Brazilian cities and states make their voices heard for nature

Last week, Brazilian cities and states came together to formulate their contributions from the Brazilian perspective on key points related to the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. The event ended with the signing of a strong charter, the Carta de São Paulo, and all state capital cities committing to join CitiesWithNature.

 

BIO2020 – Brazilian Perspectives for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, organized by ICLEI South America, the São Paulo State Government, Regions4, Expertise France, CETESB and Fundação Florestal, took place between 4 and 6 February 2020, at the Infrastructure and Environment Secretariat, in São Paulo, Brazil.

The event was attended by more than 200 delegates, including high level delegates such as Governors, Mayors and heads of institutions, representing different Brazilian territories, municipalities, states, metropolitan regions and biosphere reserves, as well as representatives from the private sector, academia and civil society, such as the youth and traditional communities.

BIO2020 was an important milestone on the global roadmap for local and subnational governments contributing to the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Its aim was to formulate their contributions from the Brazilian perspective on key points related to the Post-2020 Framework.

During the closing plenary the Carta de São Paulo was signed by Marcos Penido, Secretary for Infrastructure and Environment, in the São Paulo State Government. Among other points, the Carta calls for reinforcing multilevel integration in the Post-2020 Framework. It also strongly recommends that Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity revise the Plan of Action on Subnational Governments, Cities and Other Local Authorities for Biodiversity, adopted in Nagoya in 2010, and improve the Action Plan by offering a specific mechanism for the engagement of subnational and local governments. The event and signing of the Carta de São Paulo are significant as they serve to communicate the voice of Brazilian local and subnational governments, on the implications of the Post- 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, globally.

During the plenary event it was also announced that São Paulo State had signed up to CitiesWithNature, and that the Federal District plus all 26 state capital cities had committed to joining. At the time of the announcement 15 cities had already signed up to CitiesWithNature.

These include:

Niterói (Rio de Janeiro),
Rio Branco (Acre),
Curitiba (Paraná),
Palmas (Tocantins),
Vitória (Espírito Santo),
Fortaleza (Ceará),
Salvador (Bahia),
João Pessoa
(Paraíba),
Campo Grande (Mato Grosso do Sul),
Recife (Pernambuco),
Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro),
São Paulo (São Paulo),
Goiânia (Goiás),
Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais),
Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul).

CitiesWithNature is a unique partnership initiative, founded by ICLEI, IUCN and The Nature Conservancy, that provides an online platform that connects cities and subnational governments, researchers, practitioners, partners, and urban communities to share, learn from and inspire each other.

It serves as a global platform to strengthen collective action to mainstream nature into cities and regions in support of the Post-2020 roadmap process. As such, CitiesWithNature is endorsed by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological as the official engagement platform for cities and subnational governments to share and report on their actions and commitments to the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

The BIO2020 event was supported by CETESB, the Fundação Florestal, the Reserva da Biosfera da Mata Atlântica, da Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.