Urban Green Infrastructure and Community Forestry: A Comparative Analysis of Approaches in the United Kingdom and India

Abstract

Urban green infrastructure (UGI) and community forestry represent complementary yet contextually distinct responses to the ecological and social challenges of rapid urbanisation. As cities expand globally, the provision and governance of urban tree cover, green corridors, and participatory forest management have attracted growing scholarly and policy attention. This article presents a critical comparative review of UGI development and community forestry practice in two contrasting national contexts: the United Kingdom (UK) and India. The UK has developed mature statutory frameworks for green infrastructure (GI) planning, embedded within spatial planning legislation and reinforced by National Forest programmes, urban tree strategies, and biodiversity obligations. India, by contrast, relies on a mosaic of decentralised governance arrangements—including Joint Forest Management (JFM) and the Van Panchayat (VP) system—that have shaped the interface between community institutions, municipal authorities, and forest resources over a century. Drawing on peer-reviewed literature published primarily between January 2000 and March 2026, this review examines the ecosystem services delivered by urban forests and GI in each country, the governance architectures underpinning their management, community participation models, equity dimensions, and the transferability of lessons across divergent contexts. The analysis reveals that the UK's planning-led approach achieves structural coherence but struggles with social inclusion and biodiversity mainstreaming, whilst India's decentralised models generate community ownership but remain fragmented and under-resourced in urban settings. Critical research gaps persist in monitoring, standardised ecosystem service valuation, and intercountry policy learning. Future frameworks should integrate adaptive governance with robust spatial data systems and deliberate equity targeting.