Why not to green a city? Institutional barriers to preserving urban ecosystem services

This article investigates the institutional context of urban greening, with a particular focus on institutional failures that hinder urban ecosystems' capacity to provide urban inhabitants with services. It is based on a literature review and a study of expert opinions carried out in Poland (with 103 experts involved in the management of urban trees as respondents). The institutional failures covered by this article include government and social empowerment failures. The most important government failures include insufficient funds and various problems related to unprofessional maintenance of trees and its supervision. The most important social empowerment failures include lack of mobilization, related to under-appreciation of the importance of trees and disservices related to trees. While the current discourse on ecosystem services focuses on raising awareness of the benefits that nature provides, this study demonstrates that protecting urban ecosystems' capacity to provide us with such services requires a broad institutional reform. This need is particularly relevant in post-socialist, post-transition countries, such as Poland. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved