News

1 July 2022

European Committee of the Regions joins RegionsWithNature

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the newest partner to join ICLEI in developing RegionsWithNature, a platform that strengthens regional authorities’ voices with respect to biodiversity protection and nature-based solutions on national and international levels. As the voice of cities and regions in the European Union, the CoR was a natural fit to join the team of RegionsWithNature founding partners.

RegionsWithNature brings together regional and subnational leaders and their partners from around the world, providing access to tools and resources on nature-based solutions, ecosystem restoration, and biodiversity conservation, and sharing regional commitments to achieving global nature goals.

ICLEI has a longstanding partnership with the CoR, which is formalised in a Memorandum of Understanding and related joint Action Plans. As part of this cooperation, ICLEI Europe has played the strong role supporting the CoR to deliver opinions on biodiversity related to the United Nations’ Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

Building on this strong foundation, ICLEI invited the CoR to become a partner to the RegionsWithNature platform, joining Regions4, the Group of Leading Subnational Governments, IUCN and ICLEI in developing this initiative. RegionsWithNature is also supported by the UN Environment Programme and the Secretariat of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, with numerous regional and subnational governments already on board, including the Community of Madrid and Catalonia (Spain), and Scotland (the United Kingdom).

ICLEI is honoured to welcome the CoR into the RegionsWithNature initiative and platform, under the shared missions of connecting urban planning and biodiversity conservation.

“Now that there is already a growing momentum towards addressing the climate emergency with the biodiversity crisis in close conjunction, we are delighted to welcome the voice of the European regions through the Committee of the Regions to the RegionsWithNature family,” says Kobie Brand, ICLEI CBC Director and Deputy Secretary General of ICLEI. “We are certain that in the context of RegionsWithNature, where there are prominent advocates of strong commitments and pro-active contributions towards more biodiversity in cities and regions such as ICLEI, Regions4, GoLs and IUCN, this partnership will bear fruitful outcomes and greater impacts for the benefit of human and nature.”

“Local and sub-national governments are at the forefront of implementing measures to tackle biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation,” explains Roby Biwer, member of the Bettembourg Municipal Council (Luxembourg) and Rapporteur for CoR opinions on biodiversity and nature restoration. “This is why the European Committee of the Regions, as the European Union’s assembly of regional and local representatives, strongly supports the objectives of RegionsWithNature. This global platform is an essential tool to showcase regional commitments towards achieving national and global biodiversity targets, with the aim of bolstering regional governments’ nature ambitions and ensuring that multi-level governance opportunities for action are maximised.”

The path ahead – to meet the urgent demands of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework – is ambitious and demanding. To halt biodiversity loss and restore ecosystems on a large scale requires inclusive partnerships built upon shared principles and values, committed to implementing concerted and successful actions. Joining forces with the CoR is an important step on this path.