Green Is Not Enough: A Management Framework for Urban Biodiversity Friendly Parks

The potential of cities to conserve biodiversity is increasingly gaining more recognition and cities mainly contribute to biodiversity through planning and managing urban green spaces (UGS), for example, urban parks. Research finds that the ability of UGS to support biodiversity depends on several factors, and management activities are one of them. Urban parks are important urban infrastructures and are under a high level of management. Proper management after planning and construction is significant for meeting human needs as well as providing suitable habitats for wildlife. Therefore, understanding how urban parks are managed and operated is critical for urban biodiversity enhancement but accepts insufficient attention in China. This research focuses on the management stage of Chinese urban parks and tries to answer: how could urban parks effectively enhance biodiversity by changing management practices? Through identifying the improvement spaces and exploring the root causes including government failure and market failure, I propose a policy suggestion of a certificate of urban biodiversity friendly parks and generate a management framework as a tool for urban parks to make changes.