Rethinking urban forests as essential infrastructure for resilience, equity, and biodiversity in the current climate emergency

Abstract

Urban forests are not merely green amenities; they support critical ecosystem functioning and services vital for healthy, resilient cities. Recognising urban forests as core infrastructure is essential to reversing the loss of mature trees, preserving biodiversity, and maintaining liveability amid increasing climate and environmental pressures. Although the benefits of urban forests for climate resilience, biodiversity, and public health are broadly acknowledged, policies to protect and enhance these vital ecosystems are often limited, underfunded, and inadequately enforced. As mature canopy loss today takes decades to be replaced (if ever), immediate and sustained investment is crucial to safeguard urban forests. This urgency reveals four interconnected gaps in current urban forest management and stewardship. First, urban forests require recognition, investment, and maintenance as essential infrastructure contributing to urban resilience, including biodiversity support, and to maximise the delivery of key ecosystem services such as cooling and carbon sequestration. Second, equitable access to greenspaces across all communities must be ensured to redress long-standing social and environmental injustices. Third, integrating urban forest into broader climate and biodiversity governance frameworks is critical to mainstreaming their management and protection. Lastly, resilience must be strengthened through evidence-based management practices responsive to evolving environmental changes and social contexts. These priorities must be complemented with strong legal protections, rigorous enforcement of legislation against illegal tree removal, and robust community engagement supported by integrated urban planning and improved monitoring. Without these, the ecological, social, and economic benefits provided by urban forests will remain threatened. By reframing urban forests as essential living infrastructure embedded in legal, financial, and planning frameworks, cities can become cooler, healthier, more biodiverse, and socially just. This framework offers timely guidance for policymakers to prioritise urban forests within climate resilience and sustainability strategies, securring benefits for current and future generations.