n order to secure a sustainable future we need to understand
and conserve biodiversity, which is the basis of all life. Ecological Urbanism is an approach to city living that looks at ways to work with ecological and urban systems in order to ensure our continued survival. One of the effects of urbanization is that, as a city grows, the landscape becomes fragmented by infrastructure such as roads, railways and development. Ecological systems are interrupted and the parcels of land that provide habitats for plants and animals get smaller and increasingly disconnected. If we are to support biodiversity in this fragmented landscape, the challenge is to try to reconnect the interrupted ecosystems. Ecologist Richard Forman has written about patches and corridors, whereby a green area that provides a habitat (or number of habitats) is called a patch and the strip of land connecting the patches is called a corridor. The corridor can either be a continuous piece of land or a series of stepping stones across the landscape. The important point is that the patches need to be connected to form a network of viable habitats across the landscape. If the patches arent connected then animals and plants cannot meet to share genes; and populations decline. Imagine then a network of green patches and corridors snaking across the city landscape, allowing ecosystems to be reconnected and animals and plants the chance to thrive. If biodiversity thrives, then we have the potential to thrive too. An equally important aspect of reconnecting ecosystems is to reconnect humans with those ecosystems so that there is an understanding of the importance of ecosystems and the need to protect them. Ecosystems are important to human survival because we benefit from them in a number of ways. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Initiative has named these benefits ecosystem services and these ecosystem services provide us with goods and services that include the provision of raw materials, food and water, cultural and recreational opportunities, the regulation of air and water quality and the provision of habitats for plants and animals. We get so many benefits from natural systems that often we take them for granted. The first step in learning to appreciate the value of ecosystems is to identify their associated ecosystem services. A park or local green space, for example, provides us with social, recreational, spiritual and psychological benefits. This leads to health benefits. The trees in the park can block out surrounding noise as well as reduce heat and the park can provide a habitat for animals and plants. Working with natural systems to create a sustainable city environment can be done on a number of scales, from the regional, to the metropolitan and loca. On a regional scale, planning and environmental practitioners need to identify and protect critical ecosystems and ecosystems services. Often there is a financial implication in protecting these ecosystems, for example, it is more cost effective to protect a watershed than to build a new water treatment plant. In the Cape we are fortunate that the City of Cape Town, SANBI, CapeNature, SANParks and others have identified Cape Towns ecosystems and worked to place values on their services. These are considered during decision-making processes. Financial value is just part of the equation, as there is social value in peoples relationships to land and ecosystem services. What can I do? On the local scale we can plant indigenous plants, conserve water with a grey-water system, recycle our waste, use solar geysers and grow vegetable gardens. At another level we need to see the connections between ourselves and our neighbours, between our homes and the street, and beyond that to the systems that work across the city. We dont operate in isolation and we need to think about what we consume and where our waste goes, how we are connected and how we can contribute to making our cities sustainable. Lets imagine the urban environment that we want to live in, and start working towards making it happen. We could develop the concept of sustainable streets, where we work with our neighbours to find ways to increase the permeability of our gardens, to reduce waste and to share resources. A tree-lined street linking indigenous gardens can effectively become an ecological corridor. By transforming a mobility corridor designed for cars into an ecological corridor we re-purpose an existing space and increase the functionality of the street. People complain that they dont see chameleons in their gardens any longer, but they remove hedges in order to build brick walls topped with electric fences. One way to invite chameleons back into your garden is to think of the street as a corridor, to plant indigenous plants in your garden and allow shrubs and trees to hang over perimeter walls. Residents of a street could co-operate by planting trees on verges or developing recycling projects. Working together to raise aware- ness of sustainability issues can also lead to an increased sense of community, something that benefits us all. READING Forman, R. 2010. Urban Ecology and the Arrangement of Nature in Urban Regions. In: Mostafavi, M. & Doherty, G, eds. Ecological Urbanism. Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Lars Mller Publishers. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Initiative. 2010. Mainstreaming the economics of Nature: a synthesis of the approach, con-clusions and recommendations of TEEB. Available at www.teebweb.org. TEEB is a major international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity, to highlight the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, and to draw together expertise from the fields of science, economics and policy. GET CONNECTED Gill Cullinan is an urban planner. She feels strongly that ecosystem services as a concept are not widely understood, and it is vital that we all begin to appreciate the benefits that we receive from natural systems. Gill can be contacted at gill@mcaplan.co.za. Cities need to develop a network of green patches and interlinking corridors to conserve biodiversity by Gill Cullinan, Urban Planner, MCA Urban and Environmental Planners, CapeTown ABOVE: Join the Treevolution. Ecological urban graffiti in Cape Town. (http://www.greenpop.org.) Reconnecting landscapes and community VELD&FLORA | DECEMBER 2012 180 DECEMBER 2012 | VELD&FLORA 181