Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
These cities will take up more land and will impact on the overall biodiversity of
the Amazon region. Manaus, a city of nearly two million people, is located in the
north of the country. Surrounded by the Amazon jungle, its inhabitants would prefer
not to share their lives with all the local flora and fauna, especially boa constrictors,
mosquitos and piranhas. Some trees are not suitable for urban environments either,
requiring too much trimming, pruning and clearing up. Biodiversity in urban environ-
ments is nonetheless extremely important but often depends on individual context.
This is not to gainsay the fact that many cities throughout the world are located in
areas rich in biodiversity, including estuaries, coastlines and floodplains, and
urbanization is rapidly transforming many critical habitats and biodiverse hotspots.
However, cities need not be barren ecological wastelands with unremitting and
relentless displays of concrete and tarmac, sprawling suburbs and congested road
networks. Many cities contain sites that are of major importance to conservation
because they protect threatened species, natural vegetation and habitat. Many cities
have encouraged biodiversity and the phenomenon of urban wildlife is familiar in
many urban environments in all parts of the world as industrial agriculture has
reduced the ecological richness of the countryside. A number of creatures have
migrated to the city and some, like the urban fox, seem to thrive. City dwellers often
encourage wildlife by deliberately creating natural habitats within urban areas - in
residential gardens, parks, allotments, verges, and so on. The relative recent innovation
of vertical forests and rooftop gardens, combined with supplementary feeding and
watering, have created ecological niches for some threatened or novel species.
In 2008, 400 scientists, planners and sustainability practitioners from around 50
countries attended the Urbio conference in Erfurt, Germany. The delegates, recognizing
the importance of the 2002 Convention on Biological Diversity in towns and cities,
issued an important Declaration that further promotes the values of urban biodiversity.
Part of it reads:
•
Towns and cities are both important experimental areas and fields of experience
in the interrelationship between humans and nature.
•
The case for urban biodiversity in relation to the aims of the CBD is compelling.
•
Urban ecosystems have their own distinctive characteristics.
•
Urban areas are centres of evolution and adaptation.
•
Urban areas are complex hotspots and melting pots for regional biodiversity.
•
Urban biodiversity can contribute significantly to the quality of life in an
increasingly urban global society.
•
Urban biodiversity is the only biodiversity that many people directly experience.
•
Experiencing urban biodiversity will be the key to halt the loss of global bio-
diversity, because people are more likely to take action for biodiversity if they
have direct contact with nature.
Urban geographer Jennifer Wolch (1996, 2007) has argued for renaturalization
and re-enchantment of cities by reintegrating people with animals. Such a reintegration,
she suggests, would stimulate a rethinking of many everyday urban practices, habits
of consumption and production, and urban design options. It would also restore the
city's ecological integrity and go some way to realizing the goals of social and
ecological justice. In the 2009 documentary film
The Nature of Cities
and the topic
Biophilic Cities
, Tim Beatley (2011) writes of the ways cities can encourage biodiversity
