Jennifer Rae Pierce

Victoria

Jennifer is a political ecologist, urban planner, and urban biodiversity policy specialist with 18 years of experience with cities and nature. She has prepared local government tools and reports including a biodiversity and ecosystem services mainstreaming toolkit for ICLEI, the Urban Nature Indexes for IUCN, the Science-Based Targets for Cities for Nature, ecological footprint measures with BCIT, and serves a consultant on urban biodiversity for the World Bank. She also serves as the lead for the IUCN CEM Urban Ecosystems Specialist Working Group and represents CEM on the IUCN Urban Alliance. Her published research includes global comparative work across hundreds of cities as well as more in-depth explorations of cities in Thailand, India, Japan, Singapore, Israel, Canada, the USA, Brazil, and South Africa. Jennifer holds an architecture degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology, a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University, and a Master’s in Environmental Science and Policy from Central European University. In 2026, she is defending her PhD dissertation in planning at the University of British Columbia on urban biodiversity worldviews and justice.