Presentation short abstract

Guided by urban political ecology, this paper compares Nairobi and Addis Ababa to demonstrate how spectacle-driven river restoration and daily community greening reflect struggles over power, land, and belonging, unveiling the politics of visibility in urban climate adaptation.

Presentation long abstract

Large-scale regreening initiatives often serve as political spectacles that make certain aspects of nature visible while concealing others. Guided by an urban political ecology framework, this paper compares riverine informal settlements in Nairobi and Addis Ababa to explore how state-led “restoration” projects and everyday community greening practices generate competing ecologies of value, visibility, and power. Using ethnography, participatory mapping, policy and discourse analysis, and GIS land-cover change data, I find that spectacle-driven restoration frequently increases the value of riparian land, justifies clearance, and heightens displacement risks. Conversely, community practices such as pocket parks, riverbank gardens, tree stewardship, and transforming dumpsites into green spaces provide important ecosystem services such as microclimate regulation and food security; and social cohesion. However, these initiatives are fragile, dependent on lived experiences and insecure land rights, and are threatened by top-down greening projects and overlapping institutional mandates. These tensions illustrate greening as a contest over knowledge, land, and belonging in rapidly urbanising African cities. The paper advocates that climate-resilient urban regreening should prioritise land tenure security, co-management with communities, and monitoring ecological health, plant survival, and livelihoods, not merely counting trees. Contrasting spectacle politics with everyday stewardship reveals how urban greening both reproduces and challenges unequal ecologies, offering insights into climate adaptation politics.