URBAN PARKS IN TUNISIA: WHY AND FOR WHOM?

The first Tunisian public green urban space has been installed by the French settlers in 1891, bringing improvements to urban French society landscapes. After Independence in 1956, the Tunisian government had as priority city planning issues. In this period no action was taken by the government. Thirty years after, we notice the emergence of “Green Policy” as part of the government's agenda. This policy has emerged with the creation of the National Agency of Environment Protection in 1988, followed by the foundation of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. “Green Hand” is a basic strategy elaborated by the Tunisian Ministry of Environment. It aims to protect natural resources. Its sphere of action is the creation of national programs and projects like the National Program of Urban parks (1996) established in order to create hundreds of parks in the national territory. Throughout this contribution, we do not intend to conduct an inventory of environment policy programs. Rather, we will try to address the following question: What is the rationale for urban park creation in capital city of Tunisia and for whom? It was indispensable to observe people in parks in order to determine their practices. We have also made a sample survey which refers to visitors from different social classes. This study proves that the success of a territorial program such as the National Program of Urban Parks depends not only on insiders' actions but also on visitors' practices and perceptions. Twelve years after the launching of this territorial program, twenty six parks were founded and were open to the public. For this research, we have studied the sample of three parks: Nahli Park, Mourouj Park and Farhat Hached Park localized in Great Tunis.