Commons that provide: the importance of Bengaluru’s wooded groves for urban resilience

Mundoli, Seema and Manjunatha, B. and Nagendra, Harini (2017) Commons that provide: the importance of Bengaluru’s wooded groves for urban resilience. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 9 (2). pp. 184-206.

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Abstract

Urban commons constitute important social-ecological systems for the resilience of cities of the Global South. However, rapid urbanization has led to large-scale degradation and transformation of several commons, impacting the resilience of traditional and vulnerable users. Gunda thopes (hereafter ‘thopes’) are wooded groves that constitute important yet neglected peri-urban commons of Bengaluru city in southern India. Traditionally used and managed by local communities, these thopes as urban commons provided a range of ecosystem services. Thopes supported traditional livelihoods and subsistence use by local communities, urban poor and migrants and were central to the cultural lives of local residents. Urbanization has resulted in changes to the status, use, management and perceptions of thopes with significant degradation in the last three decades contributing to declining ecosystem services. This paper examines the loss of ecological and social resilience, especially for marginalized residents, when ecosystem services of urban commons decline owing to urbanization.

Item Type:	Article
Authors:	Mundoli, Seema and Manjunatha, B. and Nagendra, Harini
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Urbanization, Urban commons, Ecosystem services, Social–ecological systems, Resilience, India
Subjects:	Social sciences > Economics > Production > Sustainable development Natural Sciences > Life sciences; biology > Ecology
Divisions:	Azim Premji University - Bengaluru > School of Development
Full Text Status:	Restricted
Related URLs:	Google Scholar
URI:	http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/364
Publisher URL:	https://doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2016.1264404

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