Urban Biodiversity

The first and key initiative towards the broader ICLEI Biodiversity Program is the Local Action for Biodiversity project or LAB. The first phase of this project involved 21 cities from all parts of the world (the LAB Pioneers), piloting on best approaches to sustainable urban biodiversity conservation, enhancement, utilization and management.

The 3 year pilot project was initiated by various partners such as ICLEI, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), Countdown 2010, the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), and RomaNatura and is open to more cooperation from interested organisations.

As the pilot pioneering phase of LAB drew to a close in June 2009, after three successful years involving these 21 globally spread cities, ICLEI and IUCN, who partner closely in the development and expansion of LAB, have initiated a new phase in which many more local governments on all continents benefit from cooperation, exchange, knowledge transfer, the availability of guiding and training material, relations with the scientific community and targeted advocacy efforts. 

Based on these pilot successes, along with widely expressed interest from all corners, ICLEI’s Local Action for Biodiversity programme, in partnership with IUCN, invites all cities and local governments to join this prestigious list of pioneers in the new LAB project intake, which officially started on 1 March 2009.

The LAB project is coordinated from Cape Town, South Africa, and is based at the ICLEI Africa Secretariat.

• For more information on LAB, please visit www.iclei.org/lab

• To join the LAB mailing list, please send an email to lab@iclei.org with "Subscribe" in the subject line

• For a comprehensive overview of LAB, please download the LAB Brochure