Background Roughly 80% of the EU’s population lives in urban areas of at least 10,000 inhabitants of which about 20% live in cities of more than 250,000 inhabitants. An increasing number of people no longer live within easy access of woodland areas. Forests have an important role to play, however, in human health. They help decrease stress, stimulate exercise and improve air quality. Many urban dwellers in Europe are not getting sufficient open air recreation to combat rising stress levels. The project was based on the assumption that a close relation to nearby woodland and an increased understanding of the forest ecosystem provides a good starting point for the understanding of global ecosystems. Objectives The project was a collaboration between forestry organisations in Sweden and France that also involved several municipalities in both countries. It aimed to demonstrate ways to stimulate and improve recreational possibilities of urban woodlands for the general public. The objective is to achieve improve understanding among forestry organisations and forest owners of the need for development and management of woodlands for recreational purposes, as well as to increase public understanding of the nature of forest ecosystems in order to ensure public support for planning and management of woodlands in a sustainable manner. Results The project helped establish pilot recreational areas in 14 urban forests surrounding Stockholm and Paris. Environmental conditions were improved in the pilot woods by tidying, keeping areas free of disturbance and by channelling the flow of visitors along defined paths. The recreational and educational value of the around 850,000 visits to the pilot forests every year was also improved. During the four-year project, more than 40 activities were carried out including field trips, slideshows, training courses and conferences. Children, disabled persons, immigrants and elderly people were especially targeted, and more 10,000 participants – twice the number expected – attended guided tours so as to get to know their local woodlands better. To be successful, managing nature located close to urban areas requires a high degree of citizen involvement. In Sénart near Paris, the project brought together representatives from 14 municipalities and 150 different organisations to agree on long-term objectives for the forest’s development. Around 50 meetings resulted in an agreed framework document regulating all activities within the forest. Though the process took a good two years, the municipality, forest managers, private landowners, NGOs and the community, now agree on the development objectives for the Sénart forest, and a consensus has been achieved on management operations and recreational activities that would earlier have caused conflict. In Sweden, great pressure is put on landowners to allow private land to be used by the public for recreational purposes. The project helped improve understanding of the attitudes of landowners to the recreational use and served as a model for co-operation between forest owners, local authorities and the public. Several project websites provide information on both forest management issues and leisure activities, and it is likely that other municipalities in Sweden and France will copy the concept of providing web-based information on their urban forests. Interest by the target groups for the dissemination material produced, including newspapers, two websites, manuals and press releases was higher than initially expected. Forestry organisations and other bodies responsible for urban woodlands representing 23 countries were able to benefit from the project’s results and conclusions. Generally, the participative management of public forests has focused on isolated patches of land. Innovative about the project is that it successfully involved several forests spread over a relatively large territory. The project produced a number of tools for urban forestry planning including several handbooks: “Our peri-urban nature – a book about management and silviculture”; “Visitor studies in nature areas – a manual”; “Access to the forests for disabled people” and “Gérer les forêts periurbaines”. A classification system for trails was developed and can be accessed online. The project also drew up management plans for private estates. Draft manuals on public woodlands were tested at the Swedish sites Skutan and Gladö Kvarn A handbook on achieving access to forests for disabled people is one of the first of its kind, and has served as a model not only in Sweden but in several countries in Europe. Equally innovative were the activities targeted at young people. “Discover Nature”, an information folder for young people produced by the project, was another first of its kind in Sweden. Finally, a number of innovative tools and methods were developed for zoning forest areas, mapping noise, classifying trails and managing waste, as well as for disseminating good practices and lessons learned to urban wood managers in Sweden, France and other Member States. The project’s novel focus on planning and managing forests near urban areas, as well as its individual initiatives and participatory approaches, can be adapted and applied to other kinds of urban nature areas, as well as, for instance, in the field of urban agriculture.