Refugia Fellowship Program

Design Climate Refugia Within Campuses—And Connect Them to the City

The Refugia Fellowship is a field-based program for undergraduate and graduate students to design, test, and scale climate refugia within university campuses and their surrounding urban environments.

University campuses are not isolated spaces.
They are embedded in cities—connected to transport systems, drainage networks, energy systems, and communities.

This fellowship positions campuses as:

• urban refugia nodes within cities

• testbeds for climate adaptation solutions

• platforms for influencing urban policy and planning

Climate Change Refugia

Climate change refugia are bio-ecological spaces that remain relatively buffered from the impacts of climate change, enabling native species, ecological communities, and essential ecosystem processes to persist despite rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, sea level rise, and other environmental stresses. These areas act as safe havens for biodiversity, preserving habitats where plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms can survive, adapt, and continue supporting healthy ecosystems. As climate change accelerates, protecting and expanding refugia is becoming an increasingly important strategy for conserving biodiversity and strengthening ecosystem resilience.

Climate change refugia exist across many scales. They may be as small as a 4-square-meter educational biodiversity plot on a school or university campus, designed to demonstrate native habitats and support pollinators, butterflies, birds, or amphibians. They may also include community forests, wetlands, mangrove areas, riverbanks, urban parks, agricultural landscapes managed for biodiversity, mountain ecosystems, watersheds, and large protected areas. Regardless of size, every refugium contributes to a broader ecological network that helps sustain biodiversity and reconnect fragmented habitats.

The Refugia Fellowship encourages universities, schools, local governments, Indigenous Peoples, communities, civil society organizations, and private sector partners to identify, create, restore, and steward climate change refugia. Beyond conserving biodiversity, refugia serve as living laboratories where students, researchers, and communities can study ecological change, test restoration approaches, monitor species, and develop innovative climate adaptation solutions.

By connecting thousands of refugia across campuses, communities, and landscapes, the initiative aims to build resilient ecological networks that protect biodiversity while fostering environmental education, scientific research, and community stewardship. Every refugium—whether a small demonstration site or a vast natural landscape—represents a meaningful contribution toward safeguarding nature and strengthening resilience for future generations in a changing climate.

Source: https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/Climate-Change-Refugia_CCRC.pdf 

Local Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan Guidelines (click here) 

Sample Biodiversity Plans: 

• Toronto’s Biodiversity Strategy 

• San Francisco Biodiversity Policy 

• Copenhagen’s Urban Nature Strategy  

• Singapore’s Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan