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Despite repeated calls to action, proposals for urban conservation are often met with surprise or scepticism. There remains a pervasive narrative in policy, practice, and the public psyche that urban environments, although useful for engaging people with nature or providing ecosystem services, are of little conservation value. We argue that the tendency to overlook the conservation value of urban environments stems from misconceptions about the ability of native species to persist within cities and towns and that this, in turn, hinders effective conservation action. However, recent scientific evidence shows that these assumptions do not always hold. Although it is generally true that increasing the size, quality, and connectivity of habitat patches will improve the probability that a species can persist, the inverse is not that small, degraded, or fragmented habitats found in urban environments are worthless. In light of these findings we propose updated messages that guide and inspire researchers, practitioners, and decision makers to undertake conservation action in urban environments: consider small spaces, recognize unconventional habitats, test creative solutions, and use science to minimize the impacts of future urban development. A pesar de las repetidas llamadas a actuar, las propuestas para la conservación urbana con frecuencia se enfrentan a reacciones de sorpresa o escepticismo. Todavía existe una narrativa penetrante en la política, la práctica y el psique del público que dicta que los ambientes urbanos, aunque sean útiles para comprometer a las personas con la naturaleza o para proporcionar servicios ambientales, tienen poco valor para la conservación. Argumentamos que la tendencia de pasar por alto el valor para la conservación de los ambientes urbanos surge de las ideas erróneas sobre la habilidad que tienen las especies nativas para persistir dentro de ciudades y pueblos y que esto, en cambio, impide la acción efectiva de la conservación. A pesar de esto, la evidencia científica reciente muestra que estas suposiciones no siempre se sostienen. Aunque casi siempre es verdad que incrementar el tamaño, la calidad y la conectividad de los fragmentos de hábitat mejorará la probabilidad de que una especie pueda persistir, lo contrario, que los hábitats fragmentados, degradados y pequeños que se encuentran en los ambientes urbanos son inútiles, no lo es. A la luz de estos hallazgos proponemos mensajes actualizados que guíen e inspiren a los investigadores, practicantes y a los tomadores de decisiones a emprender acciones de conservación en ambientes urbanos: considerar espacios pequeños, reconocer hábitats poco convencionales, probar con soluciones creativas, y utilizar la ciencia para minimizar los impactos de desarrollos urbanos futuros. 尽管人们一再呼吁要采取城市保护行动，然而却常常对相关提案表示诧异或怀疑。在政策制定、实践行 动和公众心理中仍存在ー种普遍的认识，即城市环境虽然有助于人们亲近自然并提供生态系统服务，但其保护价 值微乎其微。我们认为，这种忽视城市环境保护价值的彳顷向来源于对本地物种在城市和乡镇间续存能力的误解， 而这反过来又阻碍了有效的保护行动。然而，最近的科学证据表明这些种种假设并不总是成立。虽然通常情况 下増加生境斑块的大小、提高其质量和连接度可以提高物种续存的可能性，/旦反过来看并不是说退化或碎片化 的小面积生境在城市环境中就毫无价值。鉴于以上发现，我们建议更新这些指导和激励研究者、实践者和决策 者采取城市环境保护行动的信息，应考虑小尺度空间的保护、认识非传统生境、尝试创新性解决方氣并利用科 学知识来减少未来城市发展带来的影晌。

