{"id":30562,"date":"2018-11-27T17:46:20","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T22:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/?p=30562"},"modified":"2025-08-08T11:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T15:51:07","slug":"goal-empower-cities-plan-positive-natural-future-one-specific-action-taken-achieve-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/2018\/11\/27\/goal-empower-cities-plan-positive-natural-future-one-specific-action-taken-achieve-goal\/","title":{"rendered":"Our goal is to empower cities to plan for a positive natural future. What is one specific action that should be taken to achieve this goal?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Authors in This Roundtable<\/h3>\n
Graciela Arosemena, Panama City<\/a> A fundamental strategy for empowering cities and guiding them towards a positive natural future is to develop a model of the city that contains the growth of the urban sprawl, through re-urbanization.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Marcus Collier, Dublin<\/a> While we desire a greening of our cities on various levels, and while we become more reliant on the services of nature for environmental change and innovation, the nature-based solution approach has a long way to go.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Marlies Craig, Durban<\/a> Trees in cities hold great potential for their cooling carbon sequestration, water absorption, biodiversity… In Durban, tree planting is also transforming the lives of marginalised and unemployed people.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Samarth Das, Mumbai<\/a> With scarcity of land becoming a go-to excuse for governments and the real estate industry to exploit “no development zone” lands for housing, mapping of natural areas will help establish what land is “developable” and what land is not.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Ana Faggi, Bueno Aires<\/a> Stop talking about nature in and near cities and think of the cities and their surroundings as multifunctional landscapes<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Sumetee Gajjar, Bangalore<\/a> A\u00a0gap which needs special attention in the future, led by a specific set of actors, are city biodiversity reports which inform biodiversity planning or city greenprinting process of Asian, African and South American cities or city-regions, experiencing spatial concentration of biodiversity loss.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Gary Grant, London<\/a> Understanding, embracing, and acting on the sponge city\u00a0concept will be the most powerful and effective way that we can increase biodiversity in our cities, among many other benefits.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Eduardo Guerrero, Bogot\u00e1<\/a> We need a multidisciplinary think tank oriented to the relationships between nature and business in cities, focused on concepts, principles, guidelines, and good practices that generate win-win initiatives for entrepreneurship and sustainability.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Fadi Hamdan, Beirut<\/a> The threat that urban growth poses on biodiversity and human wellbeing should also be seen as an opportunity to claim \u201cour right to the city \u201d, to reinvent the city, based on our vision for the society we want, and our relation to nature.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Scott Kellogg, Albany<\/a> Positive natural urban futures may be worked towards by focusing on decentralized educational-activist strategies that emphasize human-non human reciprocity, social inclusion, and the reconstruction of the urban commons.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Patrick Lydon, Osaka<\/a> For each place and person, the answers will differ greatly, but our neighborhoods and our cities must become unique representations of natural biodiversity, each one answering to the voice of nature when and where it exists.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Yvonne Lynch, Melbourne<\/a> Meaningful citizen engagement for participation in decision making is the best way to empower cities to achieve their aspirations and goals for a positive natural future. Working together, city governments and communities can make rapid progress towards creating healthy, natural cities.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Emily Maxwell, New York<\/a> Justice is about people and about places. If we invest in natural solutions in neighborhoods that need them most, we can ensure not only a natural future for cities that protects biodiversity, but an equitable, resilient, and sustainable future as well.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Colin Meurk, Christchurch<\/a> Get governing bodies to open their eyes to opening the door to not only “ecology” (everyone knows what that is, right?) but to ecologists. Afterall, we all know about health, but we do seek medical opinion when we have a broken leg!<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Jean Palma, Manila<\/a> A call for consciousness in urban management and planning is a call for professionals\u2014environmental planners, architects, landscape architects, designers, and other urban leaders\u2014to pay respect to nature.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Jennifer Pierce, Vancouver<\/a> The outcome of a bioshed party forms a directive for the city and its citizens to acknowledge their dependency on local and global landscapes, and to take responsibility for them.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Mary Rowe, Toronto<\/a> Enlightened designers are making attempts to better mimic the natural patterns enabled by diversity in natural systems. We need more efforts like this, reminders of what true urbanism actually looks like: an ecosystem.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Luis Sandoval, San Jos\u00e9<\/a> What biodiversity was there before? We need this baseline to understand our local goals for biodiversity, and whether current conservation efforts are effective.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
David Maddox<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n David Maddox<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

