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Ecosystems and Biodiversity the Role of Cities

Ecosystems and Biodiversity the Role of Cities

Information and Support WWF - The Global Conservation Organization www.panda.org/about_wwf United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) WWF aims to stop and eventually reverse environmental degradation and to build www.unep.org a future where people live in harmony with nature. UNEP is the principal environment organization of the United Nations system. It and supports governments and their partners to develop and implement environment Birdlife International policies and activities. www.birdlife.net BirdLife International is a global alliance of conservation organizations working United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-) together for the world’s birds and people. www.unhabitat.org UN-HABITAT is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It promotes Conservation International socially and environmentally sustainable and cities with the goal of www.conservation.org providing adequate shelter for all. A U.S.-based, international organization, Conservation International (CI) works to protect the Earth’s richest regions of and animal diversity. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) www.biodiv.org IUCN-The World Conservation Union The CBD is an agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of biological www.iucn.org diversity, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of The World Conservation Union helps societies worldwide to conserve nature and to genetic . It has a comprehensive approach that encompasses social, ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and sustainable. It has set environmental and economic issues. The Role of Cities up a taskforce on cities and protected areas.

Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Fauna & Flora International www.gefweb.org www.fauna-flora.org The GEF supports activities that protect the global environment, including Fauna & Flora International (FFI) tackles problems holistically, providing solutions involvement activities related to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity that simultaneously help , humans and the environment. and the fair and equitable sharing of its benefits. UNDP, UNEP and the World Bank are the three Implementing Agencies of the GEF. www.nature.org influence The Equator Initiative The Nature Conservancy works to preserve the , animals and natural www.undp.org/equatorinitiative/index.htm communities that represent the diversity of on Earth. A partnership which brings together the United Nations, civil society, business, governments and communities, helping to build the capacity and raise the profile Wetlands International implementation of grassroots efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and www.wetlands.org sustainable use of biodiversity. Wetlands International is dedicated to the work of wetland conservation and sustainable management. Man and the (UNESCO) www.unesco.org/mab/index.htm Wildlife Conservation Society UNESCO’s programme on Man and the Biosphere (MAB) works towards the www.wcs.org sustainable use and conservation of biological diversity, and for the The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild through science, improvement of the relationship between people and their environment globally. international conservation, education, and the management of the world’s largest The MAB Programme is supported by regional or sub-regional networks: AfriMAB, system of urban wildlife parks. ArabMAB, EABRN, EuroMAB, IberoMAB, CYTED, Northern Sciences Network, REDBIOS, SeaBRnet and South and Central Asia MAB Network (SACAM). Cities Alliance Although cities occupy just 2 per cent of the Earth’s surface, their inhabitants use www.citiesalliance.org The Cities Alliance is a global alliance of cities and their development partners 75 per cent of the planet’s natural resources. Cities draw on their surrounding committed to improve the living conditions of the urban poor through City ecosystems for goods and services, and their products and emissions can affect Development Strategies (CDS) and slum upgrading. Nelson A. Dauz/UNEP/Still Pictures Selected Conventions and Multilateral regional and even global ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems and biological diversity Environmental Agreements related to United Cities and Local Governments are vital for cities to function properly. Ecosystems provide three main kinds of www.cities-localgovernments.org/uclg biodiversity and ecosystems United Cities and Local Governments is the global voice of cities and the main services to the city: provisioning, regulating and enriching. While some of these local government partner of the United Nations. services are easily measured, such as the provision of and fresh , Global others are harder to quantify, such as the contribution an makes to Convention on International Trade in Endangered Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) www.gbif.org quality of life in aesthetic or spiritual terms. Biodiversity – the diversity among (CITES) This brochure is published by UNEP and UN-HABITAT For further information, please contact GBIF facilitates the digitisation and global dissemination of primary biodiversity living organisms – plays an essential role in ensuring the survival of life on earth. Bonn Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) data, so that people from all countries can benefit from the use of the information. to raise awareness and strengthen initiatives within cities United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) regarding local-global linkages. With mandates drawn United Nations Avenue, Gigiri Clean water, foodstuffs, medicines and quality of life are just a few of the services Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN) which biodiversity offers to cities. Recognizing the importance of biodiversity and Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety www.iabin.net/english/about/background.shtml from the UN-HABITAT-led initiative ‘Local Capacities for P.O. Box 30552, 00100 , Marine Mammal Action Plan (MMAP) IABIN provides the networking information infrastructure (e.g. standards and Global Agendas’, established as one of the partnership Tel: +254-20-624184 healthy ecosystems for their survival, cities today undertake many initiatives to protocols) and biodiversity information content required by the countries of the utilize and conserve their surroundings efficiently. These actions can reach far United Nations Forum on (UNFF) Americas to improve decision-making on issues at the interface of human implementation commitments of the World Summit on Fax: +254-20-624324/623861 development and biodiversity conservation. Sustainable Development (WSSD), the Millennium Email: [email protected] beyond the boundaries of the city, affecting biodiversity on a global scale. Regional Development Goals and UNEP’s Bali Strategic Plan, both European Network for Biodiversity Information (ENBI) www.unep.org Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian www.enbi.info/forums/enbi/index.php UNEP and UN-HABITAT work to integrate local level Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) ENBI works to establish a strong European network to digitise primary biodiversity perspectives into global policies. Both agencies United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) data and make it accessible through an integrated shared information Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of infrastructure. emphasize the important role of cities at the national, Information Services Section the Baltic & North Seas (ASCOBANS) regional and global levels. Office of the Executive Director Agreement on the Conservation of the Black Seas, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi, Kenya www.MAweb.org Mediterranean and Contiguous Atlantic Area The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) is a United Nations initiative that Brochures are also available on , and Tel: +254-20-623120 (ACCOBAMS) provides decision makers and the public with scientific information concerning the Coastal Area Fax: +254-20-623477 consequences of ecosystem change and options for responding to those changes. Agreement on the Conservation of Populations of Email: [email protected] European Bats (Eurobats) September 2005 www.unhabitat.org Local capacities for global agendas

Peter Frischmuth/Still Pictures Biodiversity supports the ecosystem functions essential for life "Biological diversity” means the Otters have returned to waterways in more than 100 towns across poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of on earth. It provides products such as food, medicines and variability among living organisms from the , reflecting improvements in and biodiversity, has established Equator Ventures, a unique materials for industry. It is also at the heart of many cultural all sources including, inter alia, increases in available food. Their return began with the phasing values. Biodiversity and functional ecosystems give resilience to terrestrial, marine and other aquatic out of chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides which, together with investment programme which concentrates on finance and the biosphere, but as biodiversity is degraded, communities and ecosystems and the ecological other chemicals, built up in fish, the otters’ main food supply. capacity development for biodiversity enterprises. human society itself become more vulnerable because options complexes of which they are part; this BBC News, 2002 for change are diminished. Biodiversity can be seen therefore as includes diversity within species, Many non-governmental organizations, such as WWF - The Global a ‘life insurance policy for life itself’. between species and of ecosystems. In 2001, the City of Chicago, USA, created a green roof on top of Conservation Organization, also fund biodiversity conservation Water, , Health, Agriculture and Biodiversity (WEHAB) Chicago’s City Hall, with the aim of combating rising local activities. The non-profit organization Conservation Working Group, A Framework for Action on Biodiversity and Article 2, Use of Terms, Convention temperatures, cooling the building and reducing its energy costs Ecosystem Management, August 2002 on Biological Diversity International, for example, dedicates part of its annual budget to and soaking up for gradual release. While providing a Rob de Jong Rob de Jong wildlife habitat was never a primary objective of the project, by funding initiatives by partners which share its objectives. 2003 the roof had seen a 12 per cent rise in the number of birds using the roof, and an increased variety of species. The roof has Numerous organizations, both intergovernmental and non- Cities, ecosystems and biodiversity also provided a habitat for a wide variety of insects. Where urban crops are produced for the local market, this governmental, provide technical support on biodiversity. Jerry Bergman/UNEP/Still Pictures Chicago Magazine, 2004 markedly reduces the distance that food has to travel before it Lagoon absorbs the city’s floodwaters, and receives the UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) Studies of the ‘ecological footprint’ of cities – the area of reaches the end consumer. needed to provide a city with the resources it requires to of several rivers. and domestic and industrial can provide expertise, tools, techniques and information, and As urban agriculture grew in the Washington USA metropolis from works to establish networks to promote conservation and function and to remove its wastes – show that cities affect a discharges have severely affected the lagoon’s flora and fauna, 1978 to 1998, the variety of tomatoes available in the market Even suburban gardens can support miniature ecosystems into policy documents such as City Development Strategies geographic area vastly greater than their own surface area. A and lagoon have been almost entirely destroyed, increased from eight to seventy-four. Urban agriculture is the information exchange. WCMC also focuses on global necessary for biodiversity – a recent study of 61 gardens in (Cities Alliance) or Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers city’s ecological footprint contributes significantly to removing an important source of income for local residents. The conservator and generator of biodiversity in agricultural crops biodiversity assessment and analysis, and provides support for from poultry to lettuce. One acre of urban agriculture, using urban Sheffield, United Kingdom, ranging from tiny backyards to plots (International Monetary Fund, World Bank), and by biodiversity loss, both locally and at the global level. For lagoon’s reservoir function has also been compromised, resulting policy and agreements at national, regional and international waste as an input, can save five acres, or more, of rural marginal of land ten times larger, found 4,000 invertebrates, 80 kinds of levels. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) supports a participating in UNEP’s Global Environment Outlook (GEO) example, ecosystem in just one city on a migratory in more frequent flooding in the city. In Shenyang, China, agricultural land or . Urban agriculture produces food lichen and more than 1,000 types of plant. process in cities, local governments can ensure that biological flight path can affect certain degradation of the drylands surrounding the city have increased and energy crops close to the worldwide partnership to conserve the integrity and diversity of diversity is included in local and national development species of birds well beyond the level of airborne particulates, threatening public health and market demand, some within the nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is While not strictly migratory, the neighbourhood. This proximity of Networking strategies from the start. The GEO process, designed to analyse the confines of that city. creating a constant haze of over the city. equitable and ecologically sustainable. Cities can also take Lesser Flamingo moves production to consumption reduces advantage of the wealth of information on biological diversity the state of the environment, assesses the effects of cities on frequently between the soda traffic, storage, and packaging as While international agreements such as the Convention on the local, national and global environment. lakes of Kenya and Tanzania. Urban demands for In each of these examples, urban interests have had a detrimental sources of the pollution that erodes International Trade in and the Convention collected by information networks such as the Global The flamingos are a key tourist specialized foodstuffs, such effect on the ecosystems around the cities, damaging the biodiversity. The average distance on Biological Diversity are negotiated at the global level, the Biodiversity Information Facility. attraction for the of travelled for a food item on a The Equator Initiative programme, ‘Making the Community to as tuna and shrimp, can biodiversity of the surrounding areas, and in turn threatening the input of cities is highly important in ensuring implementation at Nakuru, in Kenya’s Rift Valley. supermarket shelf in New York was Policy Connection’, helps to improve institutional frameworks Urban encroachment on Lake affect fish stocks halfway viability of the cities themselves. While damaged ecosystems determined in 1995 to be 2,000 the local, national and regional levels. Cities can raise How cities can influence the development of global and the ‘enabling environment’ for poverty alleviation and Nakuru, however, has affected around the globe. The negatively affect urban residents, healthy ecosystems provide kilometres. biodiversity issues in regional thematic networks such as those policies biodiversity at local, national and global levels. This programme water levels in the lake, and the global fishing industry, cities with a range of services which are essential for their Jac Smit, Urban Agriculture and established under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme release of untreated industrial Urban experiences in ecosystem conservation and biodiversity helps community representatives to influence policies which will buoyed up by subsidies, economic, social and environmental . Biodiversity, www.ruaf.org/1-1/11- (MAB), which focuses on the sustainable use and conservation waste and is damaging Florence/UNEP/Still Pictures 12.pdf protection can strengthen national policies, and allow national affect them by ensuring that they have access to decision-makers the lake’s ecosystem. These contributes to damage to of biological diversity, and the improvement of the relationship governments to use local experiences to improve global policies developments are threatening in national, regional and international fora. seabeds, coral reefs, How cities can contribute to a solution between people and their environment globally. for ecosystem and biodiversity conservation. A free flow of the flamingo population, and of species, and leading to fears for the Cities play a key role in global efforts to protect and manage quality. Around a third of the world’s largest cities obtain a information from the city to the national level can be supported to the unnecessary death of City networks also provide local authorities with a forum for the Conclusion economic future of the town’s vulnerable ecosystems and biodiversity. Just as the ecological significant percentage of their from protected by appropriate decentralization, and by the participation of cities tourist industry. and other animals as exchange of biodiversity information with other cities. footprint of a city can have a negative impact far beyond the areas. This protection directly benefits biodiversity and the in national meetings. With the coordinated input of local The loss of biodiversity and the degradation of natural . Participation in international city networks such as United Cities boundaries of the city, certain urban actions can also have a far- viability of surrounding ecosystems. authorities, global agendas can be formulated to respond to resources will severely constrain efforts to meet the Millennium and Local Governments (UCLG) or ICLEI-Local Governments for Subsidies have been blamed for reaching positive impact. The arrangement