Submitted by
vanhamc
on Mon, 01/06/2020 - 11:13
General Information
Resolution
46446
IUCN Constituent
European Representative Office Brussels
IUCN Constituent type
IUCN Secretariat
Period covered
Geographic scope
Global
Actors involved in implementing this Resolution:
IUCN Members
72CE514B-B8A3-E011-96D3-002655853524
The Wildlife Trusts ( United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland )
The Nature Conservancy ( United States of America )
IUCN Commissions
087A3395-481F-E711-B6EC-005056BA6623
5193ACA6-E1A1-E611-B6EC-005056BA6623
IUCN Secretariat
Yes
Other non-IUCN related organisations
The Nature of Cities, Stockholm Resilience Center, World Bank, European Commission DG Research and Innovation, Salzburg Global Seminar, Ecocity Builders, Singapore Parks Board
II. Implementation
Activities carried out to implement this Resolution
Activity
Convene stakeholders/Networking
Description and results/achievements of activities:
IUCN Europe organised a conference for the GrowGreen project on innovative financing for creating green cities, sharing knowledge, tools and promoting new partnerships for action to implement nature-based solutions in cities; the IUCN Urban Alliance convened a series of meetings with technical experts for developing an urban nature index; there were two meetings of the IUCN Urban Task force and IUCN co-organised workshop with GEF, World Bank and The Nature Conservancy for green urban development; participated in the Singapore Cities and Biodiversity Index 10 year anniversary to review and refine the 23 indicators of the Singapore Index on Cities Biodiversity. IUCN is a founding partner of CitiesWithNature - global platform for cities and other subnational governments, their communities and experts to connect, share and learn from each other in mainstreaming nature into our cities in ways that benefit both people and nature; as member of the Advisory Board of The Nature of Cities, IUCN has supported the first Summit of this Network that took place in Paris in June 2019.
Status
On-going
Activity
Education/Communication/Raising awareness
Description and results/achievements of activities:
IUCN Europe convened a session on urban nature during the IUCN European Members Forum - the Value of Nature for a sustainable urban future; A book chapter for a Springer publication was published - Nature-Based Solutions and Protected Areas to Improve Urban Biodiversity and Health; the IUCN Urban Alliance has made video interviews with experts and compiled 17 urban nature blogs and 34 urban nature case studies; A factsheet was produced on Building Resilience with Green and Blue Infrastructure for the ENABLE project; Visual Story Nature in the City was published by IUCN; story by IUCN Member - Nature for health on our urban minds
Status
On-going
Activity
Scientific/technical activities
Description and results/achievements of activities:
The IUCN Urban Alliance is working on a an ‘Urban Nature Manifesto’ containing key short, medium and long term ‘asks’ for improving the social and ecological performance of cities and the Urban Nature Index is under development; the IUCN Frencn National Committee launched tools for subnational governments to work on biodiversity
Status
On-going
Describe any challenges encountered in implementing this Resolution and the measures taken
The implementation of this resolution fully depends on project funding, most actions described above are linked to the Urban Alliance project funded by Arcadia and the EU funded projects GrowGreen and ENABLE; this creates challenges for future continuation of the actions as new funding will need to be mobilised to strengthen IUCNs urban engagement across the regions in the long run
Please report on the result /achievement of the actions taken
In 2019, the urban activities of IUCN have been strengthened thanks to the support of the Arcadia Fund for the Urban Alliance and through support from the EU for projects to implement nature-based solutions and to increase the awareness of the benefits of nature for cities. The collaboration with core partners, such as ICLEI, The Nature of Cities, The Nature Conservancy is maintained and some new connections were made as part of the project activities and the development of the urban nature index. IUCN Commissions, in particular WCPA, CEC and CEM have actively engaged in expanding the urban dimension of their work and IUCN Regional Offices in Asia, Africa, South and Meso America are growing their involvement in working with cities providing expertise and capacity building to create new partnerships for biodiversity protection, enhancing the connectivity between cities and their surrounding ecosystems and assessment of the value of natural capital as well mobilising new sources of funding to invest in urban nature-based solutions. The IUCN National Committee in France has over the years invested in supporting the efforts of subnational governments for biodiversity. Overall the urban
Identify and briefly describe what future actions/activities are planned for the implementation of this Resolution
Future action / activity
Capacity-building
Description
For the EU Horizon 2020 GrowGreen project, the IUCN European Reginoal Office will roll out a capacity building programme for cites to develop and implement urban nature-based solutions strategies and projects for the project partner cities as well as other European and internatoinal cities. A new EU project has been funded - the EU platform for NBS, which will also strengthen the sharing of training and knowledge materials to cities
Future action / activity
Convene stakeholders/Networking
Description
The IUCN Urban Alliance has mobilise funding to establish an Urban Pavillion during the IUCN WCCC to showcase key achievements for biodiversity in cities from IUCN Members and partners of the alliance; the new EU funded network for NBS will convene stakeholders that have a major role in strengthen the uptake and implementation, including land owners and managers, infrastructure and finance, as well as public media.
Future action / activity
Scientific/technical activities
Description
As part of the IUCN Urban Alliance activities the World Conservation Congress will launch the Urban Nature Index, a first draft of which will soon be the subject of a stakeholder consultation. The index is intended to harmonise and standardise existing indicators, such as the Singapore Index on Cities’ Biodiversity, World Bank Natural Capital Assessment and Ecocity Footprint Tool. The Index will be piloted in cities.
III. Additional Information
External link(s)
Report status
Published
Constituent type
IUCN Secretariat