UC Berkeley

Abstract: Imagining our global future is an extraordinary challenge. Due to our escalating climate crisis, it is uncertain how recognizable our environmental landscape will be 100–150 years from the present. Inarguably, the increased frequencies of once-in-a-lifetime storms, heat waves, droughts, and wildfires already suggest that our current context is ominous. Building solutions that minimize impending catastrophe is therefore a particularly urgent endeavor, one that will undoubtedly require transdisciplinary, agile, and resilient tools that leverage collective forms of knowledge. The development of those tools will require all peoples’ experience and knowledge, emphasizing the need for environmental equity and access. Simultaneously, conserving species will be imperative components that maintain our ecosystem health and function. This work outlines how merging environmental equity and biodiversity conservation will be an essential formula for weathering the figurative and literal storms induced by climate change. In addition, it pinpoints key priorities and gaps in urban conservation research that may be critical components to ecological application and policy designed to fight future disasters. Further, it speculates on the contexts of future urban biodiversity management landscapes if eco-equitable conservation policies are centered at multiple scales of governance. In closing, it stresses that the future blueprint for eco-equitable conservation and climate mitigation has always been embedded in the environmental justice narratives of the past.