For over a century there have been continual efforts to incorporate nature into urban planning. These efforts (i.e., urban reconciliation) aim to manage and create habitats that support biodiversity within cities. Given that species select habitat at different spatial scales, understanding the scale at which urban species respond to their environment is critical to the success of urban reconciliation efforts. We assessed specieshabitat relationships for common bat species at 50-m, 500-m, and 1 km spatial scales in the Chicago (U.S.A.) metropolitan area and predicted bat activity across the greater Chicago region. Habitat characteristics across all measured scales were important predictors of silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagansj and eastern red bat (lasiurus borealis) activity, and big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscusj activity was significantly lower at urban sites relative to rural sites. Open vegetation had a negative effect on silver-haired bat activity at the 50-m scale but a positive effect at the 500-m scale, indicating potential shifts in the relative importance of some habitat characteristics at different scales. These results demonstrate that localized effects may be constrained by broader spatial patterns. Ourfindings highlight the importance of considering scale in urban reconciliation efforts and our landscape predictions provide information that can help prioritize urban conservation work. Durante más de un siglo ha habido esfuerzos continuos para incorporar a la naturaleza dentro de la planeación urbana. Estos esfuerzos (es decir, la reconciliación urbana) buscan administrar y crear habitats que mantengan a la biodiversidad dentro de las ciudades. Ya que las especies seleccionan el habitat a diferentes escalas espaciales, entender la escala a la que las especies urbanas responden a su ambiente es critico para el éxito de los esfuerzos de reconciliación urbana. Evaluamos las relaciones especie-habitat para especies comunes de murciélagos a escalas espaciales de 50 m, 500 m y 1 km en el área metropolitana de Chicago (E.U.A.) y pronosticamos la actividad de murciélagos en la región metropolitana de Chicago. Las características de habitat en todas las escalas medidas fueron pronosticadores importantes de la actividad del murciélago plateado (Lasionycteris noctivagans,) y del murciélago rojo occidental (Lasiurus borealis), y la actividad del gran murciélago marrón (Eptesicus fuscus)fue significativamente menor en los sitios urbanos que en los rurales. La vegetación abierta tuvo un efecto negativo sobre la actividad del murciélago plateado a escala de 50 m pero tuvo un efecto positivo a escala de 500 m, lo que indica cambios potenciales en la importancia relativa de algunas características de habitat a diferentes escalas. Estos resultados demuestran que los efectos localizados pueden ser inhibidos por patrones espaciales más generales. Nuestros resultados resaltan la importancia de considerar la escala en los esfuerzos de reconciliación urbana y nuestros pronósticos de paisaje proporcionan información que puede ayudar apriorizar el trabajo de conservación urbana.

Urban areas can be attractive to certain species because of increased food abundance and nesting availability, which in turn may increase productivity or breeding rates. However, there are also potential costs associated with urban living such as higher nest failure, poorer body condition, or increased prevalence of disease. These costs may result in species trading off the number of young produced against the condition of their young. African Crowned Eagles (Stephanoaetus coronatus) are a rare example of large, powerful apex predators that breed in some urban areas in Africa. In this study, we explored the breeding performance of these eagles across an urbanization gradient in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, over 7 breeding seasons. We predicted that living in an urban environment would increase productivity through an increase in breeding rate (shifting from typically biennial breeding to annual breeding). We then explored if there were any hidden costs associated with such a change in breeding strategy by examining the body condition of chicks from pairs that had successfully bred in the previous year. We found that pairs in more urban areas were more likely to breed annually, resulting in higher breeding rates, but were also less likely to successfully fledge a chick (i.e. lower breeding success). These 2 contrasting responses counteracted each other and resulted in similar productivity across the urbanization gradient. For those eagles that bred in consecutive years, annual breeding did not appear to have a negative cost on chick condition. The switch to annual breeding is thought to be a response to improved or more constant food sources in urban areas, while higher failure rates might be because of increased nest disturbances from anthropogenic sources (e.g., vegetation clearing, development of industrial areas, human and car traffic). However, although urbanization negatively affected the breeding success of African Crowned Eagles, they are able to persist and thrive in this highly transformed environment, likely through an increased breeding rate. LAY SUMMARY One species that is hardly recognized as an urban adapter is the Crowned Eagle in the metropoles of Durban and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. We explored the breeding performance of Crowned Eagles across different levels of urbanization, and specifically teased apart breeding rate (i.e. if an eagle breeds annually or every other year) and breeding success (i.e. if they fledge a young or not in a given year). We showed that Crowned Eagles change their breeding strategy in urban areas by increasing their breeding rate, but found nest failures occurred more often at more urbanized sites. These contrasting responses counteracted each other and resulted in similar productivity across the urbanization gradient and highlighted the value of long-term data.

