international efforts to preserve the natural environment are mainly concerned either with large, bio-diverse and relatively untouched ecosystems or with individual animal or vegetal species, endangered or threatened with extinction. Less scientific—and political—attention is being paid, on the other hand, to that type of nature close to where people live and work, to small-scale green areas in cities, and to their benefits to urban dwellers. Cities’ sustainability and regeneration strategies mainly focus on man-made and built components of the urban environment. In comparison, attention to the natural components and the green spaces of the urban structure is still poor. Low appreciation of green spaces is also reflected in the recent cuts in the maintenance of budget of many towns