Presentation short abstract

Drawing on empirical fieldwork, this contribution examines how collective action interacts with urban biodiversity restoration projects through a social-ecological justice lens. It opens up on a North–South comparative framework attentive to perceived historical and territorial inequalities.

Presentation long abstract

This contribution examines how collective practices of environmental care and biodiversity restoration in urban settings can be understood through a social-ecological justice lens, combining insights from multispecies justice, ecological justice, and environmental justice scholarship. Building on empirical fieldwork conducted in post-industrial metropolitan contexts (Rochard, 2023), it shows how everyday civic actions—such as habitat restoration, soil care, micro-forest planting or the maintenance of urban green infrastructures—reconfigure relations between humans, biodiversity and urban environments. These situated practices reveal forms of more-than-human alliances as well as persistent territorial tensions that shape who benefits from, participates in, and is affected by urban ecological transformations.

The presentation argues that social-ecological justice offers a productive analytical framework for interpreting these dynamics, as it foregrounds both ecological quality and the intertwined social conditions that enable or constrain meaningful local participation.

Extending this lens toward a North–South comparative perspective, the contribution outlines a framework for examining how Nature-based Solutions institutional projects are translated, negotiated and appropriated in diverse socio-political, historical and ecological contexts. Particular attention is given to how long-standing injustices (epistemic, participatory, of recognition) linked to socio-spatial segregation processes and differentiated socio-economic conditions shape residents’ capacities to engage with or benefit from ecological restoration projects. This framework aims to support future comparative research capable of identifying both convergences in more-than-human urban practices and context-specific forms of social-ecological justice. Two case-study avenues will be further investigated: a mangrove restoration project in southern Senegal and another project located near low-income neighborhoods in a European metropolis.