Urban Environmental Policies: Recognizing Ecosystem Services

Abstract

For the first time in human history, more than 50% of the world's population now lives in urban centers. This makes it necessary to integrate the concept of urban biodiversity — the large number of species that live in and interact within large cities, where it is human societies and their institutional frameworks that define the habitats and conditions for the survival of other forms of life. Cities thus harbor a mosaic of habitats that accommodate diverse fauna and flora species, many of which find their ecological optimum precisely in these urban spaces. In pursuit of implementing national policy objectives at the local level, the Policy for Biodiversity Conservation Management in the Capital District (SDA-CI 2010) was formulated, representing one of the first urban environmental policy exercises in Latin America and a first step toward biodiversity conservation in urban-rural settings, seeking to maximize habitability and sustainability conditions in the Capital District and its surrounding territory.