ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an overview of the situation regarding peri-urban parks, their history, and the particular needs to be met in designing such parks and dealing with their management challenges. In fact, one of the main functions of peri-urban parks is to contain urban sprawl by constituting a natural and legal barrier to urban development. It is quite common, in many peri-urban parks, to come across hikers, runners, cyclists, and horseback riders. Moreover, peri-urban parks are crucial in the struggle of towns against climate change by cooling down temperatures and removing greenhouse gases. Peri-urban parks can be fully or partially devoted to agriculture, offering food to consumers from the nearby towns and thus contributing, to some extent, to food security and food sovereignty. Peri-urban parks should contain large buffer zones dedicated primarily for public use and core zones, with more restrictive public access devoted to biodiversity protection.
