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20 March 2020
Integrating urban natural assets into city planning and decision-making in African cities: A new handbook series
We are proud to announce the launch of our new handbook series: The Value of Urban Natural Assets When Planning for Resilient African Cities: Considerations and Decision-Making Processes, developed through the Urban Natural Assets for Africa (UNA) programme.
We are proud to announce the launch of our new handbook series: The Value of Urban Natural Assets When Planning for Resilient African Cities: Considerations and Decision-Making Processes, developed through the Urban Natural Assets for Africa (UNA) programme.
This 12-handbook series showcases key considerations for integrating urban natural assets into city planning and decision-making processes in sub-Saharan Africa. All insights and learnings profiled were gathered through the design and execution of the UNA programme which is currently being implemented in eight African cities.
By sharing approaches that have been successfully tailored to African cities, these handbooks seek to support the development of future urban sustainability projects that are both more effective and better suited to the local context. Learnings also shed light on how ICLEI Africa is working with local authorities to ensure alignment with international policies and agendas (such as the Paris Agreement and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets). It’s imperative that we share Africa’s insights and lessons now so these can feed into discussions as the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) work on developing a new post-2020 global biodiversity strategy.
The series is specifically aimed at public officials and organisations that currently work (or plan to work) in African cities, with an emphasis on those invested in land-use planning, urban greening and urban natural asset restoration and management.
The development of this set of handbooks is both timely and significant because:
- Learnings shed light on how African cities are currently responding to global calls to action and working towards the achievement of international biodiversity, climate change and sustainable development goals and targets at the local level.
- By sharing methods and approaches that have been successfully tailored to African cities, we can support and inform the development of future urban sustainability projects that are both more effective and better suited to the local context.
- With rapid urbanisation and significant ecological change on the horizon, African cities will need to adopt transformative approaches to planning. This handbook series captures how cities have already harnessed opportunities and innovated with positive results, so that best practices can be carried forward into the future.
- Many of the considerations profiled relate to broader mind-set shifts, and therefore aren’t only applicable to the realm of natural asset management – they can easily be applied to other sustainability science sub-fields (like eco-mobility and low carbon development).
- Learnings showcased here reiterate the importance of developing reflective, needs-driven projects; taking a bottom-up approach to implementation; and focusing on processes (the approach), not just outcomes (the result).
Each handbook focuses on a key lesson or recommendation that has emerged through the UNA programme. As a result the handbook series touches on a range of topics including the following: alternative approaches to planning for nature (Handbook 2); innovative approaches to planning for the African context (Handbook 3); working with informal and formal governance structures (Handbook 4) as well as with informality (Handbook 5); the importance of developing reflective, needs-driven projects; taking a bottom-up approach to implementation; the value of focusing on processes as well as outcomes (Handbook 6 – 10); and the need for a multi-level governance approach to natural asset management.
