Backyards Are a Way to Promote Environmental Justice and Biodiversity Conservation in Brazilian Cities
Gedeone Ferreira Lima,
Jeater Waldemar Maciel Correa Santos,
Ricardo Massulo Albertin,
Beatriz Martínez-Miranzo,
Franco L. Souza,
Fabio Angeoletto
Affiliations
Gedeone Ferreira Lima
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geografía, Universidade Federal de Rondonópolis, Rondonópolis 78736-900, Brazil
Jeater Waldemar Maciel Correa Santos
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geografía, Universidade Federal de Rondonópolis, Rondonópolis 78736-900, Brazil
Ricardo Massulo Albertin
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geografía, Universidade Federal de Rondonópolis, Rondonópolis 78736-900, Brazil
Beatriz Martínez-Miranzo
Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid, Jose Antonio Novais, 12, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Franco L. Souza
Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande 79070-900, Brazil
Fabio Angeoletto
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geografía, Universidade Federal de Rondonópolis, Rondonópolis 78736-900, Brazil
Brazilian cities feature quite unequal neighborhoods. Middle-class neighborhoods have better infrastructure than those inhabited by low-income families. These inequalities are not limited to social and economic scopes; they also reach the environmental one. Tree cover in these neighborhoods is often correlated to residents’ socioeconomic status. Injustice in access to trees deprives Brazilians of their ecosystem services. Furthermore, the scarcity of tree cover in the poorest neighborhoods means less support for biodiversity. Thus, backyards can be planned to form vegetation patches capable of providing urban populations with access to green areas, as well as working as wildlife habitats.
