Georgina Avlonitis
ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center
Parallel Session: Partnerships
BiodiverCities Conference, Joondalup
[email protected]
BiodiverCities Programme
Motivating, guiding and supporting local governments and their
partners to integrate biodiversity and ecosystem services into
decision-making processes with a view to strengthening
biodiversity management and creating more resilient,
biodiverse and beautiful cities.
SERVICES
Advocacy
Profiling
ENTRY POINTS
FOR CITIES
Technical
Support
Policy
Consultation
Tools &
Resources
LAB
Guidebook
TEEB Report
& Manual
Biodiversity
CEPA Evaluation
Gauteng
Toolbox
LBSAP
Guidelines
Durban
Commitment
Mainstreaming
Toolkit
Guidelines, case
studies, & more...
LAB Biodiversity LAB Biodiversity LAB: Communities
LAB
& Wetlands
& CEPA
Pioneer & Climate Change
URBIS
BiodiverCities
BiodiverCities Advisory Committee: High-level coordination group
On invitation: outstanding cities and selected organisations.
www.cbc.iclei.org
Cities in Biodiversity
Hotspots
&
more
to
come
GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP
BIODIVERCITIES TECHNICAL
REFERENCE GROUP
A unique platform linking science and practitioners
Introduction: Why Cities?

The majority of all people now live in cities, placing pressure on
urban ecosystems and the important services they provide.

Cities are not discrete, self-contained entities, but rather are
dynamic nodes of activity.

Interact profoundly with their encompassing bioregions.

At the same time, modern cities offer unprecedented and often
untapped opportunities for innovation, efficiency-gains,
leadership and social organization. They are the INCUBATORS
FOR CHANGE.
What is URBIS (Urban Biosphere Initiative)?

The imperative for action to harness such opportunities and render
extractive cities more ecologically restorative spurred the birth of
an international initiative to address the design and governance of
urban regions and surrounding ecosystems.

It aims to transcends the science-policy interface; accelerates the
exchange of knowledge, ideas, and good practices; galvanise
collaborative action; and ultimately forges harmony between cities
and the ecosystems of which they are part.
Connecting!
Who is involved?

CBD COP10 in Nagoya, Japan, 2010: URBIS mentioned in the Plan of Action which was adopted for the engagement of local authorities in the Convention, a number of
partners formalised their support for the URBIS initiative by way of the Nagoya declaration.
Several cities including Jerusalem, Sao Paulo, Montreal and Stockholm, have taken a leading role in developing and promoting the initiative.
1) A learning community

An online resource hub provides access to guidelines, publications,
and tools, as well as case studies and research papers prepared by
the URBIS partners.

A dedicated newsletter showcasing partners’ achievements is
issued on a biannual basis.
Case studies
searchable for by :
- Location
- Aichi target
- TEEB ecosystem
service

Platform to share experiences,
collaborate, strategize.

Highly interactive and participatory
conducive to constructive discourse and
candid debate.

Activities: ES mapping and appraisal,
needs assessments, thematic
workshopping.

The URBIS Dialogues also present an
opportunity for cities to engage in the
CBD, in coordination with their national
governments.
2) An aperture to excellence

The URBIS initiative is a gateway to numerous other
programmes, projects and networks to which ambitious partners
can additionally subscribe.

These include ICLEI’s flagship biodiversity initiative, Local Action
for Biodiversity (LAB) Pioneer Project, which elevates local
governments to become international leaders in the field of
biodiversity and ecosystem management.

The initiative also facilitates access and contributions to groundbreaking research undertaken by leading universities e.g. the
URBES project
3) The URBIS Designation
Process
The URBIS Designation
Criteria:
Must be carefully crafted to
suffice for meaningful
performance assessment
and verification in a simple,
cost-effective manner.
The current criteria are
selected for their relative
simplicity and for bearing
strong links to
internationally recognized
initiatives, tools, standards
and protocols.
Draft designation criteria

Criteria 1: Local biodiversity strategy and action planning - existence
and implementation. Evidence: This may take the form of a Local
Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (LBSAP) or indeed any other sustainable
development strategy that duly considers biodiversity (Note: ICLEI, CBD and
UNU are due to publish detailed LBSAP Guidelines later this month.)

Criteria 2: Use of Indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem services e.g.
City Biodiversity Index - how many and what type indicators has the city
implemented? The City Biodiversity Index (CBI) has, with the initiative of the
Gov. of Singapore, been developed by an international technical task force.
CBI is commonly regarded as international best practice.
Cities
Biodiversity
Index
(aka: Singapore
Index)

Criteria 3: Involvement of citizens - establishment of participatory,
bottom-up approach to including citizens in biodiversity related initiatives
and processes, e.g. citizen science.

Criteria 4: Integration of biodiversity and ecosystem management
across municipal sectors. Integrating biodiversity across municipal sectors
is critical for the success of nature conservation. Departments dealing with
finance, economic development, spatial planning, housing, infrastructure
and health are all stakeholders in biodiversity management and should be
engaged accordingly.

Criteria 5: Collaboration beyond the city level- 1) Intermunicipal
cooperation, 2) collaboration with regional and national governments and 3)
International collaboration, existence of such cooperation, demonstrating
formal agreement, preferably ecosystem based approach.
Who can join the URBIS Partnership?
JOINING FORCES!
“Innovation takes place when networks meet
and there’s an intersection of different types
of people. A recombination of existing
knowledge into new configurations- that’s the
way innovation works, not in a garage”
Morten Hansen: author of Collaboration: how leaders avoid the traps,
create unity and reap big results.

The URBIS Partnership takes a two levels of engagement:

1) The first level being open to all members- open access to
participate in the learning community through website and
participation in organised dialogues and training events.

2) The second level focusses on an awards system for cities good
practice on the ground. Involves an application fee. (Modelled off
Blue Flag approach for beaches.) To be launched 2014.

Partners include:

local and sub-national governments

ministries

international organisations

non-governmental organisations

research institutions and;

individuals.
Simple 2 minute online sign up form at
www.urbis.org/join
Only pre-requisite is the submission of a
minimum of 1 case study for the website.
Thank you!
[email protected]
ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center
Parallell Session: Partnerships
BiodiverCities Conference, Joondalup
www.urbis.org
www.cbc.iclei.org