of green areas in a urban needs and to take advantage of urban strengths. Development Goals. Unsustainable production and Coastal cities which damage Sustainability allows cities to influence global level policy- the 1997 collapse of hake city and their connection with the surrounding countryside are Urban planning and building regulations can prevent consumption patterns, together with harmful subsidies, a failure fishing of Argentina, the near their ecosystems can render making, raising issues that are important to them and speaking critical to sustainability. Small towns and big cities can make up construction on vulnerable land such as wetlands. Although The need to approach biodiversity from a socio-economic to utilize environmental impact assessments properly and a lack depletion of cod stocks in the themselves particularly with one voice from a global platform. North Atlantic, as well as watersheds – an area of land that catches precipitation and drains here the primary impetus stems from a desire to reduce the risk of perspective was underlined at the World Summit on Sustainable of understanding of the importance of biodiversity among vulnerable. By over- overfishing along the coasts of or seeps into a marsh, stream, river, lake or . flooding and to drain stormwater, such regulations also support Development. By integrating ecosystem and biodiversity issues urban citizens, managers and decision-makers are just some of exploiting the seas as a West Africa, where industrial Watersheds sometimes cross municipal, provincial and even biodiversity by maintaining natural ecosystems close to the city, Support the causes underlying biodiversity loss in and around our fleets are replacing artisanal, source of food and as a cities. While biodiversity loss and damage to ecosystems are small-scale fishing. international borders and range from millions of acres draining into improving the quality of life for urban residents, and providing By linking urban activities to ecosystem protection and location for waste disposal, Ecosystem Services provide three main kinds global issues, in practice it is local and national actions which Robin, Wolcott and Quintela, major shared water bodies to a few acres that drain into a pond. essential space for urban wildlife. biodiversity conservation, cities can access various types of cities compromise the of services to the city, which can be grouped have the potential to address the situation. Perverse Subsidies and the into the following key areas: benefits offered by their support. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) helps Implications for Biodiversity, Local authorities recognize that appropriate ecosystem Urban measures to increase energy efficiency can also benefit developing countries fund projects that protect the global 2003 location. Provisioning Linkages between the local, national, regional and global levels management can save cities large sums of money, often avoiding biodiversity. For example, energy efficient ‘green roofs’, environment. This includes action that supports conservation e.g. food, fuels, , genetic materials are essential if the needs and abilities of cities are to be fully the necessity for mechanical intervention in areas such as water designed to reduce energy costs and to minimize stormwater and sustainable use of biological diversity and the fair and Closer to home, the way in included in the negotiation of biodiversity conventions and runoff, attract an array of bird and insect life. Urban parks, green equitable sharing of its benefits. Cities, in cooperation with their Regulating which a city interacts with its hinterlands shows clearly how multilateral environmental agreements. Ecosystems and median strips and tree planting offer urban residents more national governments, can access support from GEF for e.g. air and , and biodiversity and ecosystems can be unbalanced by urban mitigation, fertility, crop pollination, biodiversity around the world are already threatened, and It has been estimated that implementing a forest protection strategy in pleasant surroundings, and provide a for wildlife. Urban measures that will have positive impacts on globally significant demands. This can have unforeseen effects on the health and the water catchment area of New York will be seven times cheaper biodiversity maintenance, climate stabilization action at the city level is essential. Biodiversity issues must be protected areas, such as parks, nature reserves and greenbelts, biodiversity. Cities in states which are parties to the Convention well-being of the city itself. In Nairobi, Kenya, demand for than building and operating a treatment plant. Mount Kenya saves included in cities’ formal work programmes and action plans. are often particularly important in urban settings for wildlife and on the Conservation of Migratory Species may be able to Enriching charcoal threatens the Aberdares forest, which plays an Kenya’s economy more than US$20 million a year through protecting With the cooperation and support of partners at all levels, the water catchment area of two of the country’s main river systems. for people. participate in concerted action among the range states of e.g. spiritual uses, aesthetic values, social important role in the city’s water catchment and purification relations, education and scientific value including the United Nations, future actions in the cities to World Bank-WWF Alliance for Forest Conservation and Sustainable threatened migratory species. The United Nations’ new system. The health of the forest’s ecosystem is essential if preserve ecosystems and biodiversity will play a vital role in Use, Running Pure: The Importance of Forest Protected Areas to Urban agriculture can contribute to , urban partnership-based Equator Initiative, which works to build the Nairobi’s water supply is to be assured. In Accra, Ghana, Korle Drinking Water, 2003 TU FU XU/UNEP/Still Pictures global efforts to conserve life on earth. , microclimate improvement and urban biodiversity. capacity and raise the profile of grassroots efforts to reduce

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