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Urban forestry can be defined as an integrated approach
to the planting, care and management of trees in urban and peri-urban areas to secure
economic, environmental and social benefits for urban dwellers.
Urban agriculture produces and markets foods and fuel
largely in response to the daily demand of consumers within a town, city or metropolis,
on land and water dispensed throughout the urban and peri-urban area. Permaculture
is a sustainable form of agriculture highly appropriate to urban areas,
and comprises a system of farming and gardening that combines plants, animals, buildings,
water, the landscape and people in a way that produces more energy than it uses.
Urban agroforestry is the combination of agriculture and
forestry on the same land with livestock or cropping enterprises running underneath
a regime of widely spaced trees, either simultaneously or in sequence.
All these components of can be applied to improve the quality of the urban environment,
generally in open spaces. Urban open space management is not only confined to parks
and roadsides but includes household gardens, factories, business areas, mine dumps,
transmission lines, flood plains, taxi ranks, rooftops, schools, clinics and churches.
The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry Directorate of Community Forestry can
provide support relating to the urban forestry and urban agroforestry components
of urban greening.
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