The Local Government Association Conference 2003 endorsed an  Urban Forest Policy  that promotes a vision for the future and principals of management for urban forests. The concept of the urban forest looks at urban trees and other vegetation as individual parts of the whole vegetation cover within a city. The values of the urban forest are understood in terms of the environmental benefits and positive heath effects, for example. A key objective of the Policy is to promote recognition of the collective ecological and social contributions of urban trees.