Children Renature Disadvantaged Urban Neighbourhoods

Children Renature Disadvantaged Urban Neighbourhoods

Author: Sudeshna Chatterjee, Louise Chawla, Deepti Talpade, Leticia Lozano

Nearby trees, parks, gardens, green schoolyards, and other urban green spaces are not just ‘nice to have’; they are ‘need to have’ resources for health and wellbeing. This blog describes two examples of how children’s enthusiasm and creativity transform inner-city wastelands into green, inclusive community spaces.

Why green spaces matter for everyone

Compared to young people who live in barren areas, children and teens with access to trees and green spaces near their homes for play and recreation experience greater wellbeing on multiple measures. These include more physical activity, better concentration and academic performance, fewer behavioural and social problems, better mental health, and a positive mood. These children are also better at coping with adversity.

The benefits of spending time in nature extend to adults as well. Residents in greener neighbourhoods are more likely to spend time outdoors, forming stronger social ties. Greening initiatives also reduce rates of neighbourhood crime and violence.

Lack of access to green spaces in low-income neighbourhoods

Low-income families and families of disadvantaged caste and ethnic groups are most likely to live in neighbourhoods devoid of nature. Widely used planning guidelines – such as situating a park within a prescribed walking radius from residential neighbourhoods – fail to address all the barriers they face.

Recent research with adolescents in marginalised communities in India and the Philippines found that they highly valued trees, parks, gardens and waterfronts. However, they were largely excluded from these spaces – this was especially true for girls.

Professor Lyndsey Deaton, who led the research, observed, “Prevailing international guidelines for greenspace access disregard the nuanced needs of children in low-income communities where they are restricted by layers of fear, social norms and gatekeepers.”

The United Nations call to action

In 2023, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issued General Comment 26 (GC26) on ‘Children’s rights and the environment, with a special focus on climate change.’ This is binding on all nations that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

GC26 requires that: ‘States shall take effective legislative, administrative and other measures to ensure that all children, without discrimination, are able to play and engage in recreational activities in safe, clean and healthy environments, including parks, natural spaces and playgrounds.’ It also calls for children’s views to be included in the planning and design of these environments.

So, how do we bring nature to low-income urban neighbourhoods where it’s needed most? By involving the most passionate advocates for change: the children themselves.

Two examples of children greening their neighbourhoods

1.   Inclusive greening in Mumbai, India

The Mumbai Climate Action Plan sets out to increase the city’s green cover to 40% by 2030, ensure equitable access to green open spaces, and restore and enhance biodiversity.

Selecting intervention areas: To assist the city in achieving these goals, WRI India used satellite imagery to map slums and informal settlements with the lowest vegetation index and highest heat stress. One pilot site is Lallubhai Compound, a slum resettlement in the multi-dimensionally deprived M East ward. A group of 16 apartment buildings at the southern tip of the compound had an unsafe central open space called Lal Maidan and some neglected peripheral open spaces. This peripheral cluster was chosen for the greening intervention.

Building partnerships for collective action: Diverse stakeholders were engaged, such as the Garden Department and Tree Authority at Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA). WRI India and YUVA, which have a long history of working in intervention sites, teamed up with other stakeholders to turn derelict spaces into community assets.

Participatory planning and design: YUVA started by conducting placemaking workshops with children and young people to make the peripheral open spaces greener and child-friendly. The children’s designs primarily focused on planting more trees, brightly painting the long wall, and including more lighting and seating. A naturalist helped the community select and maintain native plants, and a youth artist was engaged to help children design and execute murals to enliven the space.

  • Before: A barren landscape with grey walls © Shruti Maliwar/WRI India

Community ownership: Children and the community took several actions to transform neglected areas into vibrant green spaces that encourage social interaction and sustainability. These include:

  • 30 children planting trees and building tree guards from bamboo, rope, and cloth to protect the young plants from damage
  • Organising a watering schedule with residents, ensuring consistent care for the trees. For example, on their way back from school, enthusiastic children would often empty their school water bottles or bring buckets from home to water the plants
  • Engaging with the local solid waste management crew to ensure the upgraded areas were cleaned and well-maintained
  • Enlivening grey walls with colourful murals to make the spaces more attractive and welcoming

Additionally, YUVA organised structured and unstructured play sessions for children in the evenings to activate the spaces. As a result of the intervention, the harassment, drug abuse, and fights that previously plagued these spaces declined—more children and women started to visit and enjoy the new green public space. Encouraged by the success, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has approved the greening of the larger Lal Maidan site.

The lessons gained here were shared in a city-level workshop in October 2023 to catalyse partnerships to implement and sustain nature-based solutions  in vulnerable urban communities across Mumbai. The workshop also explored institutional mechanisms to support collaborations and mobilise financing for long-term environmental and social benefits.

2. Restoring ecological niches in Mexico City

Tarango is the only natural canyon (out of 37) in the western part of Mexico City that has survived urbanisation. In 2009, the Ministry of Environment declared it an Area of Environmental Value to protect it from harmful human-related activities and promote its restoration and preservation.

