Finding justice in wild, novel ecosystems: A review through a multispecies lens

Though most cities, particularly in the Global North, have been intensely modified by human activities certain locations still exist in varied forms of abandonment or disinvestment, often allowing for new species assemblages to flourish. These urban novel ecosystems or informal wild spaces are often perceived as in-between or over- looked, calling into question their value and social-ecological role, while also creating tensions amongst different groups and stakeholders who share different visions for their use and management. Within these tensions, issues of justice and equity can be more pronounced and surface historic legacies of environmental contamination, inequitable development, and extraction. Despite this, very little is known about the social-ecological role informal wild spaces play in urban areas, and how best to interrogate and understand the equity and justice dimensions they elicit. To fill this gap in knowledge, this paper critically examines the literature on urban novel ecosystems in relation to justice, with a particular interest in multispecies justice. Through this analysis, gaps in the literature are exposed, while also arguing the informality, neglect and contestation of wild urban spaces provides opportunities to explore issues of access, benefits and harms, particularly in light of global climate and ecological crises. A systematic approach is utilized to search the literature, identifying 45 papers which are thematically analyzed under a justice lens. The study identifies three themes that thread throughout the literature: distributional injustices relate to perceptions and attitudes, which give rise or arise from injustices; the regeneration discourse focuses on a ‘new nature’, which is based on social-ecological displacement and devaluation; and the potential of urban wild spaces to generate new multispecies sensibilities. The paper concludes by discussing trends, gaps, and emerging discourses, and proposing a multispecies justice approach for urban planning through the learnings and engagement with urban wild, novel ecosystems.