The UN 2023 Water Conference – formally known as the 2023 Conference for the Midterm Comprehensive Review of Implementation of the UN Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation (2018-2028) – took place in New York, from 22-24 March 2023, and was co-hosted by Tajikistan and the Netherlands, with the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) as Secretariat. To catalyze action, the Conference sought voluntary commitments from Parties to the Water Action Agenda, to urgently scale up action to address the water and sanitation crisis and ensure equitable access to water and sanitation for all (Sustainable Development Goal 6).

“This is more than a conference on water. It is a conference on today’s world seen from the perspective of its most important resource.”
– UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

The Conference managed to generate more than 700 commitments aimed at driving transformation towards a water-secure world, which now form part of the Water Action Agenda, representing the global community’s resolve to address the water challenges through a more coordinated and results-driven approach.

CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature side-event

On 24 March, ICLEI through CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature, convened an online side-event as part of the conference titled, “CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature: Connecting Water and Nature to accelerate local and regional resilience”. The side-event took place in line with the UN Water 2030 Conference which was held in New York with the aim of accelerating action towards the achievement of SDG6.

The aim of this session was to: connect the agendas of water and nature for accelerated local and regional action, building momentum towards the achievement of SDG 6 & 11; provide a platform for cities and regions to connect and share best practices and lessons learnt on water and nature; and promote local and regional resilience actions from leading CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature representatives.

To this end, the session, moderated by Stefania Romano – Global Coordinator, CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature – showcased examples of the interconnections between biodiversity and water and of different biodiversity management issues and/or challenges which are relevant to the water agenda. These cases, summarized below, were presented by CitiesWithNature cities and RegionsWithNature regions and speakers from Regions4 and other subnational governments – as CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature are important platforms for showcasing best practices and case studies that can be scaled out to other cities and regions.

The sustainable management of the littoral zone of Lake Saint-Pierre in Quebec

Caroline Daguet

Conservation Biologist, Ministry of the Environment, Fight against Climate Change, Fauna and Parks

Government of Quebec

The littoral zone of Saint Pierre is located in the St Lawrence river in Quebec Province, in Canada. The site is a wetland of importance and both classified as a Ramsar site and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The fertile land has historically been used for corn, and more recently soybean, agriculture which has resulted in drainage of the river, habitat loss, shore erosion, siltation, pollutant leaching as well as invasive alien species taking over. Given the extent of the threat to some species, a moratorium was placed on sport and commercial fishing of the yellow perch (Perca flavescens) in 2012.

The sustainable management project of the Lake Saint-Pierre littoral zone is aimed at establishing sustainable agriculture to protect the lake’s ecosystem. The project has led to the development of a floodplain intervention strategy that fosters sustainable and adapted agricultural practices while maintaining the fragile ecosystem of the lake and supporting the restoration of priority sites.

The success of the project can be attributed to the inclusion and collaboration between academia and government ministries and a commitment to involving farmers from the beginning of the project. The project not only focused on crop, soil and water studies, but also included wildlife research and monitoring projects focusing particularly on fish, birds and insects. In addition, the project focused on the governance of the ecosystem – concluding that it is critical to involve regional and local government authorities and indigenous communities in the process.

This case study forms part of the Regions4 database and can be viewed on the RegionsWithNature platform. Quebec has been involved in the database since its launch in 2016 and has been contributing to knowledge-sharing and learning from other subnational governments. Quebec is also a founding member of RegionsWithNature, officially launched in Montréal in Québec at the CBD COP15 in 2022.

Co-management maritime board of the Litoral del Baix Empordà

Flora Aguilera

Communications, Ministry of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda

Government of Catalonia

The Litoral Baix Empordà is a special protected marine area and site of community importance located in Costa Brava, a coastal region of Catalonia in north-eastern Spain. To facilitate co-management of the Litoral del Baix Empordà, the Government of Catalonia formed a board to create a permanent space of participation where proposals can be debated and concretized to improve the management and organization of maritime uses and activities in the area.

The governance model is particularly focused on making these uses and activities more compatible with the area’s natural heritage. Specifically, through stakeholder engagement, the model aims to ensure the conservation and improvement of the natural, cultural and landscape heritage of the area to both safeguard its socioeconomic activity and protect its cultural heritage.

The success of this model has been its bottom-up approach with stakeholders, such as the scientific community, civil society, government administrations, and all critical stakeholders from the blue economy sector. This has created a safe and trustworthy environment that has enabled addressing common problems and discrepancies, ultimately benefiting the protected area. As a result, environmental management has shifted from maintenance and prevention to an Action Plan that is collaboratively designed. Best practices based on this co-management project is also available on the Regions4 database and the RegionsWithNature website.

Water in San Antonio, Texas

Julia Murphy

Deputy Chief Sustainability Officer

City of San Antonio Office of Sustainability

San Antonio is a CitiesWithNature pioneer city located in Texas state, USA. As a coastal state, Texas is surrounded by water, but its inland cities experience significant water shortages. Moreover, the Texas Water Board’s projections show that the state’s water supply will decline by 18% between 2020 and 2070. One of the main causes of this decline is the depletion of aquifers from pumping for industrial use, occurring alongside land-use change as a result of agriculture and ranching.

Another concern for water supply across the state is population increase, which is expected to rise to 73% between 2020 and 2070. This will be exacerbated under future climate change, as the state’s already hot climate becomes even hotter, and the City of San Antonio in particular will experience reduced rainfall, more frequent and longer droughts, and reduced water and food security.

Beyond needing drinking water and water for household use, this resource is also of economic importance, given that the San Antonio River is a tourist attraction, with 11.5 million people visiting the San Antonio River Walk annually, providing 31,000 local jobs. San Antonians understand the value of water and its conservation has become entrenched in the city’s culture. Conservation – water that is not used – has been considered a water supply source since 1993.

However, water conservation is contingent on access to open land and the space required for rainfall to replenish aquifers. Since nearly 95% of land in Texas is privately owned, the regional and city governments have had to work closely with landowners to protect their land for water conservation through the Texas Agricultural Land Trust.

For the past 20 years, San Antonians have been voting to tax themselves through sales tax initiatives to conserve open land on usually privately owned land over the main aquifer to protect the water source. Water conservation is further achieved through education, incentives, and reasonable regulation. Read more about the statewide investment into water conservation that will be voted on later in 2023, here.

Towards water resilience in the City of Johannesburg, South Africa

Ernita van Wyk

Senior Professional Officer: Social-ecological Systems

ICLEI Africa

Johannesburg is the biggest city in South Africa and also the economic hub of the country. As a result of the long-term decline of water sources in South Africa’s cities, and projected future climate change impacts, the City of Johannesburg has responded to its current water challenges by investing in two tools: The City of Johannesburg water security strategy (city-wide); and the City of Johannesburg pilot catchment management plan (smaller scale).

The COJ water security strategy

A water secure Johannesburg, as per the UN Water definition, would mean: The City of Johannesburg will have the capacity to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being and socio-economic development and preserving ecosystems.

To achieve this, the City government co-produced a strategy with relevant stakeholders to secure water supply; manage water demand and losses; ensure access to safe, reliable and equitable water services; promote resilient, liveable and sustainable urban water environment; manage the water system’s knowledge and data; nurture a water conscious society; and achieve coordinated good water governance. A working group was created under each theme, which has culminated in 67 actions for the City to take. A key part of the strategy’s approach has been to identify how different municipalities and sectors work with the same water source, to ensure effective cross-sectoral collaboration based on an integrated approach to water management.

The COJ pilot catchment management plan (Jukskei River)

The aim of this plan was to develop a tool that promotes integrated catchment planning and management practices, linking various catchment aspects in an integrated manner, at the sub-catchment scale. This includes integrating land use, river health and stormwater management for Johannesburg’s Jukskei River catchment. The Jukskei River catchment experiences similar issues to other urban catchments, including: a demand for settlement that leads to encroachment into river courses; drought; increased flooding; pollution; aging infrastructure; degrading open spaces; poor amenity value; and downstream obligations, given that the Jukskei catchment is located relatively upstream.

The catchment management plan was based on the “water-sensitive city” paradigm, which states that municipal water services are provided against the backdrop of challenging environmental impacts. In response, the plan used a hydrological model to guide extensive stakeholder engagement. Through this process the City realized the significant opportunity for rainwater harvesting and the necessity to start making the catchment area more “spongy” through nature-based solutions – to improve the replenishment of aquifers but also to reduce flooding. Lessons learned and best practices can be found in this CitiesWithNature Catchment Management in Your City Guide, which was launched in this UN Water conference side-event.

The side-event concluded around the topic of advocacy for water – a universally understood rallying point for mobilizing actions, particularly when climate change is not accepted as a point of advocacy. The panel also emphasized the need for a stronger connection between water and ecosystems, and connecting that with human health.

UN Biodiversity COP15 and Water

Water conservation is included in the newly adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), for example, Target 3 calls for the effective conservation and management of at least 30% of terrestrial and inland water, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, and Target 2 calls for the restoration of 30% of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and coastal to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, ecological integrity and connectivity by 2030.

Additionally, Target 12, which is specifically aimed as cities, calls for significant increases in the area and quality and connectivity of, access to, and benefits from green and blue spaces (referring to water bodies such as wetlands, rivers, mangroves etc) in urban and densely populated areas sustainably, by mainstreaming the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and ensure biodiversity-inclusive urban planning, enhancing native biodiversity, ecological connectivity and integrity, and improving human health and well-being and connection to nature and contributing to inclusive and sustainable urbanization and the provision of ecosystem functions and services.

Water targets on the CitiesWithNature Action Platform

The CitiesWithNature Action Platform provides a platform where cities can make their commitments for nature (as referenced in Plan of Action action area 7) and set local targets to contribute to the GBF targets within the framework of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan of their country (NBSAP). The Action Platform is aligned with the 2030 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets, and provide several options for taking action and making commitments at the local level that relate to water such as “Restore and/or rehabilitate terrestrial, freshwater and coastal ecosystems”; or “Reduce water pollution by biocides and excess nutrients from domestic and industrial sources to protect ecosystems and people’s health.”

The UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) from 7 to 19 December 2022 in Montréal provided the ideal opportunity for the CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature global partnership initiatives to highlight their notable progress in recent months.

CitiesWithNature has particularly experienced significant growth since its launch in 2018. During the 7th Summit for Subnational Governments and Cities at COP15, 36 new cities and five new global partners were welcomed to the CitiesWithNature global partnership initiative, which is recognized by the UN Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity as the platform where subnational governments, cities and other local authorities report on their actions and voluntary commitments to the global biodiversity framework.

“By joining CitiesWithNature and using the Action Platform, cities across the world can commit ambitious actions that contribute to national and global biodiversity and nature goals, and easily track their achievements and actions individually and collectively. We strongly encourage all cities and regions, large and small, no matter where they are on their sustainability journeys, to join us and ensure we bring about the urgent transformative change that is needed!”
Kobie Brand, Deputy Secretary General of ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability and Regional Director of ICLEI Africa.

The sister platform to CitiesWithNature – RegionsWithNature – which focuses on subnational governments at the regional level and across urban-rural linkages, was officially launched on 12 December at the 7th Summit. During the CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature Announcement Ceremony, eight new subnational governments and two new global partners were welcomed on board.

“Launching RegionsWithNature, together with some of the most powerful subnational leaders in the world, sends a powerful signal to the planet, and especially to the Parties of the Convention. Subnational governments are committed, they’re ready, and they’re already playing an important role in implementing concrete actions on the ground.”
Jordan Harris, Executive Director of Regions4

New cities, regions and partners joining CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature at the 7th Subnational Governments and Cities Summit

NEW CITIES

City of Oakland, USA

City of Santa Monica, USA

Lake County, USA

City of Carbondale, USA

San Francisco, USA

City of Boulder, USA

City of Boston, USA;

Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Canada

City of Laval, Canada;

Cartagena das Indias, Colombia

Autonomous Decentralised Municipal Government of Pastaza Cantón, Colombia

Alcaldía de Barranquilla, Colombia

Metropolitan Area of Aburrá Valley, Colombia

City of Roseau, Dominica

City of Portsmouth, Dominica

City of Utrecht, Netherlands

City of Paris, France

City of Marseille, France

Iringa Municipal Council, Tanzania,

Kisii County, Kenya,

Tswelopele, South Africa

Waterberg, South Africa,

Kampala, Uganda

Mukono Municipal Council, Uganda,

The District Council of Black River, Mauritius,

Hargeisa Municipality, Somalia,

Chengdu, China

Huzhou, China

Jiaxing, China

Kunming, China

Nanyang, China

Shenzhen, China

City of Nagoya, Japan

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Caygan de Ouro, Philippines

Mashhad Municipality, Iran

NEW REGIONS

La Rioja, Spain

Basque country, Spain

Aland islands in Finland

California in USA

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Paraná in Brazil

Guanajuato, Mexico

Jalisco in Mexico

New partners

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)

WHO (World Health Organization)

CC35 (Capital Cities of the Americas)

CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature:

The Convention on Migratory Species (UN CMS)

R20 (Regions of Climate Action)

"Thank you for being part of the two Platforms, which give us the space to act together. As Nature is our home so are CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature."
Stefania Romano, Global Coordinator of CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature

Why are CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature important?

