. The study shows how forests are at the same time strong, complex, and ambivalent policy levers in a public consultation process. The article, first of all, specifies the economic context of the case study, namely that of a metropolis in the north of France with a population of 500,000 people. It then presents the methods and the occasionally divergent results of the metropolitan “dialogue” survey (dated 2020, n = 375) on the one hand, and a university survey (dated 2020, n = 774) on the other. The results obtained reveal the challenges, difficulties, and limits of a participatory approach, given the high degree of ambivalence and contrast in the way population groups relate to woodland and the representative/participatory systems. The article highlights the complexity involved in the management of woodlands and their use as part of a political process that is both participatory and sustainable.

Mots clés: citizen consultation; city; environment; Normandy; public participation; Rouen; urban forest; woodland

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Charlotte Birks, Damien Féménias, Charly Machemehl. Citizen Participation in Urban Forests: Analysis of a Consultation Process in the Metropolitan Area of Rouen Normandy. Urban Planning, 2022, 7 (2), pp.174-185. ⟨10.17645/up.v7i2.4997⟩. ⟨hal-04410132⟩