Cities+and+Biodiversity+Outlook+-+Key+Messages


 * Cities and Biodiversity Outlook**

Actions: greening and "bluening" the cities. Ex: protection of green areas, closing dumps, payment for ecosystem services (PES), urban agriculture, river recovery, tax policies, community programs, like Curitiba’s Green Exchange Programme Benefits: health, food security, climate mitigation and adaptation, green jobs, sustainable education How: Policy and planning, with multi-stakeholders participation, and education for future


 * Aichi Biodiversity Targets: ** a set of 20, time-bound, measureable targets agreed by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, in October 2010, that are now being translated into revised national strategies and action plans by the 193 Parties to the Convention. Achievement of the targets will contribute to reducing, and eventually halting, the loss of biodiversity at a global level by the middle of the twenty-first century. https://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/

//Key Messages//


 * 1.** **Responsibility**

So, there is a responsibility of doing something.
 * Urban areas increasing faster than urban population -> more use of resources -> less biodiversity -> more consumption and waste**

Examples: measures used to decrease waste and reduce meat consumption, while at the same time invest in protecting biodiversity, water quality, local food production and key carbon-sequestering ecosystems. The ecosystem approach of the Convention on Biological Diversity in the urban landscape and a process for addressing the Aichi Biodiversity Targets
 * Ecosystem Services**

National, regional, and local governments Multinational corporations Civil society
 * Multiple actors:**

Individual cities; Consortium of municipalities or state governments; Partnerships across urban and non-urban places.
 * Organization ways:**


 * 2.** **Native biodiversity**

Areas with exceptionally high biodiversity that have lost at least 70% of their original habitat area. In the US: CALIFORNIA FLORISTIC PROVINCE - The California Floristic Province is a zone of Mediterranean-type climate and has the high levels of plant endemism characteristic of these regions. MADREAN PINE-OAK WOODLANDS - Encompassing Mexico’s main mountain chains, and isolated mountaintop islands in Baja California and the southern United States, the Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands is an area of rugged mountainous terrain, high relief, and deep canyons.
 * “Biodiversity Hotspots”**

Cape Town: Table Mountain National Park Mumbai: Sanjay Gandhi National Park Stockholm: the National Urban Park
 * Protected areas**

Planting trees with overarching canopies can help small animals cross roads. Roadside planting that mimics the multilayering of forests can cater to a diversity of animal users. Ecolinks such as underground tunnels and vegetated overhead bridges can help connect natural areas. Ex: Rua Gonçalo de Carvalho, Porte Alegre
 * Connecting fragmented ecosystems**

City Biodiversity Index (or CBI, also known as the Singapore Index)
 * Others**


 * 3.** **Quantifying the value of ecosystems (both monetary and non-monetary) + qualitative values**

Critique: “Can backfire the biodiversity loss problem, once it shows the economic benefits of ecosystems, leading to an increase of the interest on exploitation.”

Attaching **monetary values** to ecosystem services can be enormously useful to biodiversity management. Ex: Cape Town, South Africa: every unit of currency (one South African Rand, ZAR) the municipality spends on the environment -> at least 8.30 ZAR of ecosystem goods and services. Well-functioning ecosystems -> prevent financial losses and safe-guard human well-being. Ex: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, 2005: ecosystems' natural buffer capacity compromised -> disastrous flooding.
 * "The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity" (TEEB):** global study that describes the recognition, assessment and documentation of ecosystem services, and their valuation in economic terms.
 * Benefits:** Natural capital contributes to job creation, saves money, and complements services already provided by municipalities such as disaster-risk management and food security -> encourages municipal leaders to make decisions that favor the environment rather than harm it; garner broad public support for conservation, and attract public and private investments.
 * Payment for ecosystem services (PES):** incentives to landowners and farmers to manage their land sustainably. Ex: Curitiba and Belo Horizonte, Brazil: tax breaks for private landowners that manage their land sustainably. New York City: payments to upstream land managers in the Catskill/Delaware watershed to improve land-use practices -> provision of high-quality drinking water / avert the need to build costly water-purification facilities. Avoid paying to restore or replace degraded ecosystems.


