Green Inequities: Examining the Dimensions of Socioenvironmental Injustice in Marginalized Communities

In the realm of socioenvironmental justice, much discourse centers on equal access to green areas and on climate injustice in the United States. Marginalized communities, including Indigenous populations, are being excluded from current narratives surrounding the natural spaces that in many cases are historically tied to under-represented groups. This article aims to explore some of the many dimensions of environmental racism, green inequities, climate injustice, and access. The dimensions include but are not limited to racial gatekeeping, nature deprivation in low-income communities, green gentrification, light pollution, and access to clean water. The recommendations section serves as a guide during decisionmaking processes at the local, state, and federal level, as well as moving forward in offering impacted communities protection from environmental racism and socioenvironmental injustice to impacted communities

Habitat connectivity and island biogeography: A call for community-engaged scholarship to address isolated parks and protected areas

Using the theory of island biogeography as a framework, we seek to determine the potential impact of the lack of connectivity between parks and protected areas on large-scale conservation efforts. We analyze lessons learned from the current Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) initiative and develop recommendations to improve connectivity while incorporating the motivations, needs, and emotions of stakeholder groups. We strongly encourage ecologists, geographers, biologists, and other academics and activists to partake wholly and enthusiastically in community-engaged scholarship through outreach, capacity building, and social capital building through the proven frameworks of consensus-based and structured decisionmaking. Further, we argue that large-scale conservation initiatives may greatly benefit from an approach focused on small, more tangible actions when working toward a larger goal. As human populations and urban–wildland interfaces continue to grow rapidly, former models of park and protected area development become increasingly ineffective. We must adopt new strategies, such as those listed here, in order to increase landscape connectivity and provide effective conservation for all species. [This is a paper from “Systemic Threats to Parks & Protected Areas,” the 2020 George Wright Society Student Summit.

Habitat connectivity and island biogeography: A call for community-engaged scholarship to address isolated parks and protected areas

Using the theory of island biogeography as a framework, we seek to determine the potential impact of the lack of connectivity between parks and protected areas on large-scale conservation efforts. We analyze lessons learned from the current Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) initiative and develop recommendations to improve connectivity while incorporating the motivations, needs, and emotions of stakeholder groups. We strongly encourage ecologists, geographers, biologists, and other academics and activists to partake wholly and enthusiastically in community-engaged scholarship through outreach, capacity building, and social capital building through the proven frameworks of consensus-based and structured decisionmaking. Further, we argue that large-scale conservation initiatives may greatly benefit from an approach focused on small, more tangible actions when working toward a larger goal. As human populations and urban–wildland interfaces continue to grow rapidly, former models of park and protected area development become increasingly ineffective. We must adopt new strategies, such as those listed here, in order to increase landscape connectivity and provide effective conservation for all species. [This is a paper from “Systemic Threats to Parks & Protected Areas,” the 2020 George Wright Society Student Summit.