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Cities
June 29, 2020| Cities
While there are many ways to improve cities and urban living in a post-Covid-19 world, The Conservation Fund's Will Allen offers four steps we can take now to promote nature in cities, to reduce crowding, and to improve urban density’s natural advantages to foster economic resilience and efficiency.
September 25, 2017| Cities
October 24, 2016| Cities
September 28, 2015| Cities
When I started my career at The Conservation Fund about 20 years ago, cities and nature were usually seen as two separate things. Many strategic conservation planning efforts focused on finding the best places to protect nature from people. But as Dr. David Maddox, the founder of Nature in Cities accurately proclaims, “Cities are ecosystems of people, nature, and infrastructure.” Thankfully that reality is now being acknowledged and an exciting and expanding movement is emerging to connect people to nature and to invest in green infrastructure that helps make cities sustainable, resilient, and livable.
One strategy to link people and nature is through protection of nature next to cities—creating defined edges or transition zones between developed areas and their surrounding natural areas and working landscapes. Another strategy to link people and nature is through integration of nature into cities—purposefully protecting and restoring green infrastructure inside urban areas, including the reuse of vacant and underutilized lands.
