Background and purpose: With the development of both
society and economy, environmental issues have become
a more popular topic. In recent decades both the role and
perception of urban forests have changed regarding recreational
and environmental aspects on both a local and
global level. This coupled with urbanization places great
importance on how people see and value the forests in
an urban and peri-urban setting. Visitors are not a homogeneous
category and hence have different needs and
perceptions of urban and peri-urban green spaces. The
study aims to understand the visitors` perception from
municipality Aerodrom towards urban forests and their
recreational use, benefits, preferences and perception regarding
management activities of urban forests.
Materials and methods: The method used for the research
is qualitative with semi-structured questionnaire which
was conducted face to face. Gathered data were analyzed
by Excel and after that were presented in tables and
graphs for better review of the results. The study area was
municipality of Aerodrom which has the biggest space under
urban forests per capita in Skopje.
Results and conclusions: Results have shown that all respondents
have permanent residence in the municipality
of Aerodrom, located in different settlements and with
the length of stay mainly between 5 to 40 years. There
is a dominance of female population and respondent’s
age over 40 in the research. Results also showed that the
average number of visit in urban forests by respondents
during the week is three times. Regarding the meaning
and association of term urban forests, results showed that
majority of respondents have a clear and concise perception,
and mainly this term for them is association on park
and greenery, a nice decorated environment and place for
walk. When it comes to the way how current situation
with urban forest can be improved almost all of the respondents highlighted it can be through the following
things: maintenance of the urban forests by the public enterprises
to be set on a much higher level, more trees and
flowers to be planted, more toilets and playgrounds to be
built, and local government to forbid companies of building
apartments and houses close to the urban forests.