"Local Action for Biodiversity Cities & Biodiversity Case Series" extended

The “Local Action for Biodiversity Cities & Biodiversity Case Series” was compiled on the occasion of the Mayors Conference Local Action for Biodiversity (26-28 May 2008), held in parallel to the 9th Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in May 2008 in Bonn, Germany.

Initiated and co-funded by UNEP’s Urban Environmental Unit, the text for these case studies was compiled and edited by ICLEI’s Local Action for Biodiversity (LAB) project team in the ICLEI Africa Office in Cape Town, South Africa, with support of ICLEI’s International Training Centre, Freiburg, Germany. Generous support was provided by Countdown 2010, the CBD Secretariat and the cities themselves. Each of the cities selected to feature in this series has demonstrated outstanding activities at the local level as well as strong commitment to biodiversity in the international arena.

Urban biodiversity faces a multitude of threats including habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, over-exploitation of natural resources, invasion of alien species, pollution and climate change. Loss of biodiversity disrupts ecosystem functions, making ecosystems more vulnerable to shocks and disturbances, less resilient, and less able to supply humans with essential ecosystem services. The case descriptions in this series show how cities and towns can take action in managing their biodiversity and its threats. They also demonstrate a variety of targeted response options – from the creation of protected areas and reserves, to sustainable resource management and pollution prevention programmes – and these local actions are reducing the rate of biodiversity loss for specific habitats and species.

ICLEI has now expanded this series, with a further 8 cases from Amsterdam, Ekurhuleni, King County, Leicester, Liverpool, Seoul, Tilburg and Zagreb: all of which participate in ICLEI’s Local Action for Biodiversity project.

To download the cases click here