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World Cities Day

31 October 2024, New York, United States of America

Statement by Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the World Habitat Day, 7 October 2024

Statement by Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the World Habitat Day, 7 October 2024

World Cities Day

31 October 2023, New York, United States of America

Statement by David Cooper, Acting Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the World Cities Day, 31 October 2023

Statement by David Cooper, Acting Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the World Cities Day, 31 October 2023

Statement by David Cooper, Acting Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the World Habitat Day, 2 October 2023

Statement by David Cooper, Acting Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the World Habitat Day, 2 October 2023

World Cities Day

31 October 2022, Nairobi, Kenya

Statement by Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity on the occasion of World Cities Day 2022, 31 October 2022

Statement by Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity on the occasion of World Cities Day 2022, 31 October 2022

World Tourism Day

27 September 2022, Madrid, Spain

International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies

7 September 2022, New York, United States of America

Do Cities Hold the Key to Protecting Biodiversity?

From the smallest organism to the largest, all living things play unique roles that keep the earth in balance. With numerous functions spanning insects and birds that pollinate flowers to bear fruits, plants absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and producing oxygen to purify the air and ...

Urban biodiversity: What is it, and why is it urgently needed?

Did you know that urban biodiversity makes you happier, increases sales at local businesses, and makes children develop their cognitive skills better, among other benefits? Urban restoration aims to renaturalize cities to make them compatible with lost nature, which is part of humanity. Why is i ...

Cities: how urban design can make people less likely to use public spaces

Urban beautification campaigns are usually sold to local residents as a way to improve their daily lives. Design elements—from lighting systems to signs, benches, bollards, fountains and planters, and sometimes even surveillance equipment—are used to refurbish and embellish public spaces.

Frog hotels: scientists build creative urban shelters to draw species back to Australian cities

Tadpoling is a thing of the past in many suburban creeks, as humans encroach on frogs’ territory. But there is a way to lure them back – frog hotels.

Here is a six-step decision framework to include nature-based solutions in city-planning

Cities are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and put at risk many of the life-sustaining ecosystems on which communities and livelihoods depend.

Biodiversity and the city

Within their Nature in the City Strategy, Hamilton City Council set themselves the ambitious target of moving from 1.8% to 10% native vegetation cover in Kirikiriroa by 2050. Across the city there are hundreds of patches of green that they could target for native regeneration. So where should th ...

Transforming Trees Into Skyscrapers

Brumunddal, a small municipality on the northeastern shore of Lake Mjøsa, in Norway, has for most of its history had little to recommend it to the passing visitor. There are no picturesque streets with cafés and boutiques, as there are in the ski resort of Lillehammer, some thirty miles to the n ...

How investing in green infrastructure helps cities manage the effects of the climate crisis and creates healthy communities

Setting ordinances to build more green roofs, planting trees and native plants, and designing community green spaces are just a few ways that many cities are investing in green infrastructure to solve climate-related problems and promote the health of residents.

Choosing the right trees for a changing climate

In urban environments, trees are threatened by heatwaves and lack of rain, both predicted to increase in coming decades. Towns and cities are often home to a great diversity of trees, including those with a high tolerance of climate extremes, but species' selection criteria and climate-risk asse ...

The people building edible cities

"I view urban agriculture as a wonderful Trojan horse," says Nicolas Brassier, owner of Peas&Love, an urban farm that has expanded to seven sites across France and Belgium in the past two years

Giving Nature a Home in Cities: Bricks for Bees' Nests

Humanity's relationship with insects is ancient and complex. While they can spread disease and wipe out crops, they are also vital to our survival on Planet Earth, as pollinators and recyclers. Edward Osborne Wilson, a leading American biologist, stated in one of his articles that “If insects we ...

Hiding in plain sight, ‘cryptic species’ may be all around us

On a warm evening in the spring of 2020, Jeremy Feinberg stood at the edge of a moonlit pond. He was on the Delmarva Peninsula, on the east side of Chesapeake Bay, an estuary in the eastern United States. “Chuck!” Feinberg called across the water. “Chuck! Chuck!” He cupped his hands behind his e ...

Why the Dutch embrace floating homes

Faced with worsening floods and a shortage of housing, the Netherlands is seeing growing interest in floating homes. These floating communities are inspiring more ambitious Dutch-led projects in flood-prone nations, from French Polynesia to the Maldives.

All 98 municipalities are now competing in Denmark’s biodiversity competition

Last February, the Danish Minister of the Environment, Lea Wermelin, invited all of Denmark’s 98 municipalities to participate in the national competition, “Denmark’s Wildest Municipality”. 92 municipalities accepted the invitation and ramped up their efforts to promote biodiversity in their cities.

Hearts, cells and mud: How biology helps humans reimagine our cities in vexed times

Biological metaphors for the city abound in daily use. You may live close to an "arterial" road or in the "heart" of a metropolis. You may work in one of the city's "nerve centers" or exercise in a park described as the city's "lungs."

15 innovations bringing nature back into our cities

We live in an urban era, by 2050 cities will host nearly 70% of humanity. If cities don’t heal their relationship with nature, our species will face increasing threats. In this foreseeable future we might forget that cities are living systems where the positive relationship between the natural a ...