David loves urban spaces and nature. He loves creativity and collaboration. He loves theatre and music. In his life and work he has practiced in all of these as, in various moments, a scientist, a climate change researcher, a land steward, an ecological practitioner, composer, a playwright, a musician, an actor, and a theatre director. David's dad told him once that he needed a back up plan, something to \"fall back on\". So he bought a tuba.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

Introduction<\/h3>\n

For many in The Nature of Cities community, a key objective or goal could be stated something like this: to empower cities to plan for a positive natural future. There is a lot of unpack in such a statement. Indeed, almost every word in the phrase “to empower cities to plan for a positive natural future” could benefit from some discovery.<\/p>\n

“Empower”? What’s the action? Empower whom to do what? What knowledge would ground and justify such empowerment?<\/p>\n

“City”? Where? How big? Is there one thing we might call a “city”? Or do we mean “community”?<\/p>\n

“Natural”? What elements of “nature” do we emphasize and value? Wild nature? Built nature? Nativeness or functionality?<\/p>\n

And so on…<\/p>\n

This roundtable is a follow up to a new report called \u201cNature in the Urban Century\u201d, in which TNOC was a modest partner.\u00a0You can see the whole report here<\/a>. The emphasis of the report is on biodiversity conservation, its goals and strategies, and its emergent benefits for people.<\/span><\/p>\n

The partners of this roundtable\u2014TNOC, The Nature Conservancy, and Future Earth\u2014wanted to cast a wider net of responses to this topic, so we asked a diversity of people in the TNOC \u00a0community to respond: architects, artists, activists, academics and practitioners, and people from the north and south. Their prompt:\u00a0What is one specific action that should be taken (when? immediately?) to achieve a “positive natural future”? And who should do it? We asked them to feel free to define \u201cnatural” as it suited their argument.<\/p>\n

No one would be surprised to hear that from such a diverse group there are a range of responses. Some threads exist, though, and three in particular. The first is “connection”, both of people to a consciousness about nature, and of connecting urban spaces to a wider geographic sense of the idea of “nature”, for example gradients spanning city centers to rural areas. Partly this is data and knowledge, but it also involves a broader awareness. There probably isn’t one “nature”, but we need to address the idea of this word directly and explicitly with a wide range of stakeholders.<\/p>\n

A second thread is “diversity”, recognizing both its bio- and also human expressions. This emerges from recognizing cities as ecosystems of people, natural spaces (both wild and built), and infrastructure\u2014all of these things. A key element in recognizing and honoring diversity is in truly engaging diverse stakeholders, from real participatory actions to finding new ideas from various sources, not just the usual collection of “experts”, such as professional ecologists, planners, and designers.<\/p>\n

Third, there is a deep thread of “equity” and “justice” in these responses. That is, in our conversations about nature and cities we must always be demanding about spreading the wealth and benefits of nature so that everyone may benefit.<\/p>\n

In other words, If there is going to be a positive natural future, we’ll only achieve it together.<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n
Eduardo Guerrero<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Eduardo Guerrero<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Eduardo Guerrero is a biologist with over 20 years of experience in projects and initiatives involving environmental and sustainable development issues in Colombia and other South American countries. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

Eduardo Guerrero<\/h3>\n
We need a multidisciplinary think tank oriented to the relationships between nature and business in cities, focused on concepts, principles, guidelines, and good practices that generate win-win initiatives for entrepreneurship and sustainability. <\/blockquote><\/figure>A think tank network on urban nature and competitiveness<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are cities part of nature? Is the budget devoted to cities environment a cost or an investment? Does the urban green matters in terms of the economic performance of the cities?\u00a0Which kind of cities are more competitive: those actively integrating green areas and peri-urban ecosystems to the urban design or those where green and biodiversity are secondary issues?\u00a0How can we integrate urban green and environmental concepts to entrepreneurship from the beginning in the business cycle?<\/p>\n

In fact, cities are built in the middle of ecosystems and biomes, so they are part of regions and territories whose natural attributes should be integrated into urban design and urban economic plans.<\/p>\n

In general, in their narratives urban planners and business stakeholders accept the need to reach minimal standards of green and environment quality in their cities, but in practice entrepreneurs do not receive clear policy signals and market incentives to stimulate nature-based and green businesses.<\/p>\n

