Media Statement
Friday, 22 May 2026
For Immediate Release
Advancing green cities: Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo publishes the first-ever book to be written on African urban forests and green spaces.
Urban forests and green spaces have languished across the African continent. But that is changing. Last year, the City of Johannesburg hosted the first in-person African Forum on Urban Forests: 430 government officials, foresters, and activists from 35 African states came. Today it releases a pioneering book on urban trees in 30-plus African towns.
From transplanting giant Baobabs in Dakar, Senegal, to creating dense plantings called Miyawaki forests in Nairobi, Kenya, to stopping floods and bringing back birds with trees around a landfill in Durban, eThekwini, to deploying trees to tackle domestic violence and poor mental health in townships in Harare, Zimbabwe, it is all in this book published today, that can be downloaded from the JCPZ website at files/files/Urban-Forest-full-book-DIGITAL-singles-1.pdf
Highly illustrated, the 170-page compendium covers 34 urban forest case studies by 75 contributors, 80% from the continent, and forges an Africa-centric way forward for trees in cities.
“Every tree planted in a township that was historically denied green space is an act of spatial justice,” says Thanduxolo Mendrew, Managing Director, Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo.
“Now it is up to us all, city leaders, practitioners, researchers, communities, and traditional knowledge owners,” says JCPZ Executive Manager for Environmental Conservation Lombard Shirindzi, “to move from insight to implementation, from scattered effort to systemic change.”
But it is also science-based and references global best practices. It heralds a new era in which, as Africa continues to urbanise, its towns grow greener, and its people have clean, safe, shaded streets and parks to exercise and relax in.
“This is not a luxury, it is an imperative,” says Ayanda Roji of JCPZ and the Centre on African Public Spaces, who has played a leading role in advancing this work. According to the World Health Organisation, “few, if any, other public health interventions can deliver the positive health and social outcomes that green space in cities can, including improved immune function and reduced respiratory disease.”
International experts are praising the book and its case studies.
“What amazes me is the sheer scale and diversity of urban forestry work happening across Africa. The case studies emerge from lived realities, informal practices, and community action. That bottom-up richness makes them especially powerful,” says urban resilience expert Dr Soubrada Devy from India.
About the case study by Dr Mudede and Prof Newete of the University of Witswatersrand on the fungus-carrying beetle destroying trees in Johannesburg, she says: “What struck me was how they mapped street-level ecology through Google
Maps. I could never have imagined that. It completely shifted the way I think about documenting urban ecological landscapes.”
Readers may get their own surprises: some communities in Soweto have rejected trees because of owls, and 96% of Johannesburg’s trees are made up of just four types of tree: oaks, maples, plane trees, and jacaranda. “A recipe for disaster,” says JCPZ horticulturalist Adelaide Chokoe.
Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo manages over 1900 public green spaces, including the Zoo, parks, cemeteries, a botanical garden, nature reserves, and bird sanctuaries. For more about the challenges involved, contact 
Adelaide Chokoe, Arboriculture Advisor at achokoe@jhbcityparks.com, and Bishop Ngobeli, Senior Manager, Protected Areas and Environmental Enforcement at bngobeli@jhbcityparks.com
For now, JCPZ is proud to release this book, which will stand on the global stage, confirming Johannesburg’s ability to lead in excellence. African researchers from around the continent say the book will be a reference text.
Ends.
Issued by:
Thanduxolo Mendrew
Managing Director: Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ)
Media Enquiries:
Jenny Moodley
Spokesperson: Intergovernmental and Media Engagement, JCPZ
082 803 0748
For more information, contact:
Ayanda Roji
Head: Environmental Education and Research, JCPZ
+27 76 950 5139
E: aroji@jhbcityparks.com