Knowledge sharing

CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature provide educational resources to ensure that cities are equipped with the knowledge and understanding of natural resources and ecosystems required to ensure that these issues are included in the cities and regions’ goals and planning.

One of the primary goals of these platforms is to keep city officials updated on best practices and lessons learned about important biodiversity topics, predominantly through the Tools and Resources section, but also by connecting cities and regions with one another. Connecting subnational and local governments facilitates much-needed collaboration across all levels of government to achieve the biodiversity goals as captured in the newly adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

“We need to strengthen our collaboration, our network, our initiative in conservation to maximize the solutions which work, through the platforms CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature.”
Benoit Charette, Minister of Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks Québec

With 373 scientifically robust resources – including reports on topics such as nature-based solutions, ecosystems, health and well-being, and biodiversity governance, the Tools & Resources section empowers cities and regions with current and updated information on best practices.

CitiesWithNature offers Guides that package science-based information in a way that is easy to understand and accessible to cities. During COP15, CitiesWithNature announced that its Guide on light pollution, created in collaboration with the UN Convention on Migratory Species, will be launched soon.

In 2022, CitiesWithNature created its first Community of Practice – which is a platform aimed at connecting cities to learn from one another, by predominantly utilizing its chat function. The platform also aims to bring together the broader community of researchers and practitioners to connect with cities to solve biodiversity-related challenges. The first Community of Practice was launched for coastal cities, in collaboration with the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA).

Knowledge sharing has been facilitated through a range of tools and activities including targeted campaigns, news and updates, as well as webinars to empower cities with the knowledge of how to use the Action Platform. CitiesWithNature also uses its newsletter – the Buzz – to keep cities updated with current events, news and important information, while also profiling the achievements of CitiesWithNature cities and RegionsWithNature regions in achieving their biodiversity targets.

During the 7th Summit for Subnational Governments and Cities, Regions4’s Case Study Database, one of RegionsWithNature’s new tools, was launched. The Database is a freely accessible open source online database that showcases the subnational government experience. Currently eight case studies from six regions – Québec, Catalonia, the Basque Country, Lombardy, Jalisco, and Aichi – are available in Spanish, French, and English. Its goal is to build and develop capacities at the regional level of government, transforming on-the-ground knowledge into best practice learning opportunities in support of the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Monitoring and reporting

While RegionsWithNature was only recently launched, CitiesWithNature already has an established range of tools for monitoring and reporting on cities’ biodiversity actions. Notably, the CitiesWithNature Action Platform is used to feed local and subnational level actions for biodiversity into national biodiversity planning. The action areas, commitments, actions and targets are all linked with the Sustainable Development Goals and Global Biodiversity Framework targets to ensure they align with national priorities.

This is supported by the Nature Pathway – guiding cities step by step to promote and mainstream nature into their policy, planning and actions.

During COP15, CitiesWithNature also launched the digitized version of the City Biodiversity Index, also known as the Singapore Index, which is based on the updated version of the CBI handbook. The automated calculations of this digitized version help cities establish a baseline for biodiversity to further monitor and report on their biodiversity, for example by making commitments and setting targets on the Action Platform.

Through this monitoring and reporting function, CitiesWithNature also plays a role in mobilizing the subnational and local governments Major Group by leading and providing support to critical advocacy events such as the 7th Summit and its associated Pavilion at COP15.

“CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature are recognized in the Plan of Action as being the place where subnational governments and cities can report on their commitments towards contributing to national and global biodiversity targets and track their progress, and I am really hoping to see many more commitments made on these platforms.”
Ingrid Coetzee, Director: Biodiversity, Nature & Health, ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center

To encourage cities to make use of the Action Platform, CitiesWithNature employs a reward system that acknowledges and celebrates cities’ commitments. This includes certificates, reward badges and rankings that appear on City Profiles and can be downloaded as pdfs for cities to share and keep track of their progress.

