Manchester first UK city to sign up to CitiesWithNature

Last week at the Manchester Festival of Nature celebration event at Heaton Park, Manchester became the first UK City to sign up to the International CitiesWithNature portal, a Global network aimed at sharing best practice approaches around Nature conservation.

CitiesWithNature is a partnership between ICLEI- Local Governments for Sustainability, IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) and The Nature Conservancy. These international organisations have access to a wealth of expertise from city administrations and subject specialists worldwide.

This is also an exciting opportunity to promote the good work already happening in Manchester to a fast-growing international audience.  One such example of this work is in West Gorton, where Manchester’s participation in the European-funded ‘Grow Green’ project will deliver a new community park with innovative water-retention features.

“Manchester takes it commitments to nature conservation seriously, and we want to shape our city accordingly with the best advice possible; CitiesWithNature will support us on our journey in making Manchester an even more nature-friendly city. It’s very appropriate that we make this statement after a month-long wildlife focussed campaign engaging with thousands of people through the City’s first Festival of Nature”.

– Cllr Angeliki Stogia