Convened by Manja Hoppe Andreasen and Johanna Maria Pfaffenzeller, University of Copenhagen, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management

Growing cities exert profound impacts on surrounding landscapes, natural environments and ecosystems in rapidly urbanizing low- and middle-income countries. Globally, an estimated one-third of land converted to urban uses in the 1970-2010 period consisted of natural areas, such as forests, grassland, water bodies and wetlands (Güneralp et al. 2020). This has implications not only for biodiversity and wildlife, but also for the sustainability, resilience and livability of cities. Natural areas within and around cities provide a range of benefits, commonly conceptualized as ecosystem services, such as water management, flood risk mitigation, microclimate regulation, air purification and recreational spaces. This seed panel will untangle the drivers and dynamics of urban expansion pressures and land use conversions within ecologically sensitive natural areas. Urban expansion pressures on arable land and implications for agricultural landholders are relatively well researched, while urban expansion pressures on natural areas remain poorly understood. The panel draws on our on-going research, which entails a comparative case study of two rapidly growing African cities – Accra and Dar es Salaam – based on novel integration of spatial analysis, policy analysis and case studies of natural areas under conversion. We invite early-stage empirical research, innovative ideas and theoretical and methodological contributions that offer insights on land use conversions within ecologically sensitive areas in cities and towns of varying sizes in the context of rapidly urbanizing low- and middle-income countries. Topics may include:

• The scale and magnitude of conversion of natural areas associated with urban expansion

• The motivations and logics of diverse actors engaging in land use conversions within ecologically sensitive areas in and around cities

• Ecosystem services and disservices associated with urban blue-green spaces

• The influence of urban governance and land administration systems on preservation and protection of ecologically sensitive areas in urban contexts

• Potential strategies for fostering sustainable trajectories of urban expansion