Urban conservation workers on a just transition: Labor, land, and love

Abstract

Movements and scholars have called for proactive just transition efforts that involve the protection of historically marginalized communities and workers. Urban conservation is increasingly central to shifts away from a carbon-based economy, but its racialized hierarchies have reproduced inequality. This article builds on just transition, political ecology, and environmental justice scholarship in its understanding of workers as key sources of needed and imaginative interventions. We used photovoice methods with participants of a green workforce development program in Austin, Texas to identify the equity implications of their urban conservation work. Participants called attention to an incomplete just transition effort and strategic possibilities in two domains: workplace structure and relationality. Acting upon these insights to create and maintain an environmentally just urban forest system requires urban governance structures that are more responsive to workers and communities.