Local, regional, and global extinctions caused by habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation have been widely reported for the tropics. The patterns and drivers of this loss of species are now increasingly well known in Amazonia, but there remains a significant gap in understanding of long‐term trends in species persistence and extinction in anthropogenic landscapes. Such a historical perspective is critical for understanding the status and trends of extant biodiversity as well as for identifying priorities to halt further losses. Using extensive historical data sets of specimen records and results of contemporary surveys, we searched for evidence of local extinctions of a terra firma rainforest avifauna over 200 years in a 2500 km² eastern Amazonian region around the Brazilian city of Belém. This region has the longest history of ornithological fieldwork in the entire Amazon basin and lies in the highly threatened Belém Centre of Endemism. We also compared our historically inferred extinction events with extensive data on species occurrences in a sample of catchments in a nearby municipality (Paragominas) that encompass a gradient of past forest loss. We found evidence for the possible extinction of 47 species (14% of the regional species pool) that were unreported from 1980 to 2013 (80% last recorded between 1900 and 1980). Seventeen species appear on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, and many of these are large‐bodied. The species lost from the region immediately around Belém are similar to those which are currently restricted to well‐forested catchments in Paragominas. Although we anticipate the future rediscovery or recolonization of some species inferred to be extinct by our calculations, we also expect that there are likely to be additional local extinctions, not reported here, given the ongoing loss and degradation of remaining areas of native vegetation across eastern Amazonia. Doscientos Años de Extinciones Locales de Aves en la Amazonia Oriental

We tested whether reserve size, landscape surrounding the reserve, and their interaction affect forest songbirds in the metropolitan area of Seattle, Washington (U.S.A.), by studying 29 reserves of varying size (small, medium, large) and surrounding urbanization intensity (urban, suburban, exurban). Larger reserves contained richer and less even bird communities than smaller reserves. These size effects disappeared when we removed the positive correlation of shrub diversity with reserve size, suggesting that greater habitat diversity in large reserves supported additional species, some of which were rare. Standardizing the number of individuals detected among all reserve size classes reversed the effect of size on richness in exurban landscapes and reduced the magnitude of the effect in suburban or urban landscapes. The latter change suggested that richness increased with reserve size in most landscapes because larger areas also supported larger samples from the regional bird species pool. Most bird species associated with native forest habitat (native forest species) and with human activity (synanthropic species) were present in reserves larger than 42 ha and surrounded by >40% urban land cover, respectively. Thus, we recommend these thresholds as means for conserving the composition of native bird communities in this mostly forested region. Native forest species were least abundant and synanthropic species most abundant in urban landscapes, where exotic ground and shrub vegetation was most common. Therefore, control of exotic vegetation may benefit native songbird populations. Bird nests in shrubs were most dense in medium (suburban) and large reserves (urban) and tended to be most successful in medium (suburban) and large reserves (exurban), potentially supplying another mechanism by which reserve size increased retention of native forest species.

In a time of increasing urbanization, the fundamental value of conserving urban biodiversity remains controversial. How much of a fixed budget should be spent on conservation in urban versus nonurban landscapes? The answer should depend on the goals that drive our conservation actions, yet proponents of urban conservation often fail to specify the motivation for protecting urban biodiversity. This is an important shortcoming on several fronts, including a missed opportunity to make a stronger appeal to those who believe conservation biology should focus exclusively on more natural, wilder landscapes. We argue that urban areas do offer an important venue for conservation biology, but that we must become better at choosing and articulating our goals. We explored seven possible motivations for urban biodiversity conservation: preserving local biodiversity, creating stepping stones to nonurban habitat, understanding and facilitating responses to environmental change, conducting environmental education, providing ecosystem services, fulfilling ethical responsibilities, and improving human well-being. To attain all these goals, challenges must be faced that are common to the urban environment, such as localized pollution, disruption of ecosystem structure, and limited availability of land. There are, however, also challenges specific only to particular goals, meaning that different goals will require different approaches and actions. This highlights the importance of specifying the motivations behind urban biodiversity conservation. If the goals are unknown, progress cannot be assessed.

