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Ecosystems and Biodiversity the Role of Cities

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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 Ecosystems 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-HABITAT) 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 towns and cities with the goal of Biodiversity 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 plant 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 resources. 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 wildlife, 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. The Nature Conservancy www.nature.org influence The Equator Initiative The Nature Conservancy works to preserve the plants, animals and natural www.undp.org/equatorinitiative/index.htm communities that represent the diversity of life 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 Biosphere (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 lands 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 food and fresh water, Global others are harder to quantify, such as the contribution an ecosystem 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 Species (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 Nairobi, Kenya 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 Forests (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 Climate Change, and Tel: +254-20-623120 (ACCOBAMS) provides decision makers and the public with scientific information concerning the Coastal Area Pollution 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 United Kingdom, reflecting improvements in water quality 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
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