In order to understand how those members of the community who get involved with such projects perceive the benefits and challenges of participation, a number of semi-structured interviews, as well as a discussion group, were held with a selection of local residents who had been involved in these three projects, in a variety of ways. Their comments and assessments are analysed within the context of debates about the value and purpose of community involvement in environmental projects, and also within the context of debates within the environmental movement about the value of urban biodiversity and habitat/landscape restoration.
t was found that assessments of the experience of getting involved were mixed, and were influenced by, among other things, the form that an individual’s involvement had taken, their perception of the motivations of the project leaders, and previous experience of participatory processes. This research does highlight some very positive examples of the input that community groups can have to such a project, and in two of the case studies it was a community group that was influential in initiating the restoration work in the first place. However, there were also negative assessments, some people spoke of the ‘frustration’ of trying to get their point of view taken seriously and about the suspicion that can develop between different sectors of a community if influence is seen to be shared unequally.
Personal motivations for involvement were seen to cover a range of eco-centric/ anthropocentric / environmental apathy value orientations, with individuals exhibiting ambivalent and complex attitudes towards urban nature, restoration and wilderness. In particular it was found that the idea of restoration as ‘liberating nature’ had a strong resonance for some people, while for others this was balanced with a cautious attitude to the idea of a more ‘wild’ urban nature, because of a fear it would bring risks to property or human health.