INTRODUCTION
Given the importance of nature-based experiences to pro-environmental behaviors, support for
environmental policies, and human and community (Kuo et al. 1998, see Louv 2006 for a review of evidence)
well-being, coupled with rapid rates of urbanization dictating that such experiences for much of the world’s
population will necessarily occur in cities, the question arises of how to provide urban nature-based and
environmental education experiences. Frank et al. (1994) provide pedagogical support for environmental
education in cities, claiming that programs in which youth are taken outside their urban surroundings may
communicate that cities are unnatural, are separated from the otherwise integrated functioning of the planet, and
offer nothing to teach or learn about. The recent expansion of environmental education to encompass Education
for Sustainable Development, which seeks to “encourage changes in behavior that will create a more sustainable
future in terms of environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society for present and future
generations” (UNESCO 2002), further suggests a need for educational approaches that take place within the
context of communities, including in cities, so as to better foster learning about social as well as ecological
processes. Similarly, calls for a place-based education that is rooted in local bio-physical as well as social place
(Ardoin 2006) reinforce the need to explore models of linked community-environmental experiences for the over
50% of the world’s population that lives in cities. Finally, recent international declarations demonstrating the
commitment of cities worldwide to manage for ecosystem services and biodiversity provide potential
opportunities situating learning experiences within urban environmental management practices.