ABSTRACT
It is well-established that urban green infrastructure (UGI) and biodiversity provide necessary ecosystem goods and services that contribute to urban sustainability, livability, and individual and community wellbeing. However, the quantity, quality, and distribution of UGI and the ecosystem services it provides are not equitable within and between urban contexts, meaning that some urban citizens enjoy more and better-quality UGI benefits than others. Increasing evidence reveals that the poor and marginalised are more likely to experience less access to UGI, and hence associated ecosystem services, than more affluent communities. Additionally, they are typically at greater risk to the effects posed by ecosystem disservices, whilst having lower assets or abilities to cope. This chapter explores the complex, intimate, and potentially reinforcing links between poverty and use of urban ecosystem services from UGI. The evidence shows that poor households have greater and diverse needs for a wide range of ecosystem services (particularly provisioning services, but not restricted to) from UGI, but this can be constrained by the lower provision, conservation, and perhaps quality of UGI in poor neighbourhoods. This requires that urban planners and managers take active steps to address the inequities to improve the wellbeing of the urban poor.