 * AICHI TARGET 2 **


 * Know the economic value of an ecosystem service help to protect it. But what happened if they see that the economic value is lower than other proposed actions for that area? Should money be the main decision variable?**

The Nakivubo Swamps are adjacent to Uganda's capital city, Kampala. The local government had proposed draining the swamps to make way for agriculture, but when a study revealed that this ecosystem was providing a valuable service by filtering organic waste and other effluent derived from Kampala, the proposal was promptly dropped. The study indicated that a water-purification facility capable of performing the same service would cost several million US dollars to construct and US$ 2 million a year to maintain. In this case, the value of converting land for agriculture would be offset by the cost of lost sewage-treatment capacity. Direct investment to maintain the wetland was a cost-effective measure to uphold the purification service. This example demonstrates how detailed information and cost estimates can better inform planning decisions.
 * Water Purification through Wetlands:** Nakivubo Swamps, Uganda


 * 4.** **Enhance human health**

Benefits from direct contact with ecosystems: - Improving immune function, mood, and concentration to reducing stress - Enhancing the benefits of physical exercise - Curb infectious diseases - Mental health benefits - Indirect support by providing air and water purification, pest control, and climate regulation.

Raising local crops and livestock -> increase knowledge of and interest in the biophysical and food-growing processes, empower citizens to influence sources of food production, strengthen links to local food systems, and encourage healthier lifestyle choices; greater food self-reliance, cheaper food prices, greater accessibility to fresh and nutritious products, and poverty alleviation.
 * Urban agriculture:**

Encourages slum dwellers to clean up their surroundings and improves public health by offering fresh fruit and vegetables in exchange for garbage and waste brought to neighborhood centers. As of 2012, Curitiba has 96 exchange sites. Each month more than 6,500 people are exchanging an average of 255,416 kilos of collected garbage for 92,352 kilos of fruits and vegetables.
 * Curitiba’s Green Exchange Programme:**

Greenery in slums: Traditional medicine and socio-cultural services. Daily chores such as cooking and washing are carried out under tree cove. Ex: Bangalore, India

"**Healthy Parks, Healthy People**" (HPHP), Parks Victoria, a park management agency of the State Government of Victoria, Australia, 2000. Visiting parks and natural open spaces -> healthy places for body, mind, and soul. Partnership with a national health insurance provider, funding public preventative health activities.

More trees -> less prevalence of childhood **asthma,** NYC


 * From Open Dump to Greenery: ****Mumbai's Gorai Dump Closure Project **


 * 5.** **Contribute to climate-change mitigation and adaptation**


 * AICHI TARGET 15 **

Cities contribute 60—70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

New tax system and a mechanism to use the revenue to conserve privately owned green areas. Expands green areas with rooftop and wall greening and works with citizens to reduce residential CO2 emissions. Minimum target for effective evapotranspiration from green areas at 30 percent of the total city land area.
 * Yokohama:**

Mexico City was the first Latin America city to implement a Climate Action Program. Three components for biodiversity: (1) The Green Roof Program: improve air quality, regulate humidity, reduce temperatures, and provide new biodiversity resources across the city, increases environmental awareness among citizens, playing an important educational role. (2) The Recovery of the Rivers Magdalene and Eslava program: Focusing on pollution risks, it is improving environmental conditions in two important tributaries and their surrounding neighborhoods. Secures a water supply for the city and reduces the energy and economic costs associated with traditional water treatment. (3) Land for Conservation (almost 60% of city): provides environmental goods and services. The two-pronged Program of Restoration of Ecosystems and Compensation for Maintaining Environmental Services rewards landowners both for protecting essential natural resources and for restoring degraded habitats; encourages communities to actively protect and restore natural ecosystems.
 * Mexico City:**


 * 6.** **Enhance food and nutrition security**

Self-reliance among urban dwellers and safe and healthy food production while ensuring public health.
 * Healthy Urban Agriculture in Kampala ** **: **

Urban and suburban agriculture to counter its crisis of lack of imports as well as malnutrition and iron deficiency in the population. Vegetables, fruits, apiculture, and livestock. Urban organic farms, known as organiponicos.
 * Urban Agriculture in Cuba **:

Greenhouse known as Lufa Farm sits atop an office building. It grows more than 25 varieties of vegetables year-round, and it does so without using any artificial pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides. The use of controlled-environment agriculture enables the operation to yield as much as a conventional farm 10 times its size. Rooftop gardens also keep buildings cooler, save energy, improve air quality, and help mitigate the urban heat island effect.
 * Rooftop Gardening in Montreal ** **: **


 * Urbanization Encourages Food Biodiversity in Northern Vietnam **

Combining public and private initiatives, has five main areas: (1) planting ornamental indigenous plant species in the city, to promote familiarity with the region's indigenous flora; (2) establishing protected areas; (3) preserving water resources, through a plan for revitalizing the Barigui River basin; (4) planting indigenous tree species in the city; and (5) improving both air quality and transportation through the Green Line Project, a major transportation corridor with special lanes for bicycles and pedestrians as well as a linear park.
 * Curitiba's Biocity Program: **


