Biodiversity District
Biodiversity District
The High Line. Photo: Ashlyn Gehrett/FlickrCC
What Is the Biodiversity District?
A Biodiversity District is a neighborhood where corporate, nonprofit, and public sector leaders come together to coordinate conservation practices across property lines, accelerating the restoration of natural ecosystems and strengthening climate resilience to support human health, well-being, and prosperity.
Led by NYC Bird Alliance with Google as a founding sponsor, the first-of-its-kind Biodiversity District program connects science, real estate, public space management, and community engagement into a single neighborhood-scale network. The inaugural district launches in Manhattan’s Lower West Side in early 2027 as a practical model that communities nationwide can replicate.
Why Biodiversity District matters now
Biodiversity is the variety of all living things and is crucial for global climate health, economic prosperity, and human well-being, yet urban wildlife habitats face severe threats from development and climate change.
Coordinated, neighborhood-scale action delivers far greater environmental impact than isolated efforts alone. By connecting landscapes across private developments and public spaces, Biodiversity District aims to help stem ecological decline while mitigating climate change impacts such as urban flooding and extreme heat.
Biodiversity District - Lower West Side
Why Launch in the Lower West Side?
Manhattan’s Lower West Side offers a unique concentration of green roofs, terraces, public parks, cultural institutions, and sustainability-minded real estate partners. Planning work in 2025 confirmed strong cross-sector eagerness to connect these separate green spaces to enhance biodiversity.
We are initially developing and refining the program in the Lower West Side before scaling these learnings to additional neighborhoods across New York City, and eventually, nationwide.
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Biodiversity District planning session with partners, June 2025. Photo: NYC Bird Alliance
Where the Program Currently Stands
Since 2025, NYC Bird Alliance has led collaborative concept development with nearly 50 organizations across real estate, government, parks, cultural institutions, and civic groups.
We are currently focused on implementation planning, governance, and tool-building to prepare for our official early 2027 public launch.
- 2025: Concept development with nearly 50 organizations
- 2026: Setting up governance, developing resources
- 2027: Launch planned for Lower West Side
- 2029+: Rollout to other neighborhoods across NYC
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Tour of Pier 57's green roof with Biodiversity District planning partners. Photo: NYC Bird Alliance
How to Get Involved
Participation in the Biodiversity District is flexible, collaborative, and tailored to your location's capacity. We welcome organizations and buildings on Manhattan’s Lower West Side at any stage of their sustainability journey, including those already doing great work on the ground.
Ways You Can Participate:
- Operational Changes: Adopting bird-friendly lighting, seasonal landscape care, or integrated pest management (IPM) to eliminate pesticides and rodenticides.
- Site Upgrades: Adding native plants to existing gardens or retrofitting windows with bird-safe films.
- Habitat Creation and Enhancement: Installing native planters, green roofs, or new neighborhood green spaces.
Whether it’s raising visibility of your organization’s existing practices, exploring new ways to transform your property, or simply learning more about the program, we’d love to connect.
Sponsorship Opportunities
We are seeking additional leadership partners to fund full design and implementation of the Biodiversity District model. Sponsorships will fund the science and data tools participants use, habitat work on the ground, public engagement, and program operations.
Benefits of Sponsorship:
- Enhance Your Brand: Align with a high-impact sustainability initiative and gain recognition across press and public-facing communications.
- Improve Employee and Tenant Experience: Expand green spaces to boost workplace well-being, productivity, and engagement.
- Tell Your Sustainability Story: Support urban biodiversity to mitigate heat, flooding, and pollution while highlighting your climate resilience contributions.
- Strengthen Community Connections: Partner with leading organizations to shape a healthier, greener New York City.
By investing now, sponsors gain visibility across the program and a direct role in shaping how it works. Given initial interest from both domestic and international cities, the 2027 Lower West Side launch is just the beginning of this conservation movement.
Express Interest In Participating and Learn More
Who's Involved
Program Leadership
NYC Bird Alliance
Founding Sponsor
Google
Planning Partners
Real Estate, Development, and Corporate Partners
Brookfield Properties • ConEdison • Disney • Jamestown Properties • JLL • KPMG • Related • The Durst Organization • Tishman Speyer • Trinity Church • Vornado Realty Trust
Parks, Public Spaces, and Business Improvement Districts (BIDs)
Friends of the High Line • Hudson River Park Trust & Friends • Hudson Square BID • Little Island • Meatpacking District Management Association
Design, Planning, and Technical Consultants
Arcadis • Future Green • Gehl • Gensler • Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects • SCAPE • Second Nature Ecology + Design • Stantec • Starr Whitehouse • UrbanSense
Academic, Scientific, and Educational Institutions
American Museum of Natural History • Avenues The World School • New York Botanical Garden • New York Institute of Technology • New York University • NYC Bird Alliance • Rutgers
Civic, Cultural, and Community Nonprofits
Hudson Guild • Local Nature Lab • The Whitney Museum
Government, Public Agencies, and Infrastructure
Con Edison • Jacob K. Javits Convention Center • NYC Dept. of Buildings • NYC Dept. of City Planning • NYC Dept. of Parks & Recreation • NY State Assemblymember Deborah Glick • NY State Senator Erik Bottcher
Science Working Group
Dustin Partridge, PhD, Science Working Group Lead (NYC Bird Alliance) • Adriana Akers (Gehl) • Eric Sanderson, PhD (New York Botanical Garden) • Georgia Silvera Seamans, PhD (Local Nature Lab) • Georgina Cullman (NYC Dept. Parks & Recreation) • Jamie Ong (Arcadis) • Jeffrey Raven, PhD (New York Institute of Technology) • Kate Orff (SCAPE) • Myla Aronson (Rutgers) • Robert Atterbury (Hudson River Park Trust) • Robin Grossinger (Second Nature)
Program Lead
Rita Legro, Biodiversity District Program Manager (NYC Bird Alliance)
