Abstract |
Nature-based recreational areas provide important functions for today’s society.In particular, for people living in dense urban areas, outdoor nature-based areas offeropportunitiesfor recreation and relaxation and therefore support healthylifestyles, thus contributing to the physical and mental wellbeing of their users. Such spaces are usually open for the general public, though several access barriers have been identified for different user groups. Immigrants from non-western countries are recognized to be underrepresented in larger recreational areas, though often these people are very visible in public parks in cities.This underrepresentation has been recognized by recent scholars (Jay et al., 2012, Kloek, Buijs, Boersema, & Schouten, 2013), and several socio-economic, socio-spatial and ethnic cultural factors have beenidentified asdeterminants.As nature based recreation areas are often financed from public funds, decreasing such access barriers is a matter of social justice. |