Snakes in Bengaluru city

“Sun’s out, snakes out!” exclaimed Shuayb Ahmed, and Yatin Kalki as they jumped to action. Ahmed, an independent snake rescuer, had received a frantic call from a woman who spotted a snake – claimed to be a juvenile spectacled cobra – in her house in Bengaluru.

Earth Observations Toolkit for Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements

Cities around the world face numerous environmental hazards, such as extreme heat events, landslides, pollution, and flooding. Cities must monitor and address these hazards to reduce risks to, and enhance resilience of, their residents to climate change impacts.

Message to mayors: cities need nature

My home town of New Delhi is battling with air pollution, contaminated water supplies and heatwaves. Just last November, schools were shut for more than a week because of untenable air quality.

Kazakh people are fighting to preserve the natural lakes of Nur‑Sultan

For two years now, residents and experts have been fighting to preserve the Taldykol natural lakes system in the new city centre of Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, that city authorities are filling up to build urban housing estates.

Why are San Jose's trees disappearing? City loses hundreds of acres each year

San Jose's trees are slowly vanishing. Despite boasting, the nation's 10th largest city is in the midst of an environmental crisis as the tree canopy that shades it has dwindled by 1.82% between 2012 and 2018.

Biodiversity in Urban Environments

Biodiversity has become ubiquitous in project descriptions as yet another mark of the design's environmental accomplishments. The increasing focus on sustainability, the standard inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, prompts a deeper understanding of what biodiversity in urban enviro ...

Penny wise and pound foolish? NYC budget needs to consider the interconnectedness of the city's infrastructure

It has been four months since rain from Hurricane Ida flooded the streets and homes of New York. The subway stations and basements in all boroughs that were flash flooded made the news for a couple of weeks, but may soon be forgotten.

Toward a more inclusive definition of green infrastructure

Green infrastructure has been embraced as a tool to help cities achieve sustainability and resilience goals while improving the lives of urban residents. How green infrastructure is defined guides the types of projects that cities implement, with enduring impacts to people and the urban environment.

The Critical Need for Smart Agriculture for Truly Smarter Cities

Smart cities are developing all over the world, marketing themselves as helping us innovate and become more technologically advanced as a mostly-urban species.

Sadiq Khan leads ambitious plans to rewild Hyde Park

London mayor releases £600,000 funding to help create green rooftops and reintroduce lost species

In the Pantanal, Bolivia leads environmental preservation

Concerned about the environmental impacts of the paving of the highway that crosses the region, residents of a city on the agricultural frontier pressured the city hall to create an integral conservation unit 45% of the municipality’s territory, including the most fertile land.

How Durham University turned itself green

Institution jumps 66 places on People and Planet’s annual university sustainability league.

This urban forest in Kolkata is a haven for bird watchers

More than five years ago, HIDCO had set up the Pakhibitan at Eco Park with the help of an NGO. Now, the park, which has two water bodies and mature indigenous trees of several species, has developed a beautiful ecosystem and turned into a safe haven for several species of birds, insects, mammals ...

Meet an Ecologist Who Works for God (and Against Lawns)

A Long Island couple says fighting climate change and protecting biodiversity starts at home. Or rather, right outside their suburban house.

New York City Becomes 200th City to Join Global CitiesWithNature Initiative

New York City has become the 200th city to join CitiesWithNature, a global partnership initiative that strengthens collective action and impact to protect biodiversity and reconnect urban communities with nature. New York is taking up this leading position alongside London, Los Angeles, São Paul ...

Living walls can reduce heat lost from buildings by over 30%

Retrofitting an existing masonry cavity walled building with a green or living wall can reduce the amount of heat lost through its structure by more than 30%, according to new research.

The Guardian view on urban rewilding: when nature takes over

The news that Derby has approved what promises to be Britain’s largest urban rewilding project so far is very welcome. The 320-acre Allestree Park will, subject to detailed consultation, be given over to a range of habitats and perhaps even see the reintroduction of species such as dormice and r ...

New York City Is Building a Wall of Oysters to Fend Off Floods

Thousands of acres of undersea reefs once protected the city’s shoreline. Now an army of volunteers is bringing the bivalves back, one shell at a time.

Global Environment for Cities - GEO for Cities: Towards green and just cities

Summary for city-level decision makers It is clear from the analysis provided in this second edition of GEO for Cities that cities have the potential to drive progress towards the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals. To achieve this, cities must be designed or redesigned to use re ...

Urbanization does not always decrease food diversity

Over half of the globe’s population currently lives in urban areas, a figure which will increase to 68 percent by 2050. According to scientists, increased urbanization drives changes in climate, land use, biodiversity, and human diet. A new study published in the journal One Earth has found that ...

How can cities accelerate climate action to meet COP26 goals?

Last weekend, international negotiators approved the United Nations Glasgow Climate Pact at the 26th Conference of the Parties. Ashish Sharma, the Illinois research climatologist at the Illinois State Water Survey, spoke with News Bureau physical sciences editor Lois Yoksoulian about the takeawa ...