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Conference paper2008Peer reviewed

Communicating Biodiversity in Swedish Park Management Organizations

Bengtsson, Petra

Abstract

This paper deals with the definition of biodiversity in urban areas as it is perceived by officials and other professionals in park administrations and park management in Sweden. The background is the Convention on Biodiversity which states that biodiversity must be promoted and used in a sustainable way. Biodiversity in urban areas is rather high, especially where there are old trees and a large variety of horticultural and/or indigenous species. Mediating knowledge about promoting biodiversity in urban areas (parks) and implementation in park management organizations is a matter of communication. The purpose is to describe how knowledge and experience about biodiversity within the park administration, is being communicated between different actors with different professions at different levels in the organization. The communication aspect is at a face to face level and leans to theories about learning organizations and social psychology. Why do plans and policies talk nicely about achieving large national and international goals and still do workers involved in the practical maintenance of parks not change their way of cleaning and weeding? Both groups have been asked about their attitudes and understanding towards biodiversity and the problem seems to be missing links of communication, heavy trust in traditions and different goals for park management

Keywords

Communication; Park Management; Organization; Biodiversity

Published in

Title: Communication at the Intersection of Nature and Culture: Proceedings of the Ninth Biennial Conference on Communication and the Environment
Publisher: College of Communication, DePaul University, 2320 N. Kenmore Ave., Chicago, IL, 60614 USA

Conference

2007 Conference on Communication and Environment