What is an everyday urban ecology

Authors: Ezra Ho

Publish Date: 2015/05/19

Volume: 5, Issue: 4, Pages: 745-749

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Abstract

Urbanisation is one of the defining features of today’s crowded and climatechanged world contributing to significant declines in biodiversity and ecosystems globally Mcdonald et al 2008 Yet cities as unsustainable as they currently are can also be a source of solutions Contrary to notions that the city is devoid of the ‘natural’ cities habour diverse assemblages of wildlife communities and can potentially enhance biodiversity conservation efforts Faeth et al 2011 Moreover as Dearborn and Kark 2010 and McKinney 2002 note cities are sites of economic and political power Thus an ecologicallyconnected and informed urban population could generate the public pressure necessary to drive proconservation policy For instance the reversal of plans to develop Chek Jawa in Singapore stemmed from the ‘groundswell of public opinion that was garnered through outreach programmes where the public was totally convinced of the value of the habitat’ Wee and Hale 2008I thank Theodore Evans and Joanna Coleman for giving me the opportunity to take their urban ecology course which provided the inspiration for this paper I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for encouraging me to extend my theoretical boundaries I also thank Lin Shuyan and Shirlena Huang for productive comments that helped enhanced the clarity of the paper That said I take responsibility for what hopefully is an improved version of the original submission

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