nature is the answer
The Book
Nature-First Cities challenges the dominant perception of cities as being either booming metropolises or impoverished slums that are inhospitable to nature and wildlife… Urban greenspace and green infrastructure complement traditional infrastructure, provide many ecological, economic, and social benefits, and contribute to the health and well-being of urban dwellers. Isn’t it time we protected, restored, and enhanced the nature in our own neighborhoods?”
From the foreword by Faisal Moola and David Suzuki
“Sometimes a book comes along that makes obvious what we should have seen all along. This is just such a book. Brewer, Hammond, and Markey alert us to the madness of thinking and acting like we are separate from nature and separate from each other. We are not! They apply that wisdom to where the majority of people now live, in cities. The result is an action plan that inspires hope for humanity and the planet, supported with exhaustive research and countless good practices.”
David R. Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment
“Environmental equality in an urban context is a great goal for improving quality of life, which in turn helps with talent-retention and growth. The best part is that it's almost always cheaper than traditional solutions in the long run. This book is a road map to keep us on that path."
Majora Carter, Real Estate Developer and Community Revitalization Strategist
“Prepare to be entertained, educated, and stirred to advocate for nature-oriented cities. Brewer, Hammond, and Markey, discontent with band-aids and wishful thinking in the face of planetary crises, address the core of what threatens our survival. The authors condense key lessons from a vast landscape of research into a compelling decree for cities to transform and thrive. Count me in!”
Cherise Burda, Executive Director, City Building Institute, Toronto Metropolitan University
“Imagine if humans put nature first each time an action is taken. Asking the questions: is it really necessary to cut down this tree? drain this swamp? fence this migration route? or leave this light on overnight? This timely book provides both information and inspiration to encourage nature prioritisation, providing a foundation to put our relationship with nature and with ourselves on a better footing.”
Rachel F. Holt, Ecologist
“Modern ‘techno-industrial’ cities have generally metastasized over the living landscape like malignant growths, oblivious to their utter dependence on the integrity of the ecosphere to which they lay waste. With Nature-First Cities, Cam Brewer, Herb Hammond, and Sean Markey apply the concepts of nature-directed stewardship to urban design in the hope our cities can morph from dismally destructive parasites to mutually supportive—and vibrantly livable—symbionts with the ecosystems that sustain them.”
William Rees, Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia
“Cam Brewer, Herb Hammond, and Sean Markey offer an ecosystem-based approach to city planning. They build their approach on the emerging science of urban ecology. Inviting Nature Home: An Ecosystem-Based Approach to Cities is a timely, important work.”
Frederick Steiner, author of Making Plans: How to Engage with Landscape, Design, and the Urban Environment
Book Summary
Introduction
Robert Moses had a problem. The New York City parks commissioner was trying to find space for nature. But the City was full. It was “filled with people, people with their endlessly intertwined, hopelessly snarled tangles of aspirations and antagonisms, hopes and fears, dreams and dreads.” The only option that Moses saw was to move the people. They had to be “evicted, dispossessed, thrown out, relocated” to make room for nature. That was the only choice he saw because he assumed that parks are where people are not. The map is either green or not green.
Yet the people make a city great. It is the “lack of space” and the diversity of people that sets cities abuzz. Colliding aspirations drive innovation. Creative scaffolding supports artistic dreams. Exploding antagonisms mark the front lines of social justice. And the snarled dreams and dreads expressed on front stoops, subway platforms, after-work patios, and opening-night galas are what speed the blood and stir brilliance.
And still, people need nature. People without nature in their daily lives suffer from depression and disease, reduced productivity, and shorter lives. Children face the cognitive and behavioural consequences of living apart from natural surroundings. Without ecosystems to disperse, store, and clean water, cities are saddled with crumbling pipes and sewers that municipal governments cannot afford to repair. Urbanites unable to hear the distress signals of nature are slow to notice a planet in crisis.
So how does one invite nature into a city without pushing people out of the way? Our answer starts with the premise that both nature and people belong in cities, intertwined as co-creators of the urban landscape. Nature belongs where we are, and we belong in nature. From that premise flows an invitation that enhances cities, restores our relationship with nature, and rebuilds our relationships with each other.
