With a population of 2.5 million, the Durban Metropolitan Area (DMA) is the largest port on the east coast of Africa. While it is a typical South African city in terms of the legacy left from racial planning and institutions, it is distinctive in terms of language, ethnic and racial mix, and political make-up. As
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São Paulo is the largest city in South America, with over 11 million inhabitants. Remarkably, 40% of its metropolitan area is still covered by forest. In the inner city, the vegetated areas are fragmented and scattered throughout the urban area. However, the scenario is completely different in the peripheral areas – especially in the South 
From Chicago to Paris, Ottawa or Montreal, cities look for solutions to cope with hotter summers and climate change adverse effects. The solutions might be simpler than one might think. Due to the high building density and surfaces of covered soils, cities have lost the ability to regulate temperature and, in fact, are creating heat 
by David Lammers, MSc Environmental Studies and Sustainability Studies, Lund University Water systems have a crucial function in many cities. Rivers and coastlines act as veins of life as they provide cities with a plethora of ecosystem services – water supply, income generation, relaxation and many more. At the same time, however, they can be the 
Nature-based solutions can address urban challenges exacerbated by growing urban populations and the impacts of climate change. They are multi-functional, cost-effective and provide a wide range of benefits, from improving public health to reducing energy costs and pollution to regenerating urban spaces. Local governments can use green roofs and green infrastructure to help cities become 
For over 10,000 years people have been irresistibly drawn to urban life, where they live, work and play in close proximity. Our early settlements often rose, quite literally, from mud to irrevocably transform society, necessitating the development of new codes of behavior and laws to reorganize ourselves in a world of close coexistence. We have 
By Kobie Brand, Director of the ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center — INTERACT-Bio is about working together to mainstream biodiversity and associated nature-based solutions into the way we plan and build the cities of the Global South. This ambitious new project enables ICLEI to work directly with nine biodiverse city-regions, their national governments and other stakeholders 
By Ingrid Coetzee, Senior Manager, Biodiversity and Nature-based Solutions, ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center (CBC) and Kobie Brand, Director of the CBC The challenge of rapid urbanization The United Nations World Cities Report 2016, Urbanization and Development: Emerging Futures, predicts that by 2030 two-thirds of the world’s population will be living in cities. It further 
Knowledge exchange and technical deep dives are always core elements of the annual Resilient Cities congress. The program is designed for a critical examination of emerging issues in urban resilience and informative exchanges around them. Sessions cover a diversity of topics, so that every participant can find his or her place in the conversation, from 
In the last decade, the campus of Peking University in Beijing has recorded sightings of over 200 bird species – accounting for one seventh of all bird species in China. Cities are home to extraordinary amounts of animal and plant biological diversity. As cities work to develop comprehensive approaches to protecting these natural resources, the 
Over three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods while 1.6 billion people, including 70 million indigenous people, depend on forests for their livelihood. Nature underpins our very existence and livelihoods and is integral to the effective functioning and well-being of urban communities. The decline of the natural world, due to 
As we kick off a new decade, environment takes center stage. For the first time, the top five global threats in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report are all environmental. Climate action failure and biodiversity loss make the top five both in terms of likelihood and level of impact.
Theme: Celebrating the Biodiversity of India Terms and Conditions 1. Each participant can submit only one entry. 2. Soft copies of the original photographs (minimum size of 2 MB, and maximum of 8 MB) need to be mailed to iclei-southasia@iclei.org. 3. Each photograph should be accompanied by a caption and a short description (50 words) 
By Rodrigo de Oliveira Perpetuo, Regional Director ICLEI South America Secretariat Read the original article in Portuguese. World Environment Day 2020 will be guided by the theme of biodiversity. Not by chance, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) chose Colombia as the headquarters for World Environment Day activities. Considered one of the most environmentally diverse 
The theme for this year’s World Environment Day, “Time for Nature”, which once again put the spotlight on biodiversity, was particularly relevant in the context of the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak. There is growing evidence that links the loss of biodiversity and forests to the rise of zoonotic diseases through a complex web of interactions. The 
The United Nations is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2020, under the shadows of a once-in-a-century pandemic, serious challenges to multilateralism, and life-threatening climate and biodiversity emergencies. Due to the global pandemic, these celebrations will be taking place online, but the virtual forum by no means reduces the significance of processes and decisions that will 
In Montreal, they’re building Canada’s largest urban park. Once complete, the 8,000-hectare nature sanctuary will be eight times as large as New York’s Central Park. In Bonn, green roofs are now mandatory for any surface larger than 200 square metres. And 100 cities across Europe are currently involved in over 1,000 nature-based best practice solutions 
