Today, the world’s cities are on the front lines of conservation challenges and innovation more than ever before. While the value of biodiversity in urban areas is increasingly recognized for its ability to improve the lives of residents and local flora and fauna, the need to design solutions for both people and nature offers endless opportunities to learn, innovate, and coexist.
The Conservation Design and Planning Working Group aims to bridge a persistent gap across the fields that shape our world: science, design, and policy often operate in isolation in cities, meaning crucial decisions are made before conservation consequences are fully understood. Specifically, we aim to foster boundary-spanning collaborations that integrate ecological insights into the foundational stages of human projects, allowing us to achieve both conservation and community goals.
Who Should Join?
This group is inherently interdisciplinary, and we welcome participation from all fields, including but not limited to: conservation biology, environmental science, ecology, landscape architecture, architecture, and urban planning. Our goal is to navigate this complex space together, build a supportive community, and have a lasting impact on conservation.
What to Expect & Membership Requirements
By joining the Conservation Design and Planning Working Group, you are becoming part of a collaborative network dedicated to transforming conservation in the built environment. To maintain meaningful engagement and continuity within the group, we ask that members:
- Participate in at least two meetings per year (approximately one meeting every six months).
- Contribute to community discussions, knowledge-sharing, and collaborative initiatives.
How to Join
Joining the Conservation Design & Planning Working Group is free for all SCB members. If you are interested in participating, please complete this Google Form. Once we reach 100 members, we'll have completed our last step to becoming an official SCB Working Group!
To support the group's activities, we hope to build a modest annual budget through voluntary member contributions. Our goal is to raise the equivalent of $5 per member each year, which will help support our communications, events, and other initiatives. We hope that members who are in a position to do so will make a $5 annual contribution, or whatever amount they're able to give. The opportunity to contribute will be made available via SCB once we transition to an official SCB Working Group.