 * 7.** **Urban policy and planning**


 * AICHI TARGET 3, 11, and 17 **

The city has managed these problems by instituting integrated management strategies that recognize the value of wetlands and ensure enforcement of building regulations and pollution control. The approach has included the designation of two Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar sites); management systems on the sites; development of Coastal Sensitivity Mapping; delineation of greenbelts to stop urban sprawl; and the creation of awareness programs to encourage residents to help conserve the wetlands.
 * Accra’s Wetlands:**

The city's Growth Area Authority—an independent body that works in partnership with local councils, developers, and the Victorian Government to help create sustainable, well-serviced communities—is developing four Growth Corridor Plans. Each plan will create new communities planned around housing, jobs, transportation, town centers, open spaces, and key infrastructure, taking into account impacts on biodiversity and how to plan for better integration of nature and people. New communities will benefit from an integrated plan that provides for a distinctive character and amenities and that preserves and enhances existing biodiversity values. By guiding development in a sustainable manner, the plans aim to reduce carbon and other footprints.
 * Growth Corridor Plans in Melbourne:**

The Durban Metropolitan Open Space System (D'MOSS) is a plan that identifies key areas that support biodiversity and supply ecosystem services
 * Durban's Metropolitan Open Space System - D'MOSS****:**


 * 8.** **Environmental governance (multi-scale, multi-sectorial, multi-stakeholder)**


 * AICHI TARGET 4 and 18 **

There is thus a need for experimenting, fostering a diversity of institutions and approaches, and generating more **knowledge** about governance of biodiversity as well as urban ecosystem services.
 * Collaboration:** between representatives from all levels of decision-making, from multiple jurisdictions, and with the inclusion of the general public.

As indigenous peoples often have profound connections to the land and the goods and services it provides, cities can benefit by engaging indigenous peoples in urban planning and policy. Traditional knowledge can help cities reduce project costs—for example, by improving resource management— and thus contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.
 * Indigenous Peoples in Urban Areas:**

Based on a partnership among community groups, citizens, government agencies, educational institutions, and the local mining companies, Vale and Xstrata Nickel, the program has resulted in the planting of millions of trees and shrubs on tens of thousands of hectares. Together with the mining companies, the city also developed a Biodiversity Action Plan. This long-term commitment to ecological recovery and biodiversity was developed with considerable community input. The plan outlines the actions needed for ecological recovery, highlights the need for education and citizen engagement, and also addresses issues such as watershed protection, food biodiversity, climate change, and at-risk species.
 * Biodiversity Recovery in Greater Sudbury:**

The project involves "reforestation" of a 757-hectare buffer zone of a municipal landfill site. Indigenous trees are grown by "Treepreneurs," local community members who establish small-scale tree nurseries at their homes. Tree seedlings are exchanged for credit notes, which can be traded for food and other basic goods, or even used to pay school fees. Created more than 300 jobs for community members, so reforestation can provide direct socioeconomic benefits. In 2011 the Buffelsdraai Landfill Site Community Reforestation Project was recognized by the United Nations as one of 10 "lighthouse projects"—projects in developing countries that help put the world on a more climate-resilient and low-carbon path while also improving people's lives.
 * Generating Green Jobs in Durban:**

In agriculture, an innovative branding scheme for traditional varieties of local vegetables— Kaga vegetables—has helped preserve agro-biodiversity while incentivizing the local economy, from seed companies to farmers, retailers, and the hospitality industry. Its efforts highlight the importance of aligning cultural considerations in the design of local strategies that ensure sustainable use of local biodiversity.
 * Linking Biodiversity and Traditional Crafts in Kanazawa: **

Realizing the need for multisector and integrated approaches, the city and IBC convened consultative groups composed of NGOs, private businesses, academia, religious organizations, villages, and youth groups. A multiagency coordinating body—the Iloilo River Development Council—was established to institutionalize and implement the master plan. The plan has prevented the destruction of mangroves, stemmed aquatic pollution, and established community watch groups to facilitate environmental protection.
 * A Public-Private Partnership in Iloilo City:**

By integrating the views of local stakeholders, perceptions have been changed and landscapes once thought of as degraded or unattractive are becoming economic, aesthetic, and ecological assets. Not only are sanitary conditions being improved, but the expansion of water-supply services is increasing land values.
 * Water Supply, Sewerage, and Environmental Clean-Up in Cartagena:**


 * 9.** **Resilient and sustainable future**


 * AICHI TARGET 1 **

Cities are themselves the sites of continuous exchanges of practical, traditional, and scientific knowledge and information through which people's thinking, understanding, and perceptions are transformed. Over the last few decades the number of urban environmental education programs has grown significantly. Ex: programs that are nested within and linked to community-based stewardship or civic ecology practices, such as community forestry, streamside restoration, and community gardening. UN-promoted Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), which seeks to "encourage changes in behavior that will create a more sustainable future in terms of environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society for present and future generations."
 * Education :**

