Towards access for all? Policy and research on access of ethnic minority groups to natural areas in four European countries

Marion Jay, Karin Peters, Arjen E. Buijs, Sandra Gentin, Marjolein E. Kloek and Liz O'Brien

Forest Policy and Economics, 2012, vol. 19, issue C, 4-11

Abstract: Migration and growing ethnic diversity pose new questions for forest and nature policy and research, especially on the equality of access to natural areas. This paper compares national approaches in policy and research on ethnic minority groups' access to natural areas in four Western-European countries: the United Kingdom (UK), The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. It shows that powerful linkages exist between immigration history, national research traditions and national policy regarding the attention given to this issue, the topics of interest and the ethnicity categories used. The main forest and nature policy documents in The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark address issues of access to nature generally, while in the UK reducing discrimination of ethnic minority groups in access to nature is a formalised objective to be addressed by public bodies. Research in the UK focuses on evidences of under-representation, discrimination and barriers to access. In turn, German and Danish research emphasises different recreational uses of ethnic groups and is less oriented towards the implementation of targeted management objectives. The Netherlands occupy an intermediary position. We argue that international exchange of scientific results and cross-national studies could improve our understanding of cultural differences in recreational patterns, experiences, barriers, images of nature, and planning and design strategies.

Keywords: Ethnicity; Outdoor recreation; Natural areas; Europe; Policy; Immigrants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934111001997
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:forpol:v:19:y:2012:i:c:p:4-11

DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2011.12.008

Access Statistics for this article

Forest Policy and Economics is currently edited by M. Krott

More articles in Forest Policy and Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().