Preserving biodiversity becomes a major challenge as our cities grow and expand. How can we plan a city that embraces biodiversity and welcomes wildlife?

One of the answers comes from an emerging discipline of urban wildlife ecology and conservation. It is officially called ecological land-use complementation (ECL), and we use it as one of central concepts in our research. In brief, ECL draws on the three main hypotheses:

1. Lifecycle migration. Accordingly, animals use different land patch types on different stages of their lifecycle. For example, birds might move away from traditional habitats for nesting. Hence, different habitat types should be available;

2. Habitat island. Accordingly, area is a key determinant for species occurrence and diversity and it is generally assumed that habitat diversity increases with area. Because large islands have more habitat diversity, they hold larger populations, and a greater number of populations. Hence, the age and size of a green ara are important predictors of biodiversity within it.

3. Proximity matters. Our parks and green areas  are rarely effectively united into a single network connected by wooded corridors, such as green streets, private gardens and yards, so their capability of increasing biodiversity is reduced. In the same time, we all can be part of a movement that will transform our streets, gardens and backyards into wildlife-friednly corridors of life.