However, despite this designation, Tarango remained a neglected landscape where people threw garbage and antisocial activities occurred. In 2018, Estudio Abierto, a non-profit multidisciplinary studio, began exploring the ravine’s potential as a public space to benefit the underserved informal neighbourhoods surrounding it while preserving its environmental significance.

Process of child participation: Estudio Abierto creates playful and child-friendly environments through participatory approaches. They initiated child participation programs in Tarango, starting with summer camps that trained children as “eco-guards” and continuing with the monthly Fridays for Children program during the school term. Through these programs, children explored and documented the usage of the river within the ravine and its surrounding areas, as well as how waste was managed. Children specifically engaged in the following activities:

  • Participated in walks through the ravine, took photographs, and talked to local users of the ravine.
  • Gathered information about the local plants and animals and local people’s knowledge of the ravine’s ecological degradation.
  • Collected water samples, analysed the types of waste found on-site,
  • Contributed to visioning activities that reimagined access to this natural area through drawings and photovoice methods.

The above activities revealed high levels of pollution in the river and a severe lack of public spaces for play, recreation, and educational activities in their community. The environmental education program, delivered through the summer camp, demonstrated that a better relationship with the canyon was possible and highlighted the urgency of saving the canyon from further degradation. This inspired the broader community to take action, leading to clean-up efforts and drawing the attention of local governments, which provided institutional support that allowed the project to grow.

Planning and co-designing child-friendly public spaces within the canyon: In 2020, MACIA Estudio, an urban planning and design studio focused on creating cities for play, collaborated with children and the local community to develop a long-term master plan for a section of Tarango Canyon between two neighbourhoods. The plan sought to balance the area’s environmental sensitivity and the need for public spaces.

Through participatory workshops, children helped identify potential places for placemaking and acted as co-designers of the master plan. Through carefully targeted design interventions, the project produced an urban garden, a play area for toddlers, a climbing zone for older children and teenagers, and several reflection and contemplation spaces integrated into the natural landscape for community use.

  • Before: Tarango valley a neglected landscape where people threw garbage and antisocial activities took place © MACIA ESTUDIO

A wasteland becomes a green asset for communities: After three years of collaborative effort involving children, the community, and various organisations, 125 tons of solid waste was removed from the ravine. These physical clean-up efforts and acupuncture-style interventions allowed the neighbours to heal their relationship with the ravine’s natural space. Older women formed a morning walking club, children began exploring deeper into the ravine, discovering new areas for improvement, and neighbours started using the urban garden as a knowledge sharing and cultural platform.

The Tarango case highlights that children can play a vital role in recovering and transforming degraded natural spaces. Although the efforts described above have transformed the local environmental culture and improved community life, a broader question remains: How can environmental revitalisation efforts integrate children’s voices into the governance of natural spaces with support from the local government?

Key recommendations for inclusive urban greening

The UNICEF report ‘The Necessity of Urban Green Space for Children’s Optimal Development’ and General Comment 26 of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child outline recommendations for communities and municipal and national governments. A fundamental first step is creating spaces where children and women feel safe. Children and their communities are the experts in co-designing spaces that feel safe, accessible, and attractive to all. Some key recommendations for inclusive urban greening based on the two examples include:

Build Coalitions: Engage local stakeholders, including children, in mapping, visioning, and co-designing public spaces as green spaces, working with NGOs and local governments to preserve, improve, create, and maintain safe and accessible green spaces.

Be opportunistic: Leverage top-down and bottom-up opportunities for greening that may be available through the city’s development plans, strategic plans, and programs or generated by the demands of community-based organisations acting on behalf of children and young people in underserved locations.

Program for safety, cleanliness and enriching community life: Support and empower local communities, children, and youth to claim local green spaces for play, recreation, leisure, and cultural activities and assist community groups in involving children and youth in maintaining and monitoring green spaces.

Partner with Private Entities: Collaborate with private entities to improve green spaces through technical and financial support.

Measure Progress: Track progress and hold local governments accountable for implementing and scaling co-created visions and ensuring the sustainability of green spaces.

 

A shorter version of this blog was originally published on the International Institute for Environment and Development website on 14 November 2024 and on 21 November 2024 on the WRI India website.

About the Authors

Sudeshna Chatterjee is the program director for Sustainable Cities and Integrated Transport at WRI India, where she provides strategic leadership to strengthen the research and analysis work and evidence-based policy development.

Louise Chawla is a professor emerita in the Program in Environmental Design at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she serves as a fellow in its Community Engagement Design and Research Center.

Deepti Talpade is a programme lead for Urban Development and Resilience at WRI India, where she focuses on enabling an environment for nature-based solutions (NBS) for climate resilience.

Leticia Lozano is the founder of MACIA Estudio and headed the Playful City strategy at LabCDMX (Mexico City’s government’s creativity and innovation area).

 

The Ideas for Action Series showcases ideas for action, innovation, programmes, policies and practices that make public spaces child-friendly. Read more of our blogs here. 

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