The Injustices of Nature-Based Solutions: A Racial and Ecological Reckoning

Problem #1: Undergreening and displacement

First, there is a dual problem of under-greening and green displacement. Historically marginalized neighborhoods — often Black, Latinx, or Maghrebi — are frequently deprived of quality green infrastructure, with their parks smaller, more paved, and lacking ecological function [2]. This “nature gap” stems from long-standing municipal neglect and redlining or segregation legacies.

When these areas do receive investment, research has shown that greening often leads to or contributes to green gentrification: rising land values attract real estate speculation and whiter and wealthier residents, forcing longtime residents out. In cities like Philadelphia, Copenhagen, and Barcelona, climate-resilient infrastructure has become a vehicle for displacement rather than inclusion, shifting racialized communities to grey, climate-exposed peripheries.

Problem #2: Imposition of white norms and rules

Second, many NBS tend to reproduce cultural and symbolic exclusions by imposing white environmental norms. Rather than recognizing diverse socio-natures, new green spaces often erase the cultural practices and spiritual relationships that many racialized communities have with nature.

In Washington, Montreal, Lyon, and Barcelona, we find that racialized residents report feeling unwelcome in newly renovated green areas, policed for their presence or activities, and excluded by design choices that prioritize quiet, passive recreation. Muslim women, Black families, and migrant communities face surveillance and harassment in spaces that should foster well-being. These experiences reveal how green spaces remain coded as white, reinforcing environmental privilege through both material access and cultural control.

Problem #3: Extreme segregated ecologies in carceral systems

Third, these exclusions often coincide with degraded urban ecologies in racialized neighborhoods. In many U.S. cities, neighborhoods with higher proportions of Black and Latinx residents show reduced tree canopy, fewer species, limited biodiversity and, in return, lower climate protection [3].

Historic redlining is linked not only to heat vulnerability and flooding but also to ecological impoverishment, where wildlife habitats, soil quality, and air conditions are significantly worse. These ecologies of neglect deepen environmental burdens while reducing community resilience to climate impacts.

Problem #4: Environmental privilege and degraded ecosystems

Fourth, extreme forms of carceral segregation represent a critical, often overlooked dimension of ecological injustice. Prisons, overwhelmingly filled with racialized and low-income individuals, are sited in toxic, degraded environments and expose inmates to unsafe water, polluted air, and lack of access to nature. While some carceral facilities introduce gardening programs, these often serve to legitimize the prison system rather than confront its racialized violence.

Moreover, the environmental impact of prisons — including emissions, habitat destruction, and waste — adds to the ecological toll of mass incarceration, further entangling social and environmental injustices and making the defunding of the prison-industrial complex together with the restoration of nature in these environments all the more urgent.

Problem #5: Opportunistic greening as global investment strategy

Fifth, a growing trend of opportunistic greening links NBS to real estate development and global green branding [4]. In cities like Amsterdam, San Francisco, or Vancouver, NBS are implemented in elite districts or as aesthetic complements to high-end housing, emphasizing investment value over community need or ecological function.

This approach favors park-like amenities over ecologically restorative spaces and often ignores the socio-ecological degradation in racialized neighborhoods. Green infrastructure becomes a symbol of exclusivity rather than equity, locking benefits into white, wealthy enclaves.

Reckoning with legacies of systemic violence for NBS

These injustices are not isolated failures but are systemically tied to centuries of racialized land dispossession, settler colonialism, and environmental exclusion, operating through a new phase of what we call green racial capitalism. They form past, emerging, and consolidating ecologies of segregation (Figure 2).

NBS have thus become tools not only for climate action but also for the consolidation of environmental privilege, deepening the divide between those with protected, biodiverse landscapes and those confined to degraded, surveilled, or disappearing spaces.

In contrast, the path forward demands that NBS shift from technocratic solutions to reparative, anti-racist strategies that redistribute land, recognize cultural knowledge, and center the voices of historically marginalized communities.