Cesar O. Estein’s new paper: "Leveraging urban greenspaces to bolster regional conservation priorities."

August 2026

Congratulations to Second Nature Ecology + Design urban ecologist Cesar O. Estien, Ph.D., whose new paper just came out in Conservation Science and Practice!

Cesar and his co-authors asked a crucial question: how do urban greenspaces in the Bay Area contribute to regional biodiversity goals? And the answer is: more than the planning tools currently give them credit for.

Regional conservation plans, mitigation frameworks, and biodiversity metrics still tend to sort land into "natural" and "urban," so urban areas get overlooked – despite their contributions to biodiversity and conservation efforts. With our world becoming more and more urban by the day, bringing urban ecologists, and cities themselves, into conservation planning will be crucial for protecting and bolstering biodiversity.

Read it here.