Examples of post-catastrophe, community-based stewardship of nature serve as sources of social-ecological resilience and are referred to as "Greening in the Red Zone."
 * Greening in the Red Zone **

In recent decades these parks have evolved into modern conservation centers of local, national, and exotic wildlife species. Considering education as an essential task for biodiversity conservation, the parks have developed a wide array of innovative educational programs and activities, among them rotating exhibits, interactive educational activities, and educational courses and school tours.
 * Biodiversity Education in Mexico City's Zoological Parks **

It focuses on creating a quality learning and educational environment for sustainability, promoting lifelong learning opportunities, teaching tolerance and mutual understanding, enabling youth to learn to participate in urban life, and creating inclusive societies
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">UNESCO's Education for Sustainable Development - ESD **

In Zimbabwe, is an ambitious effort to reverse deforestation, help mitigate the effects of climate change, and beautify Harare's roadways. They encouraged participation at many levels and invited supporters to plant trees on their own land or on public land, or to buy trees for others to plant. Half a million trees were reportedly planted in the first year. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Year-round, the nonprofit organization Rocking the Boat in New York City offers opportunities for disadvantaged local youth to learn about the natural and social history of the Bronx River and to help restore it. Planting Spartina grasses, mapping the riverbed's topography, building and installing bird boxes along the riverbank, taking field notes and collecting data, and learning to identify plants, birds, fish, and other wildlife are just a few of the activities students undertake. Getting out on the river in hand-built wooden boats, the students also learn about water safety, teamwork, and how to row a boat.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Five Million Trees in Five Years: The Harare Greening Project **
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Restoring a River and Empowering Youth: New York City **

Working at the city scale involves coordinating many different voices; national political, administrative, and fiscal systems are not always designed to support innovations in cities; and corporate interests are generally not interested in the well-being and biodiversity of a city per se.
 * 10.** **Innovation**


 * <span style="color: #808080; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">AICHI TARGET 20 **

Some cities are starting to change their ways. They are taxing wastes, encouraging renewable energies, promoting car sharing, and optimising natural sources of light. The best examples are in urban eco-areas such as Copenhagen's Vesterbro (Denmark), London's Beddington Zero Energy Development (UK), Vauban in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany), and the Eva Lanxmeer quarter in the City of Culemborg (The Netherlands). These areas are designed to be carbon neutral and to promote concepts of eco-citizenship, encouraging people to improve their own well-being by preserving the environment. "Cities of tomorrow" are also beginning to emerge—cities that are ecological and technological at the same time. Ex: the energy-independent city of Gwanggyo in South Korea will be a verdant acropolis of organic "hill" structures, with eight buildings that mix housing, offices, entertainment areas, and other facilities, thereby reducing transportation needs while also building a strong sense of community. In the United Arab Emirates, the planned city of Masdar will rely entirely on solar energy and other renewable energy sources, with a zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Way of the Future: Urban Eco-Areas: **

In 2004, to halt the annual loss of 75 hectares of woodlands, the Canadian city of Montreal identified 10 areas larger than 15 hectares in which to prioritize the protection and enhancement of natural spaces. These "ecoterritories" comprise core zones (pockets of biodiversity), protective buffers, and ecological corridors (see map) and include a mix of existing protected areas and other natural spaces, in private as well as public hands. With public consultation and the cooperation of landowners, the city has engaged in several conservation initiatives in the ecoterritories. For example, in exchange for tax benefits, landowners can donate their land to the city, exchange it for publicly owned brownfields, or confer protected status on it for a period of 30 years. The ecoterritories concept has been seen as a win-win for everyone involved and is now recognized in several borough chapters of the Montreal Master Plan.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Montreal's Urban Ecoterritories ** **<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">: **

Montpellier, France, provides an outstanding example of how green urban policies can attract investments in sustainable development and technologies. It has an extensive "green network" of protected areas that link the city's ecosystems. Investing in biodiversity has paid off for the city, that was named the European and French Capital for Biodiversity in 2011, which has attracted green businesses and even international scientific organizations. Several research institutions, including Bioversity International, CIRAD-Agriculture for Development, the National Institute for Health and Medical Research, and the Institute for Research and Development, work in Montpellier through Agropolis International, a network of researchers in 13 institutions. The city also reaches out for scientific and technical cooperation. Cooperating with cities in the USA, Germany, Spain, China, Israel, Morocco, and Algeria, Montpellier took the lead in establishing MEDIVERCITIES, a network of cities focused on biodiversity around the Mediterranean Basin.
 * Green Urban Policies in Montpellier:**