In addition to all the functionalities mentioned above, CitiesWithNature will also launch its Community and Research Hubs in the near future to further connect cities, researchers and practitioners.

Watch the ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center video featuring voices from across the world calling for cities to become CitiesWithNature here.

Center of Excellence launched at COP15

The ICLEI-Kunming International Center of Excellence for CitiesWithNature, jointly initiated by ICLEI and Kunming City, was formally established at a signing ceremony during the 7th Summit on 12 December. The center is committed to be an important platform for demonstration, peer learning and creating partnerships between Chinese and international cities on nature conservation and biodiversity. It will also help enhance local governments’ technical capacity and encourage local commitment and actions for the implementation of the newly adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The activities of the center will run in close collaboration with ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center based in Cape Town, South Africa.

CitiesWithNature/RegionsWithNature warmly welcomes its newest member to the family, the European Committee of the Regions!

ICLEI, one of the founding members of the CitiesWithNature/RegionsWithNature platform, has been working in close collaboration with the EU CoR for a long time. ICLEI Europe particularly, has played the strong role of supporting the EU CoR in delivering opinions on Biodiversity in relation to the Post 2020 GBF. There have been multiple arenas where ICLEI Europe and EU CoR have joined forces and one prominent example is the Edinburgh Declaration, where EU CoR participates in regular strategic meetings to further the progress on the commitments from the various signatories to the Edinburgh Declaration.

Building on this strong foundation, ICLEI invited the Committee of the Regions to become a partner to the RegionsWithNature platform. RegionsWithNature aims to strengthen the voice of the regional authorities in the scope of biodiversity and nature-based solutions and make it heard at the national and international levels. By joining RegionsWithNature, CoR unites with ICLEI, Regions4, the Group of Leading Subnational Governments (GoLS), IUCN and other international organizations. RegionsWithNature is also supported by the UN Environment Programme and the Secretariat of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, with numerous regional and subnational governments already on board, including Yucatán and Campeche in Mexico, São Paulo and Pernambuco in Brazil, Goa in India, the Community of Madrid and Catalonia in Spain, the Western Cape Province in South Africa, Québec in Canada and Scotland in the UK.

We are honored to welcome the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) into the RegionsWithNature initiative and platform, under our shared missions of connecting urban planning and biodiversity conservation.

Now that there is already a growing momentum towards addressing the climate emergency with the biodiversity crisis in close conjunction, we are delighted to welcome the voice of the European regions through the Committee of the Regions to the RegionsWithNature family.

We are certain that in the context of RegionsWithNature, where there are prominent advocates of strong commitments and pro-active contributions towards more biodiversity in cities and regions such as ICLEI, Regions4, GoLs and IUCN, this partnership will bear fruitful outcomes and greater impacts for the benefit of human and nature.
~ Kobie Brand, ICLEI CBC Director and Deputy Secretary General of ICLEI Tweet

While CoR is the voice of regions and cities in the European Union (EU), RegionswithNature brings together regional and subnational leaders and their partners from around the world, providing access to tools and resources on nature-based solutions, ecosystem restoration, and biodiversity conservation, and sharing regional commitments to achieving global nature goals.

Local and sub-national governments are at the forefront of implementing measures to tackle biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation.

This is why the European Committee of the Regions, as the European Union's assembly of regional and local representatives, strongly supports the objectives of RegionsWithNature. This global platform is an essential tool to showcase regional commitments towards achieving national and global biodiversity targets, with the aim of bolstering regional governments' nature ambitions and ensuring that multi-level governance opportunities for action are maximised.

~ Roby Biwer, member of the Bettembourg municipal council (Luxembourg) and rapporteur for EU CoR opinions on biodiversity and nature restoration Tweet

The path ahead, to meet the demands of the biodiversity agenda specifically the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, is ambitious and demanding. Promising outcomes for Europe and the world in halting biodiversity loss and restoring ecosystems on a large scale requires inclusive partnerships built upon shared principles and values for implementing concerted and successful actions. Thus, with EU CoR committing to take an active role in the global biodiversity arena by joining RegionsWithNature, we are certain that we are on the right track with collective strong ambitions to make a positive change.

Climate and Nature in cities and regions: Water connects all