Tropical urban parks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia : challenging the attitudes of park management teams towards a more environmentally sustainable approach

• Parks in tropical cities have potential to help urban ecosystem service delivery, but this means largely a change in current planting design and management.

• New design/management will involve more environmentally sustainable practices, but there may be socio-political resistance to this, as it contravenes the desire to retain and extend ‘gardenesque’ landscapes.

• Overall, park management and maintenance teams believe change will be difficult due to pressures from the visiting public, but attitudes varied somewhat across the different tiers of management.