Bringing the environment into environmental justice: A critical literature synthesis and framework for holistic environmental justice in urban forestry

Keywords: environmental justice, urban forestry, nature, ecofeminism, social-ecological systems, holistic
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 1

Abstract

The environmental justice paradigm is a socially-constructed body of knowledge that draws heavily on social justice theory. As such, the discipline focuses largely on human power relationships and portrays environmental conditions and distributions as resulting from social injustice. This conception of environmental justice largely excludes the environment itself, removing its agency and reproducing the oppression of nature (and people closely linked to nature) that is common within dominant Western cultures that perpetuate reason/nature or culture/nature dualisms. Indigenous scholars and knowledge holders, and increasingly conservation biologists, urban ecologists, and others associated with the environmental justice discipline, have called for a more holistic approach to environmental justice that recognizes the rights and agency of non-human nature. In considering environmental justice within urban forestry, this call suggests the need to consider the rights and agency of urban nature and, in particular, urban trees.

Drawing on ecofeminist theory, this research conceptualizes urban trees as an oppressed group within urban forestry and environmental justice. It critically reviews the literature in urban forestry, environmental justice, Indigenous environmental justice, political ecology, conservation biology, urban ecology, and social-ecological systems and presents a framework for urban forestry and environmental justice that acknowledges the rights and responsibilities of urban trees. This review also identifies key knowledge gaps that must be addressed in order to understand and action holistic environmental justice in urban forestry. This framework is both more realistic and more inclusive of diverse world views and disciplines, while offering a path toward environmental justice solutions for urban forest communities.