Aesthetics play a key role in how urban biodiversity is imagined, communicated, and governed. In turn, biodiversity shapes civic identity, place iconography, and human–nature relationships. Its significance is often negotiated through design choices, visual conventions, and culturally shaped standards of beauty.
Conservationists have long used visual strategies—such as charismatic species and iconic landscapes—to build public support, as seen in European rewilding or the branding of animals like pandas. While effective, such approaches can oversimplify ecological complexity. Urban contexts intensify these dynamics. Non-native species, introduced via the pet trade or ornamental horticulture, gain appeal through exoticized aesthetics shaped by consumer trends. Curated spaces like zoos, parks, and gardens often priviledge spectacle over local ecology. Nature-based solutions combine ecological and aesthetic aims, while vernacular practices—like UK allotments or Tokyo’s improvised planters—are often excluded from formal biodiversity frameworks.
This session invites interdisciplinary dialogue on how urban aesthetics shape biodiversity policy and public understanding. We welcome case studies exploring how aesthetic norms influence which species and habitats are preserved, altered, or erased—and how such choices are justified through visual and cultural frameworks.
As urban biodiversity becomes central to GBF 2030 targets, we aim to identify culturally grounded, ecologically just, and ethically aware approaches to implementation by examining the aesthetic politics of biodiversity in cities.
Convenors
Ewa Machotka, Professor, Art History, University of Zurich
Takehiro Watanabe, Associate Professor, Environmental Anthropology, Sophia University, Tokyo