16. Rewilding the City

Podparks is back for a second season!This week on Podparks,  we’re building the case for urban rewilding, a process where cities around the world are reimagining themselves as active ecosystems with native wildlife in mind. Jonathan Cha, Senior Planning Advisor of Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal Canada, recounts the participatory process that transformed the park from an entertainment venue to a biodiversity hotspot with people and nature as a first priority.Allowing native species to reclaim land can help make our cities more resilient to the effects of climate change. It also promotes urban biodiversity; Julia Bresee from Parks Canada discusses the importance of rewilding for the new National Urban Parks program.Rewilding also has an often overlooked social role in cities. Federico Cartín, founder of Rutas Naturbanas, discusses the citizen-led project in San José, Costa Rica that aims to connect people and nature through green riverside corridors.Find more information about Parc Jean-Drapeau at https://www.parcjeandrapeau.com/Discover Canada’s new National Urban Parks program at https://parks.canada.ca/pun-nupExplore the citizen proposal of Rutas Naturbanas at https://rutasnaturbanas.org/ You can find PodParks on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.