This year for the first time, ICLEI Europe kicked off a series of webinars specifically for our member cities. The next one is just around the corner on 12 December 2022. See why you should join by re-living key insights that emerged from the last edition, which focused on nature-based solutions (NBS). The webinar, “Biodiverse, nature-based cities: from policy to action”, helped ICLEI Members navigate biodiversity policy and mainstream locally relevant and community led NBS.
Elina Ojala, Environmental Director, City of Lahti (Finland) and Julinda Dhame, Director General of Environment and Sustainable Development, City of Tirana (Albania) provided insights from their work on biodiversity in their respective municipalities. The excellent work on nature and biodiversity in these municipalities maps a possible path forward for other cities and regions looking to implement similar initiatives in their communities.
One important initiative in Lahti is the Nature Step to Health programme, whose associated campaign now includes the world’s first Planetary Health Physician.
Among the City of Lahti’s diverse efforts to improve quality-of-life and health benefits with nature is the work it does with the GoGreenRoutes project, through which it is establishing a health forest. When people visit and have experiences in nature, such as those had at the Kinterö Health forest, they exhibit notable relaxation. Furthermore, exposure to clean soil has been proven to improve the immune system.
On the importance of the campaign, Ojala noted during the webinar, “Climate actions are often given price tags associated with the bigger picture costs of action versus inaction. But, it’s a bit more difficult to do this when looking specifically at biodiversity. The health benefits of biodiversity have not been given as much recognition. By having a plenary health team, we can make biodiversity issues more measurable and more visual, deliberately tying in this aspect of health in connection with this nature initiative.”
The municipality of Tirana has established many projects connecting children and students to nature, mainly through its work in the Tirana Directory of Environment and Sustainable Development. Tree planting has been central to these efforts, with the city’s Orbital Forest initiative proposing engaging local children to plant 2 million trees encircling the city, to act as a green belt to counter urban sprawl.
The city is also working hard to expand its bike lane network, in order to make it easier for citizens to access the city and its green spaces as a part of their daily commutes. During bike lane construction, residents pushed back on this proposal. However, as people began to understand its benefits, this work began to be embraced. “In the beginning, we faced a lot of local opposition,” explains Dhame. “But, now everything is going well. When we closed the road to make a bike lane, people saw first-hand the ways that this made them very happy.”
Reflecting on these successes in Tirana, Eilna furthermore notes, “We need ambitious nature targets and effective measures to reach them. We have targets for climate and some related to the Nature Restoration Law. Now it’s important to work with other cities to get ideas and experiences for implementation on the ground to reach these critical goals.”
Moving in from ambition to action is a challenge being tackled by local and regional governments across the world. This has been on display recently at the UN Climate Change COP27 in November, and the ongoing UN Biodiversity COP15, where ICLEI will be present in a number of sessions regarding urban nature-based solutions and development. Keep your eyes on our social media channels for live, on-the-ground updates from the event!
To learn more about the ICLEI Member Webinar series, click here.
To register for the next ICLEI Webinar on Coastal Cities on 12 December, click here.