Editorial: Nature and equity in the city

Abstract

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in January 2020, millions of people around the world have endured lockdowns. Traffic stilled, shops closed, and streets emptied in formerly bustling cities: Cape Town, Delhi, Jakarta, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, New York, Wuhan, and thousands more. During the long weeks and months, urban residents lucky enough to have access to green and blue space cherished it more than ever. Time spent in parks or along waterways became precious after hours spent indoors. Many found consolation from grief or loneliness in these environments, while others delighted in heretofore undiscovered pockets of nature in their neighbourhood. While lockdowns are gradually though unequally lifting around the world, the importance of our urban environments will not diminish. An ever-growing share of the world’s population now primarily encounters nature within the city, though it is now more evident than ever that access to green and blue space is not evenly distributed. Moreover, urban environments are often degraded and urban ecosystems profoundly changed through the concentration of human activity.1 The environmental problems associated with urbanization are most apparent in lower-income neighbourhoods and cities, which often lack the policies and infrastructure to mitigate local concerns such as air pollution, municipal solid waste, or water contamination.2 However, it is the environmental footprint of higher-income neighbourhoods and cities – which may seem pristine to the human eye – that is driving humanity past critical planetary boundaries such as climate change.3 This special issue was commissioned in the “super year for nature”, when the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) was scheduled to be held in Kunming, China, and the 26th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) was scheduled to be held in Glasgow, Scotland.4 Submissions were invited to reflect on the contribution of cities to local and planetary health, with particular attention to equity and nature. Although we may see local green or blue spaces as discrete entities or human artefacts, they likely serve as breeding sites, food sources, water purifiers and more for a much larger hinterland. Ecological management within city boundaries can therefore reinforce or undermine global efforts to secure sustainable development.5 In turn, transgressing planetary boundaries will jeopardise the viability of urban environments and ecosystem services. The onset of the Anthropocene therefore demands that we consider the linkages between local and global environmental outcomes. We have been delighted to accept eight submissions that span a wide array of cities and biomes. Five of these papers were submitted as part of the special issue on the contribution of cities to local and planetary health. Three are part of Environment and Urbanization’s regular section on cities and climate change, and speak to issues that are particularly relevant to the theme of