Culture 73cooperative planning and management develops (Hardin and Baden 1977,
Botterton 2001). Government land intensively used by the public would have
the samefateifgovernmentdidnot plan, manage, and police it.
However, consider parcels of land protected for nature and natural-systems-
related uses by individuals, conservation organizations, and government at many
levels. When the land parcels are small, isolated, and close to a city, their future
is in doubt, no matter what their legal status is. As the city grows and rolls out-
wardthese small isolated nature reserves and natural parks are under increas-
ing threat, even if the local community remains strong. Under urban pressures,
gradually many become, for example, ball fields, grass--tree--bench parks, infras-
tructure sites, or squatter settlements.
If the protected areas are large, they tend to persist longer in a semi-
natural state, but still become eroded. The huge somewhat-natural Ajusco area
next to Mexico City may support water supply, rich biodiversity, wood prod-
ucts, game, squatter settlements, weekend houses for the wealthy, illegal drug
gangs, police, armed anti-government groups, and the military (Pezzoli1998).
Imagine the land-use conflicts. Other cities have close-by large natural areas,
such as Barcelona’s Collserola and Brasilia’s two large adjacent parks, with
their ownissues, including encroachment (Acebillo and Folch2000,Forman
2004a).
The best most-sustainable natural areasaround cities are probably those that
clearly fit into a larger context, which is widely understood by government
and the public. Thus a parcel in the middle of a green wedge projecting into
Stockholm or in London’s greenbelt or in a key greenway of Minneapolis/St.
Paul’s (USA) greenway network is likely to long persist (Munton1983,Parsons
and Schuyler2000,Hall2002,Elmqvistet al.2004). Widespread recognition that
thebroader greenspace pattern would be disrupted by the degradation or loss
of an essential piece protects the site.
Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace in Boston has been threatened by
development countless times, seriously damaged in spots occasionally, and per-
sists today because government and the public understand and cherish it as a
connected system in their midst (Zaitzevsky 1982). A city is an aggregation of
sometimes-mapped social neighborhoods, as in London, but it is also a social
entity as a whole (Bartuska1994,Warner2001). In Boston, the valued Emerald
Necklace is protected by social interactions and caring by both the local adjoin-
ing communities and the city as a whole.
Culture
Culture has some advantages over economics and social patterns in plan-
ning urban regions. Economic conditions, like politics and government, may