Urban conservation gardening in the decade of restoration

Global commitments and policy interventions for conservation have failed to halt widespread declines in plant biodiversity, highlighting an urgent need to engage novel approaches and actors. Here we propose that urban conservation gardening, namely the cultivation of declining native plant species in public and private green spaces, can be one such approach. We identify policy and complementary social mechanisms to promote conservation gardening and reform the existing horticultural market into an innovative nature-protection instrument. Conservation gardening can be an economically viable and participatory measure that complements traditional approaches to plant conservation.