Branching Beyond

The Branching Out project has assessed social and cultural values of urban treescapes, linking a state-of-the-art values framework based on the IPBES Values Assessment (2022) to a novel transdisciplinary methodology integrating storytelling, mapping, citizen and stakeholder deliberation, and citizen science. Branching Beyond intends to package up the Branching Out framework, approach, and results in a user friendly online values porting template aimed at local government planners, tree officers, voluntary organisations and community groups. Initially compiling results from the three Branching Out case cities (Milton Keynes, Cardiff and York), Branch Beyond will develop a rapid assessment approach to 'horizontally port' these results to two replicator cities: Edinburgh and Camden (London). Horizontal portability is a highly innovative concept emerging from the field of relational values that presents an alternative to generalisation (common in quantitative research) and benefits transfer (common in environmental economic valuation) to port and adapt policy relevant research results from qualitative, deliberative and mixed method approaches, without compromising the contextualised and place-based nature of qualitative data. We will achieve this by packaging up the qualitative associations between treescape characteristics and social and cultural values previously identified through storytelling, mapping, and deliberation, and validating and refining ported results through a rapid participatory porting assessment. Finally, Branching Beyond will work with its local authority partners and the Local Government Association to develop training in and disseminate the porting template and process to further local authorities and local third sector and community groups.