Third consultation process of world’s first city biodiversity and ecosystems assessment is now opened.
The assessment, entitled Cities and Biodiversity Outlook (CBO), is the first comprehensive global analysis of how urbanisation and urban growth impact biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics in terrestrial, freshwater and marine systems. The CBO presents recommendations on how to incorporate biodiversity and ecosystems in urban development. After a pre-launch of this assessment at RIO+20 the CBO team is pleased to deliver another draft of the assessment for review.
CBO is a collaborative project between the Secretariat of CBD and the Stockholm Resilience Centre, at Stockholm University.
By 2050, an additional three billion people will inhabit cities and urban land expansion will cover an area the size of Mongolia. The question is: how will the most rapid period of urbanisation in all of human history affect biodiversity and the ecosystem services upon which the world’s people depend? A new assessment presented by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and Stockholm Resilience Centre analyses both the impacts of urbanisation on biodiversity and ecosystems as well as the many benefits that come from including these aspects in urban planning.
The CBO provides policy makers and city planners with specific guidelines on the conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources in an urban context. Demonstrating the enormous potential that cities have in contributing to sustainable development, the Outlook includes a variety of case studies from cities, local authorities and sub-national governments on how to incorporate biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban development. The assessment is underpinned by an extensive body of scientific work that documents conditions and trends, scenarios and opportunities, as well as policy options and responses. By its completion, several hundred scientists and experts worldwide will have contributed to the Outlook.
The comprehensive scientific work that underpins the CBO will be published separately in 2013.
The above news item is reprinted from materials available at Convention on Biological Diversity and Stockholm Resilience Center. Original text may be edited for content and length.
(Sources: CBD; Stockholm Resilience Centre)
