Small but powerful: The importance of French community gardens for residents

•CG have an enormous potential for urban planners and conservation actors.•City dwellers are aware of the benefits provided by community gardens.•Importance provided to CG depends on cognitive, emotional and practical aspects. Community gardens are increasingly implemented in cities and considered in public policies regarding the range of expected benefits they can provide. Much research has indeed emphasized their roles for community gardens members, but little research still concerns residents’ perspectives. In this paper, we explored the importance of these gardens for residents. More specifically, we assessed the knowledge, the perception and the participation of residents in the gardens. We conducted a questionnaire survey in the neighborhood of nine community gardens in Paris, France. We found that less than forty percent out of the 431 respondents know the activities going on in the nearby garden, and that these people were more often already engaged in civic initiatives. However, nearly hundred percent of interviewed people had a good perception of the gardens, based on their role in providing urban green spaces, in promoting contact with people and education. Finally, twenty percent declared frequent participation. Residents’ perceptions and participation in community gardens depended on individuals’ life experiences and involvement in biodiversity and civic initiatives. Our results highlight that city dwellers are aware of the benefits that community gardens can provide to them, to their neighborhood and to the city as a whole. These results confirm that community gardens are extremely important places to consider in urban planning and policy making, as well as in conservation research.