Barriers to building wildlife-inclusive cities: insights from the deliberations of urban ecologists, urban planners and landscape designers.
Abstract
Cities are seen as quintessentially human; however, because they can offer viable habitat to many plants, animals and other forms of life, cities are also dynamic ecosystems. As urban areas expand to house more of the global human population and reduce natural habitat for wildlife, the need for wildlife-inclusive urban planning and design becomes increasingly pressing. The 2019 Urban Wildlife Information Network Summit responded to this need by connecting a group of 80 scientists, urban planners and designers to examine the role of cities in combating the global biodiversity crisis. The Summit focused on identifying and addressing barriers to transdisciplinary work between these communities, such as disciplinary silos, varying incentive structures, funding, differences in spatio-temporal scale, existing infrastructure and values and bias. We explore the challenges to network building for wildlife-inclusive design and planning revealed by the Summit and offer potential solutions for overcoming these obstacles for more effective collaboration around wildlife-inclusive cities.