Slides from a presentation of the UN Converntion on Biodiversity commissioned Cities and Biodiversity Outlook. Madhusudan Katti, one of the lead authors of the CBO, presented this to the Central Valley Café Scientifíque, on 3 December 2012, in Fresno, California.

1. CITIES AND BIODIVERSITY OUTLOOK
- A global assessment of the links between urbanisation, biodiversity and ecosystem services

2. Mission:
Serve as the first global synthesis on how urbanization impacts biodiversity and
ecosystem change. Requested by the parties of the CBD.
What it does:
Provide an overview, analysis and response to knowledge gaps on effects of
urbanization on social-ecological systems
Focus on solutions:
Address how urban biodiversity and ecosystems could be used, designed and
restored in innovative ways for addressing current and future challenges and
highlight how cities may contribute to protect biodiversity and generate
ecosystem services

3. Ban Ki Moon:
“The principal message is that
urban areas must offer better
stewardship of the ecosystems
on which they rely, including by
generating multiple ecosystem
services through design and
restoration and reducing their
environmental impact through
improved efficiency of material
and energy use and by making
productive use of waste”.
October 2012

4. II. CBO-Scientific Assessment
Global Urbanization, Biodiversity and
ecosystem services: Challenges and
Opportunities
• 13 chapters written by more than
50 scientists
• Covering urbanization
patterns, biodiversity
trends, ecosystem
services, climate change, food and
water, governance, learning
• Extensive scientific peer-review
• Published by Springer (open
access e-book + print on demand)
2013

5. Global Urbanization, Biodiversity, and Ecosystems – Challenges and Opportunities
Cities and Biodiversity Outlook – Scientific Analyses and Assessments
Chapter 1 – A global outlook on urbanization - challenges, and opportunities
Thomas Elmqvist, Robert Costanza, Charles Redman, Stephan Barthel, and Guy Barnett
Chapter 2 – Urbanization and trends in biodiversity, ecosystems, and ecosystem functions
Robert McDonald and Peter Marcotullio
Chapter 3 – Patterns and trends in urban biodiversity and design
Norbert Muller, Charles Nilon, Maria Ignatieva, and Peter Werner
Chapter 4 – Urban ecosystem services
Erik Gómez-Baggethun and Åsa Gren, Erik Andersson, Timon McPhearson, and David N.
Barton, Patrick O’Farrell, Zoé Hamstead, and Peleg Kremer
Chapter 5 – Shrinking cities and impacts on ecosystem services and biodiversity
Dagmar Haase
Chapter 6 – Urban ecological restoration
Steven Handel, Bruce Clarkson

6. Chapter 7 – Typologies of urbanization, effects on land use, biodiversity, and
ecosystem services
Karen Seto, Michail Fragkias, and Burak Guneralp, Julie Goodness
Chapter 8 – Urbanization, climate change, and urban biodiversity
William Solecki
Chapter 9 – Food and water in an urbanizing world
Rob Dybal, Lisa Deutsch, and Will Steffen
Chapter 10 – Urban governance for biodiversity and ecosystem services
Sue Parnell, Cathy Wilkinson, and Marte Sendstad
Chapter 11 – Urban landscapes as learning arenas for sustainable management of
biodiversity and ecosystem services
Marianne Krasny and Cecilia Lundholm
Chapter 12 – Indicators: scientific evaluation of City Biodiversity Index
Ryo Kohsaka, Henrique Pereira, and Thomas Elmqvist
Chapter 13 – Summary and synthesis
Coordinating Lead Authors / Editorial Team

7. Knowledge Gap
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005)– the
world’s largest assessment of ecosystems - few
references to urban areas
World Development Report - World Bank – the
world’s largest assessment of urbanization
published annually - few references to
ecosystems

8. Assessment of recent science

9. Four urbanization trends
• The total urban area is expected to triple between 2000 and 2030, while urban
populations are expected to nearly double
• This urban expansion will heavily draw on natural resources, including water, on a
global scale, and will often consume prime agricultural land, with knock-on
effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services elsewhere
• Urban expansion is occurring fast in areas adjacent to biodiversity hotspots and
faster in low-elevation, biodiversity-rich coastal zones than in other areas
• Urbanization rates are highest in those regions of the world where the capacity to
inform policy is absent and where there are generally under-resourced and
poorly capacitated urban governance arrangements

10. Predicted Urban Growth 2010-2025

11. Dynamic view of human domination

12. Urbanization in India
Mumbai–Delhi Urban Corridor - approximately 1,500 kilometers long
Even the largest Indian cities retain a high proportion of native plants, birds, butterflies, and
other taxa

14. Urbanization in China
Urban expansion - 1,800-kilometer coastal urban corridor from Hangzhou to Shenyang
Urban expansion rapid in the interior and increasingly affect biodiversity hotspots

19. • Cities are beginning to take an active role in the management of
resources and impacts on the regional or even global
scale, considering the multi-scale, interconnected resource chains
and their diverse actors.
• But, cities need to form large networks and must jointly take
increased responsibility for motivating and implementing solutions
that take into account their profound connections with and impacts
on the rest of the planet.

