Local governments take up the biodiversity challenge!
During the Urban Nature Forum (12-14 June 2009, Edmonton, Canada), cities’ managers, representative of international organisations and academics discussed the importance of conserving local urban biodiversity, the accomplishments of the LAB Initiative and the vital role of local governments in biodiversity conservation. The Urban Nature Forum was organized for the first time at the international level before the ICLEI World Congress in 2006 and prompted ICLEI to launch LAB as a pilot project which would explore the role of local governments in biodiversity management. The Urban Nature Forum in 2009 presented a powerful case for a more comprehensive programme for local governments in the field of biodiversity.
From 14 to 18 June 2009, 600 participants from 57 countries gathered in the City of Edmonton for the triennial World Congress of ‘ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability’, a global network of 1100 cities working on sustainable development. Throughout the Congress, participants acknowledged on several occasions the importance of biodiversity and unanimously adopted a resolution calling for a fully-fledged programme on local action for biodiversity to be developed by ICLEI. Countdown 2010 has been supporting ICLEI since the beginning and was very pleased to see that biodiversity is now recognized by ICLEI members as a key issue to engage with.
“IUCN is very pleased to see that biodiversity and ecosystems have been widely debated during the Congress and that ICLEI members are committed to acting for biodiversity. IUCN, also through its Countdown 2010 initiative, is committed to furthering the cooperation with ICLEI, building on our mutual strengths: the biodiversity know how of IUCN and the wide network of committed local governments of Countdown 2010 and ICLEI” commented George Greene, IUCN Regional Councillor, who gave a keynote presentation on the way forward for local governments and biodiversity.
