Strategies for biodiversity, ecosystem services and climate adaptation in management of trees among actors in the city of Stockholm

Urban trees provide a wide array of benefits and values for urban dwellers as a foundational part of the biodiversity, the generation of ecosystem services and mitigation of negative impacts of climate change. However, management in cities often fail to acknowledge the diversity of ecosystem services in urban landscapes needed for improving resilience. Through interviews with actors managing tree communities within the city of Stockholm, along with a review of municipal policy documents, this study explores the qualities, values and benefits, focusing on biodiversity, ecosystem services and climate change adaptation, that are considered when making decisions about tree management. The interview results and policy documents were analyzed using an analytical framework for three different phases of management: (i) goals, (ii) strategies and measures and (iii) monitoring and evaluation. Most of the actors to some extent consider biodiversity, ecosystem services and climate change adaptation through ecosystem services in management. The strategies of including a more diverse set of values and benefits are still in its early stages, which is reflected in a low degree of strategical work, lack of clearly defined goals and limited operationalization of the concepts, and few actors work with monitoring and evaluation. However, more aspects of biodiversity and ecosystem services are gaining attention within management, and there is an ambition to incorporate such values to a greater extent