Sustaining life

The increasing world population requires the provision of many ecosystems, but nature and its biodiversity need to be conserved. Current strategies often focus on single ecosystem services, like production or conservation. One challenge is to define management strategies for big geographical areas and for long time periods, because ecosystems are highly variable over time and regions. Agriculturally, conflicts arise regarding integrating conservation in working lands or sparing areas of native vegetation. Politically speaking, even well-known beneficial strategies are difficult to implement.

In the coming decades, more than two-thirds of the world's population will live in urban regions. Urbanization brings loss of green space, public health issues, harm to the coexistence of people and nature, but also potential and new perspectives for nature conservation and nature connection. How exactly can urban agriculture contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and to human health? I’ll discuss ecological and social drivers behind how ecosystems can provide habitat for plant and animal species, and also a place for people to relax and unwind, reconnecting with food and nature.