A construção do habitat social apoia-se numa visão ampla que estabelece um conjunto de condições que compreende não somente o lugar de moradia, como tudo o que contribui para o habitar do cidadão com dignidade. Este artigo coloca em evidência o conflito que muitas vezes se revela quando o déficit habitacional empurra parcelas da população a ocupar áreas que gozam de proteção restritiva, seja ela ambiental ou sociocultural. É o caso do Parque Metropolitano Armando de Holanda Cavalcanti, em Pernambuco, no qual se revela o conflito entre residentes e gestores públicos, decorrente da ocupação da área e da necessidade de conservação dos aspectos ambientais e dos testemunhos histórico-culturais. A disputa pelo espaço se dá também através dos processos de atribuição de valor e de construção da significância do lugar. As formas como residentes e técnicos julgam os bens patrimoniais diferem-se conforme suas realidades sociais, necessidades e interesses. Portanto, o artigo busca identificar como os valores subsidiaram os pareceres para tombamento e instituição do Parque e, confrontando-os com narrativas de residentes, compreender os conflitos que se interpõem à produção do habitat e à Conservação Integrada.

El propósito de este trabajo es realizar una reflexión sobre la posición de la alcaldía de Rio de Janeiro –a lo largo de más de dos décadas– en relación con la conservación de uno de los lugares más tradicionales de la ciudad: la zona portuaria. Desde los comienzos de la ocupación urbana de la ciudad, esta área se caracterizó por modalidades de usos y ocupaciones consideradas de baja categoría, vinculadas al comercio de esclavos, viviendas proletarias, actividades fabriles y portuarias, entre otras. Durante más de dos décadas, curiosamente, hubo desde drásticos intentos de renovación de su tejido urbano, hasta iniciativas de protección legal lideradas por la comunidad local y adoptadas por la alcaldía. En ambos casos, en materia de conservación, los resultados prácticos fueron nulos lo que corroboró su imagen tradicional y negativa. Actualmente la zona espera un nuevo intento de conservación propuesto por la alcaldía, denominado “Proyecto Puerto Maravilla”. Esta iniciativa conlleva la unión de propósitos de las tres esferas administrativas públicas y propone nuevas modalidades de ocupación del suelo. Sin embargo, en el tenor de las nuevas propuestas se observa de manera flagrante, que no se toma en consideración la población que tradicionalmente reside allí, así como una ausencia de mecanismos que mitiguen un inevitable e indeseable proceso de gentrificación.

El propósito de este trabajo es realizar una reflexión sobre la posición de la alcaldía de Rio de Janeiro -a lo largo de más de dos décadas- en relación con la conservación de uno de los lugares más tradicionales de la ciudad: la zona portuaria. Desde los comienzos de la ocupación urbana de la ciudad, esta área se caracterizó por modalidades de usos y ocupaciones consideradas de baja categoría, vinculadas al comercio de esclavos, viviendas proletarias, actividades fabriles y portuarias, entre otras. Durante más de dos décadas, curiosamente, hubo desde drásticos intentos de renovación de su tejido urbano, hasta iniciativas de protección legal lideradas por la comunidad local y adoptadas por la alcaldía. En ambos casos, en materia de conservación, los resultados prácticos fueron nulos lo que corroboró su imagen tradicional y negativa. Actualmente la zona espera un nuevo intento de conservación propuesto por la alcaldía, denominado \"Proyecto Puerto Maravilla\". Esta iniciativa conlleva la unión de propósitos de las tres esferas administrativas públicas y propone nuevas modalidades de ocupación del suelo. Sin embargo, en el tenor de las nuevas propuestas se observa de manera flagrante, que no se toma en consideración la población que tradicionalmente reside allí, así como una ausencia de mecanismos que mitiguen un inevitable e indeseable proceso de gentrificación.

En los planes de recuperación del centro de Bogotá se busca elaborar los escenarios propicios para devolverle su rol protagónico dentro de la ciudad: inversión pública que atraiga al sector privado con oferta inmobiliaria y comercial, construcción y recuperación del espacio público, mejoramiento de la malla vial y consolidación de la oferta educativa y cultural. En el contexto de esos procesos, en este documento se señalan algunas tensiones entre las lógicas de la renovación y la conservación urbanas. Por último, explora los bienes de interés cultural del barrio Las Nieves y plantea un problema sobre la definición del patrimonio cultural y la desvinculación, en tales definiciones, entre el artefacto cultural (el bien inmueble) y las lógicas de transformación urbanas (flujos, cambios de uso).