Conserving urban biodiversity? Creating green infrastructure is only the first step

Urban planning efforts to conserve urban biodiversity have often concentrated on establishing protected natural areas and corridors. While green infrastructure is important, it is critical that surrounding neighborhoods and commercial areas have minimal impacts on conserved areas. Everything from invasive exotics to stormwater runoff can degrade the biological integrity of green infrastructure. In this essay, we discuss future research and strategic directions to achieve a systems approach that includes the design and management of nearby built areas to be compatible with green infrastructure. Planners, developers, researchers, and residents all play a role in shifting conventional development inertia to something more compatible with green infrastructure. We outline a range of processes, research, policy tools and educational strategies that could be used to engage key stakeholder groups more closely with urban biodiversity conservation. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.