Jerusalem Metropolitan Region Biosphere Workshop

The Jerusalem Municipality, through the office of Deputy Mayor Naomi Tsur, has partnered with the Dead Sea Drainage Authority, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, the Jerusalem Development Authority, the Jerusalem Wastewater and Purification Company and the Beracha Foundation to explore Jerusalem’s bio-regional landscape, projects and initiatives as a case study for the development of the URBIS concept.

URBIS aims to engender cities with greater socio-ecological resilience by promoting sustainable planning, policies and landscape management at the bio-regional level and draws on the 2010 Nagoya URBIS Declaration, which created a foundational partnership committed to advancing a framework for metropolitan ecosystem management.

Over the next two days, international experts in ecology, biodiversity management and community engagement will work with key Israeli specialists to produce strategies for moving forward with an urban biosphere concept that transcends municipal boundaries, based on cooperation within the region.

Their work will be presented in June 2012 at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and the ICLEI World Congress in Belo Horizonte.