Urban forests as essential infrastructure for climate resilience and biodiversity: A call to policymakers

Abstract

By 2050, nearly 70% of the global population will live in cities (UN, 2018), increasing the demand for urban green spaces. Urban areas are facing increasing risks from climate change, including heatwaves, flooding, wildfires, and growing social inequality, which challenges urban planning and design. Urban forests form the backbone of green infrastructure supporting resilient, equitable, and sustainable cities. Importantly, their cost-effective benefits advance sustainable development, climate action, and biodiversity conservation.

Urban forests include all woody and understorey vegetation within and around dense settlements, from cultivated trees in streets, parks, and gardens to self-sustaining stands in remnant and peri-urban woodlands (FAO, 2016). As essential nature-based solutions (Cohen-Shacham et al., 2016), urban forests provide multiple ecosystem services. They help cool urban temperatures, reduce air pollution, enhance soil infiltration, slow stormwater runoff, buffer extreme weather, and support human health (Livesley et al., 2016). They contribute significantly to climate adaptation and moderately to mitigation by reducing the energy demand for cooling (McPhearson et al., 2023). Urban forests also enhance biodiversity by providing habitats and climate refugia at multiple scales (Alvey, 2006).

Citation

Esperon‐Rodriguez, M., Arndt, S., Asibey, M. O., Augustinus, B. A., Bach, A., Ballinas, M., ... & Tjoelker, M. G. (2026). Urban forests as essential infrastructure for climate resilience and biodiversity: A call to policymakers. Plants, people, planet, 8(1), 14-19.