Urban sprawl is rapidly depleting biodiversity and degrading natural ecosystems, while poor land-use planning is resulting in social and economic issues within and around cities.
In order to create a healthy environment to live and work in, local governments must reconcile their development ambitions with nature by integrating multi-functional, biodiverse and interconnected green and blue spaces in their cities. These can act as Nature-based Solutions (NBS), tackling challenges such as poor air quality, vulnerability to climate change-related risks like flooding or heat waves, deteriorating health of citizens, and bringing urban communities closer together. As a long-term advocate of the importance of urban biodiversity and green spaces, ICLEI Europe supports local governments in embedding NBS into policies and planning processes. By working with cities to implement NBS and promote biodiversity, ICLEI Europe also helps them to reduce the impacts of climate change, thus creating a cohesive urban society and nature-positive economy.
ICLEI Europe's global flagship programme Urban By Nature, and European resource centre NetworkNature are two of the flagship initiatives designed to support local, regional and international cooperation to maximise the impact and spread of nature-based solutions.
Click on our Biodiversity & Nature-based Solutions factsheet to read more.
"Cities have a key role to play in protecting and enhancing biodiversity as well as in taking bold actions to bring about transformative change that will halt biodiversity loss. Växjö has recently taken steps towards integrating ecosystem services into our local Comprehensive Plan. Healthy biodiversity and the ecosystem services that it provides are key for the well-being of our citizens and will help to build resilient cities."
Cheryl Jones Fur, (Member of ICLEI's European Regional Executive Committee)
Councillor, Växjö, Sweden
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