20. Examples of large Natural Remnants in
cities:
• Mata Atlantica in Rio de Janeiro
• Evergreen forests in Singapore
• National Park El Avila in Caracas
• Bushland in Perth, Sydney, and
Brisbane
• Forests in York, Canada
• Sonoran desert parks in Tucson and
Phoenix
• Ridge Forest in New Delhi
• Semi-evergreen forest of Sanjay
Gandhi National Park in Mumbai
Rua Gonçalo de Carvalho, Porto Alegre, Brazil

21. Wetlands in Accra, Ghana
Integrated management for
ecosystem services

22. Estimated monetary value of urban woodland
per hectare per year
(average value based on studies in 9 cities in the world)
Air quality regulation - 602 USD
Recreation – 5230 USD
Energy savings - 1303 USD
30% of cost of restoring 1 ha of urban woodland
Carbon storage - 2906 USD
Storm water reduction - 802 USD
Sum = 11,927 USD per hectare per year
Elmqvist et al ms

23. Value of biodiversity and ecosystems
TEEB 2010

24. Green areas and health
• Perceived health, mortality, green space (N = 250 782).
• The percentage of green space inside a three km radius from home had a significant
positive relation to perceived general health
Maas J, Verheij RA, Groenewegen PP, et al. 2006.
Green space, urbanity, and health: how strong is the relation? Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 60(7)

25. Green areas and health
An observational population study of the population
of England younger than retirement age (N= 40 813
236).
A significant association between residence in the
most green areas and decreased rates for all-cause
and circulatory mortality in 2001-2005 (366 348
deaths) with control for potential confounding
factors.
Mitchell R, Popham F 2008.
Effect of exposure to natural environment on health inequalities: an
observational population study. Lancet 372(9650): 1655-1660.

26. Green areas and health
• A type of gammaproteobacteria – Acinetobacter - strongly linked to the
development of anti-inflammatory molecules
• The more gammaproteobacteria on the skin the larger immunological
responses which are known to suppress inflammatory responses
• Gammaproteobacteria are more prevalent in vegetation such as forests and
grasslands, but rare in built-up areas
Hanski et al 2012. Environmental biodiversity, human microbiota, and allergy are interrelated. PNAS vol. 109 no. 21 8334-8339

27. We already passed 400 ppm Co2 in the atmosphere
(June 2012)

28. Cities vulnerable to sea level rise

29. Local climate in Yokohama
New tax to support green area
expansion
Goal of 30% green area

30. Climate Action plan jn Mexico City
Large green roof program
Reward private landowners to restore
degraded habitats
Support community groups in
conservation efforts

32. “Every city is unique, with its own social and ecological
prerequisites for development and evolution - there are no
global panaceas to sustainability.
- But, there is much to be gained from questioning current
trajectories and values while learning from others, producing
better evidence and sharing information and experiences. No
city can solve the current challenges alone.”

33. Tool box
• Local Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (LBSAPS) - CBD
• Cities Biodiversity Index (CBI) – CBD, IUCN, ICLEI
• TEEB for cities
• URBIS – Urban Biosphere Initiative, ICLEI-IUCN-UNESCO- CBD
• Local Action for Biodiversity – ICLEI-IUCN-CBD
• Cities and Biodiversity Hotspot Initiative ICLEI-CBD

34. Take home messages
Redefining the role of cities
- increasingly become sources of ecosystem services rather than sinks
- provide stewardship of marine, terrestrial and freshwater
ecosystems elsewhere
Developing the concept of nature based solutions:
- urban ecosystems used to address challenges related to climate
change, food and water security,
- explore how attributes of ecosystems, such as diversity, modularity
and redundancy may be interpreted, applied and used to build resilience
In the urban landscape.

35. www.cbd.int/en/subnational/partners-and-initiatives/cbo
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.99889

37. Thank You!