Cities are fast becoming our natural habitat.
As of 2005, more people live in urban than in rural areas for the first time in Earth’s history. Urban nature is critical for connecting half of the world’s people with the natural environment. Connecting city dwellers with their local nature and watersheds is critical not only for building support for the conservation and ecological restoration and stewardship of biodiversity at home.
Though cities occupy just 2 percent of the Earth’s surface; their inhabitants consume 75% of the planet’s natural resources. Cities draw on their surrounding ecosystems for goods and services, and their products and emissions can affect regional and even global ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems and biological diversity are necessary for our cities to function properly. Ecosystems provide three main kinds of services to the city: provisioning of food, fibre and fuels; regulating through purification, detoxification and mitigation of droughts and floods; and…
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Science on the Land 