From Criticism to Collaboration: Empowering Built-Environment Professionals for Biodiversity-inclusive Cities in the Global North and South

Abstract

Cities play a crucial role in addressing the biodiversity crisis. Despite advancements in urban ecology, effectively integrating biodiversity into urban planning remains limited. Built-environment professionals (BEPs), who are responsible for local actions, often face criticism for their unwillingness to prioritize biodiversity and are seldom studied from their perspectives, especially those from the Global South. Therefore, understanding the viewpoints of diverse BEPs from both the Global South and North on biodiversity-inclusive urban planning and design (BIPD) is crucial. This study employs Q-Methodology to analyze BEPs perspectives in Ethiopia, China, Spain, and the United States, revealing four viewpoints: Pluralist, Enthusiast, Pragmatist, and Contextualist. Challenges in realizing BIPD include widespread unawareness among BEPs of existing biodiversity data and methodologies, structural-physical barriers such as land use conflicts and competing resources, and misaligned values with stakeholders. Our research challenges the notion that BEPs resist incorporating biodiversity into their practices by broadly exploring their viewpoints. BEPs exhibit readiness to transcend legislative structural barriers and leverage professional norms to advocate for urban biodiversity, particularly when equipped with evidence-based tools. Pluralists and Enthusiasts demonstrate heightened interest in multidisciplinary collaboration and prescriptive, visual tools to communicate biodiversitys value to stakeholders. Critically, BEPs capacity to act hinges on the availability of contextually sensitive methods, necessitating empowerment through transdisciplinary collaborations to foster transformative changes in cities, especially in the Global South, where complex socioeconomic-ecological trade-offs demand co-produced solutions.