Vision
We offer a vision for reestablishing our relationship with nature in cities. Three principles guide us: nature, equity, and density.
Nature, refers to the ecosystems that existed in a particular place before the city did and the extent to which those systems can be restored. Honouring this principle entails restoring, as much as possible, the full range of ecosystem composition (the parts of the system), structure (the way that the parts are arranged), and function (what the parts do individually and cooperatively). It means restoring ecosystem integrity and biological diversity through a network of ecological reserves at multiple spatial scales across the city.
To right our relationship with nature, we suggest that our relationships with each other must also be righted. And vice-versa. By reducing inequality within human society, we take a step toward correcting our distorted view of nature as the other. By repairing our relationship with nature, we open our minds to correcting our relationships with each other. In cities, at least two steps must be taken. First, all residents of a city must be given an opportunity to discover and express their biophilia; to have direct experiences with nature. Access needs to be available to all instead of only a privileged few. Second, people in wealthy communities must halt their disproportionate demands on nature.
In cities, an equitable reduction of demands on nature starts by increasing density. By increasing density while simultaneously inviting nature home to our cities, we reduce the demands on nature, ease burdens on the less affluent, and reconnect everyone in the city with nature. The goal of increasing density while simultaneously inviting nature home might seem to be paradoxical, but further attention to this enigma reveals its enormous potential and its inescapable necessity. In fact, it is nature (and other amenities) that make density work.
Inviting Nature Home
People in cities want nature nearby. But when developers and city planners seek to incorporate nature, they often settle for the wrong nature (homogenized green space), in the wrong location (isolated patches determined by economic considerations), and in the wrong amount (not enough).
This book calls for action in cities based on the science and practice of nature-directed stewardship (NDS), developed and refined through decades of experience in the context of protecting forest ecosystems from logging. NDS starts by focusing on what to leave (and restore), not on what to use (or take). NDS seeks to protect the ecological integrity or natural character of ecosystems. It guides us to the right nature (the natural character of ecosystems that existed before the city did), in the right places (interconnected networks of ecosystems at multiple spatial scales), and in the right amount (sufficient to provide ecological integrity).
The appropriate planning unit is a focal watershed – the largest watershed that fits within the boundaries of a city. Orientation within that watershed comes from the natural character of the ecosystems that existed in that watershed. Contrasting the natural character with the current condition exposes the gap in ecological integrity. Closing that gap is the task of restoration. Since most cities have little, if any, natural ecological integrity left, the restoration challenge will appear to be Herculean. So we have break it down into manageable steps.
First, protect existing fragments of natural or near-natural ecosystem character. Second, add new fragments and anchors of natural ecosystem character. Third, restore the natural water movement network. As the components of natural character are reassembled, the shape of a restoration network will appear. With the passage of time, combined with regular effort, this restoration network will mature into a protected network of ecological reserves.
Process
Recognizing that cities are full of people – arranged in a matrix of small properties, public and private, with multiple overlapping uses – we propose a three-part process for establishing an urban restoration network:
1) Local governments work with scientists, Indigenous knowledge holders, and long-time residents to identify and describe natural ecosystem character with enough detail to allow anyone in the city to engage in appropriate restoration.
2) Residents and their neighbours undertake voluntary restoration actions at the scale of individual properties, blocks, and neighbourhoods, guided by the information about natural character developed at the first stage.
3) Government restoration actions leverage the voluntary actions of residents into larger-scale restoration on public lands, parks, streets, alleys, municipal buildings, and new developments. Government efforts at these larger scales inspire further small-scale voluntary action through an iterative process.
Over time, these restoration efforts at multiple spatial scales will reveal the contours of a restoration network. Enshrined in law by local governments, the restoration network will mature into a protected network of ecological reserves.
Moving Forward
We have the power, indeed the responsibility, to pursue cities that provide ecologically healthy urban environments and lasting equity for all residents. Shirking that responsibility only perpetuates the ethic that brought us to the brink of crisis: the suicidal focus on the short-term monetary benefits that come from abusing nature rather than the expansive vision of ecosystem benefits for all people and all nonhuman life.
We can do better. Nature-First Cities proposes a robust, community-based vision and process that shows us how.
