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WCC 2020 Res 067 - Progress Report

General information
Call for Nature in Cities agendas and Strengthening the IUCN Urban Alliance
Period covered: 
2022
IUCN Constituencies implementing this Resolution
IUCN Members: 
Parks Canada Agency - Agence Parcs Canada / Canada
Oficina de protección del ambiente de la Municipalidad de Curridabat ( MC ) / Costa Rica
Ville de Paris ( Paris ) / France
The Nature Conservancy ( TNC ) / United States of America
IUCN Commissions: 
IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management 2021-2025 (CEM)
IUCN Commission on Education and Communication 2021-2025 (CEC)
IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas 2021-2025 (WCPA)
IUCN Secretariat: 
Yes
Other non-IUCN related organisations: 
University of Antwerp Sorbonne University Edinburgh City Council, Salzburg Global Seminar, Wageningen University, Durham University, University of Cambridge UNEP WCMC, ICLEI, C40, cottish Wildlife Trust,WCS, Greater London Authority, Chines Academy of Sciences, Lagos State, Nigeria, Mexico City, Mexico, Saanich District Municipality, Canada, (Singapore National Parks Board, Singapore
Implementation
Indicate which actions have been carried out to implement this Resolution : 
Capacity-building
Education/Communication/Raising awareness
Fundraising
Policy influencing/advocacy
Describe the results/achievements of the actions taken: 
Developing the Urban Innovation Priority Project – the Secretariat designed a new innovation priority project to strengthen and expand IUCN’s urban work. The project commenced in mid-2022 with the objectives of enhancing urban expertise within the Secretariat, developing an urban toolbox and refining IUCN’s service offerings to cities, mobilising resources and developing new lines of business with cities.
Developing the IUCN Urban Nature Index – the Secretariat has published a first edition of the IUCN Urban Nature Index and begun working with a group of leading cities to roll it out globally. To date, over 30 cities have expressed their intention to implement the IUCN Urban Nature Index. Additionally, a digital platform for the index is now under development.
Convening stakeholders to advance urban conservation action – the Secretariat organised the first IUCN Local Action Summit and Urban Planet Pavilion during the recent IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille. The former was attended by 13 local government leaders all of whom announced bold action pledges for nature, while the latter provided a central gathering place for deliberating on urban conservation research, policy and practice. More recently, at the IUCN Leaders Forum in Jeju, South Korea, IUCN organised a high-level panel for urban leaders and co-hosted the AIPH World Green City Awards 2022.
Publishing case studies via PANORAMA Solutions – the PANORAMA Cities community has continued to grow with the curation of IUCN Secretariat and the World Bank. Today, some 218 urban solutions have been published via the portal.
Influencing policy – In 2021, IUCN Members also adopted the Marseille Manifesto comprising a bold commitment “to expand universal access to high-quality green spaces and to enhance urban biodiversity in 100 cities, representing around 100 million citizens by 2025, and assess their impact according to the IUCN Urban Nature Index.” Meanwhile, the Nature 2030 IUCN Programme comprises a prominent ‘Impact Target’ to ensure “Nature and people thrive in cities while delivering solutions to urban challenges and a sustainable ecological footprint.”

With the hiring of new technical staff and the launch of the Urban Innovation Priority Project, IUCN’s urban work has moved from the periphery of the organisation to its heart. A restructured Secretariat houses the new urban team within the Centre for Society and Governance providing it with broad institutional support and strong leadership. Moreover, IUCN’s reputation as a credible urban knowledge broker has been greatly enhanced leading to several new and additional project opportunities.
What challenges/obstacles have been encountered in the implementation of this Resolution and how were they overcome : 
With the creation of a new subnational government membership category, it has been necessary to define IUCN’s value proposition to cities. IUCN has not, traditionally, catered to this constituency, so it is necessary to tailor or even re-design certain IUCN products and services to meet their needs. This is a challenging and time-consuming undertaking, where most IUCN centers and Commissions should be consulted. However, with the roll out of the IUCN Urban Nature Index, the development of an IUCN urban toolbox, the strengthening of urban expertise within the Secretariat, compelling measures have been taken to ensure that progress is being made to remedy them.
Briefly describe what future actions are needed for the implementation of this Resolution: 
Future actions described below for 2023-2024 are as follow:
Policy influencing addresses the request to “ENCOURAGE governmental authorities to take into account the need to restore and develop nature in cities in the programmes they manage”. Includes resources for both staff time and travel/workshops to implement trainings and events to make policy and decision-makers aware of the importance of restoring and conserving nature. This could involve working with IUCN commissions such as SSC and CEM to support with content and rolling-out engagement strategy with decision-makers.
Stakeholder networking respond to the resolution clauses which “URGES IUCN and its constituent parts to scale up work with cities and city networks, such as ICLEI”. Engaging with the many cities networks already existing (TreeforCities, C40, ICLEI) and organizing IUCN-led events on cities is expected to require significant resources (travel/training and staff time)
Education and communication includes activities to address the calls on DG to “compiling and developing case studies of nature-based urban interventions” and “promoting research into ways of scaling up and extending the implementation of such case studies and reviewing” and “strengthening the governance arrangements of the IUCN Urban Alliance”. A significant portion o this budget could be earmarked to IUCN-CEC.
Capacity building address the call on DF to “developing and promoting the Urban Nature Index knowledge product” with at least 100 cities by 2025. This includes applying the Urban Nature Indices and other urban tools of IUCN with 100 cities.
Budget of Scientific activities would support the last request to DG of “establishing science-based targets work to measure and understand the positive and negative impacts”
“Others” include resources for continuous refinement of the Urban Nature Indices web-platform and business model development.
Are these actions planned for yet: 
Yes
Status of implementation
Status of implementation for this Resolution: 
On-going: implementation consisting of repetitive, recurrent action (attending meetings, reporting, etc.)
Additional information
External link(s): 
IUCN Urban Nature Indices