CitiesWithNature is in the spotlight in Australia, where ICLEI Oceania kicked off its new CitiesWithNature webinar series on 14 July with a session targeted at Elected Members of city councils. It aimed to raise councillors’ awareness of the importance of embedding Nature and Biodiversity in all city plans to boost the health and liveability of their communities.
Image: Creek Heroes, City of Onkaparinga
The webinar heard from Prof Niki Frantzeskaki of Swinburne University about the many dimensions of nature-based solutions and how they interface with climate, socio-economic and socio-cultural systems. This was followed by three stories from Australian cities:
- Biolink and Woody Meadow projects in Port Phillip
- Creek Recovery Campaign and Creek Heroes in Onkaparinga
- Living With the Bush and Keep Cats Safe At Home initiatives in the Blue Mountains.
And finally they learnt about the Living Melbourne initiative which is delivering an integrated Urban Forest Strategy across the 32 municipalities of Greater Melbourne.
“Local Government is where great work is being done to re-introduce Nature to our cities” said ICLEI Chair and webinar moderator Cr Amanda Stone. “It was inspiring to hear directly from councillors about innovative projects in their cities.”
This was just the first of a series of webinars on CitiesWithNature to be held by ICLEI Oceania this year. In August there will be a focus group webinar for cities which have participated in the ICLEI-Swinburne needs-assessment research interviews (participants only), and in September there will be a special webinar dedicated to Indigenous Land Management and how this can be applied in urban areas (open to all)
Keep an eye on the CWN Oceania website here for updates.