The point is that nature and ecosystems services are drivers of competitiveness in cities. And there is much evidence, pilot projects, and good practices waiting to be systematized, adapted to local contexts, and scaled up.<\/p>\n

In rankings of competitivity, environment use to be considered as a minor factor, mostly dealing with the ability to manage hazards and the environmental governance.<\/p>\n

Of course, ability to implement environmentally sustainable policies and mitigate the impact of natural hazards is key to cities, but it is just part of the nature-cities equation.<\/p>\n

We propose a most constructive approach, oriented to promote synergies among nature and urban economies. When you invest in green infrastructure, sustainable building, a circular economy, urban nature tourism, urban agriculture, biogastronomy, and so on, you are both investing in sustainability and competitiveness.<\/p>\n

We propose to arrange a think tank network on urban nature and competitiveness. The objective: to contribute to a plural, multidisciplinary dialogue on green businesses in cities by connecting university-based research capacity to business stakeholders, policy and decision makers and civil society.<\/p>\n

There are many good examples of synergies among biodiversity and economy in cities. A lot of good practices in urban and peri-urban contexts showing that business and environmental sustainability could be mutually reinforced. Limitations and restrictions use to be just the result of rigid cultural visions, biased mentalities and poor dissemination of good practices.<\/p>\n

Among other factors, Bogot\u00e1 is a competitive city thanks to the joint work of the national agency for natural parks and the water supply company taking care of the paramo (high sierra) ecosystems that regulate water supply to the city.<\/p>\n

If we look around the world, there are other many excellent examples of city economies increasingly based on nature and ecosystems services. In Rio de Janeiro, income from tourism mostly depends on the beauty of its natural landscape, so conservation and sustainable management of natural landmarks as Guanabara Bay, Tijuca Forest, and the magnificent Botanical Garden represent key investments.<\/p>\n

Lima is gaining a reputation as a gastronomic destination, because of an enchanting cuisine <\/em>based on a fusion of cultural and biodiversity ingredients. Nairobi with its safaris to a National Park located around the city is a suggestive destination. London\u2019s inspirational project to be the world\u2019s first National Park City connects very well with its well-earned reputation as a financial center. Bangkok\u2019s ancient culture and spectacular palaces have an intimate relationship with Chao Phraya River, as Cape Town\u2019s traditional architecture establishes a unified relationship with its coastline ecosystems.<\/p>\n

Worldwide there is a growing trend towards responsible businesses based on the environment and biodiversity. So green business entrepreneurs need incentives and useful information, the same as authorities and planners need relevant knowledge and data.<\/p>\n

So, my proposal is to develop a plural and multidisciplinary think tank network oriented to the relationships between nature and business in cities. Focus would be on concepts, principles, guidelines, and good practices that generate win-win initiatives and entrepreneurship in terms of both urban sustainability and urban competitiveness and productivity.<\/p>\n

Of course, many think tanks on urban development matters already exist, but not many connecting urban nature to urban businesses and competitivity<\/p>\n

Urban performance and sustainability indexes offer a general image about situation and trends regarding cities development. They invite us to advance from theory to practice in terms of better integrating nature to urban economies.<\/p>\n

Who should do it? A think tank network on urban nature and competitiveness should be a synergic and multi-partner action. Maybe The Nature of Cities<\/em>could open a thematic line on these matters in coordination with regional, national and local partners and focal points, taking into account nature particular context of each city. We in Colombia would be interested in such an initiative.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n
Patrick M. Lydon<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Patrick M. Lydon<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

An American ecological writer and artist based in East Asia, Patrick uses story and community-based actions to help us rediscover our roles as ecological beings. He writes a weekly column called The Possible City, and is an arts editor here at The Nature of Cities.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

Patrick Lydon<\/h3>\n
For each place and person, the answers will differ greatly, but our neighborhoods and our cities must become unique representations of natural biodiversity, each one answering to the voice of nature when and where it exists.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Cultivating relationships between people, cities, and nature<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though they may be bad actors at present, streets, housing blocks, and the economy are all inclusive of biodiversity, and of the troupe that we call nature. For this troupe to function properly however, requires a fundamental shift in how we see and experience our cities\u2014and ourselves\u2014in relation to the ecosystems in which we live.<\/p>\n

This shift can be plainly put as two (interrelated) points:<\/p>\n