Centring justice in conceptualizing and improving access to urban nature

As humanity has become increasingly urban, a growing number of people have been deprived of access to nature and the benefits it provides. This is especially true for marginalized groups, who often live in neighbourhoods where nature has been so diminished and degraded that it provides fewer types, and much lower levels of benefits. We review the literatures on human–nature relationships, urban sustainability and justice to create an actionable definition of ‘access to nature’ that people can use to advocate for and guide investments that improve access to nature in urban contexts. We show how the interplay of three dimensions of justice—recognitional, procedural and distributional—determines access to nature in cities, and how these dimensions are core to increasing access to urban nature. We present a design thinking framework that centres justice in creating interventions for access to nature, together with questions that can guide the process of designing and implementing new interventions. Lastly, we illustrate how our framework can be operationalized by showcasing three case studies that improve access to nature to marginalized communities in the United States: Latino Outdoors, Sogorea Te′ Land Trust and the Nature Imagery in Prisons Project. We conclude by re‐affirming the importance of centring justice in improving access to nature, so that all people can enjoy the benefits that nature provides and lead healthy, fulfilling lives. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Resumen A medida que las poblaciones humanas son cada vez más urbanas, un número creciente de personas se han visto privadas del acceso a la naturaleza y los beneficios que esta nos provee. Esto es especialmente cierto para las poblaciones marginadas, quienes a menudo viven en barrios donde la naturaleza ha sido tan disminuida y degradada que ofrece menos tipos de beneficios y beneficios de menor nivel. Revisamos la literatura académica que estudia las relaciones entre los humanos y la naturaleza, la que estudia la sostenibilidad urbana y la que estudia justicia. Luego, creamos una definición de “acceso a la naturaleza” que la gente pueda usar para abogar en las intervenciones que buscan aumentar el acceso a la naturaleza en contextos urbanos y que sirva para orientar las inversiones de este tipo de iniciativas. Mostramos cómo la interacción de los tres tipos de justicia (retributiva, procesual y distributiva) determina el acceso a la naturaleza en