Feeding an increasingly urban population
and ensuring the economic
and social well-being of urban
dwellers will be the primary challenge for
cities in coming decades. The impacts of
climate change are expected to slow down
urban economic growth, exacerbate environmental
degradation, increase poverty
and erode urban food security. Many cities
are on a quest for more sustainable urbanization
pathways that will enable effective
responses to the increasing socio-economic
and environmental challenges they face.
In the search to “make cities and human
settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and
sustainable” (Sustainable Development
Goal 11 in the United Nations Sustainable
Development Agenda 2030), interest is
increasing in growing local food. Edible
green infrastructure, mainly in the form
of urban food forests and trees (referred
to here generally as urban food forests
and also sometimes as tree-based edible
landscaping), can help address a range of
problems caused by rapid and unplanned
urbanization, such as food scarcity, poverty,
the deterioration of human health and
well-being, air pollution, and biodiversity
loss (FAO, 2016).
