Governance and community participation in ecosystem services of urban areas

Cities are dependent on the ecosystems beyond the city limits, but also benefit from ternal urban ecosystems. „Ecosystem services‟ refers to the benefits human populations derive from ecosystems. Seven different urban ecosystems have been identified: street trees; awns :parks; urban forests; cultivated land; wetlands; lakes: sea; and streams. These ystems generate a range of ecosystem services. It is often assumed that participation in all aspects of service delivery (e.g., project selection, design, construction, and aintenance) contributes to more successful project outcomes. Although we were guided by the iterature to believe community participation would contribute positively to project ffectiveness, we sought to examine the concept of participation more carefully by istinguishing among forms of participation and by viewing participation in infrastructure projects as part of a broader network of relationships among citizens The latter has been identified as crucial to the management of Third World cities and can be defined as the elationship between municipal/city authorities and citizens. The importance of governance at a city level is reflected in the conditionality of „good governance‟ imposed by most onor agencies. These agencies can be product of participation of citizens.

Keywords:

Community participation , urban services , urban govermance , locally services