Kaohsiung City becomes the latest signatory to the Durban Commitment!

At the 2015 Resilient Cities Congress, which forms part of a series of annual global forums, which focus on urban resilience and adaptation, the Deputy Mayor, on behalf of the Mayor of Kaohsiung City, signed the Durban Commitment: Local Governments for Biodiversity.

The Durban Commitment was developed and founded by the 21 pioneer Local Action for Biodiversity Local Governments and provides local authorities with the opportunity to highlight their commitment towards ensuring that biodiversity is conserved and managed for the benefit of their citizens. The Durban Commitment thus provides progressives cities with a way of indicating their commitment to safeguard their city’s biodiversity and enhance it over time.

Kaohsiung City has recently developed their Local Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan and the signing of the Durban Commitment shows the City’s commitment to implementing tangible, on-the-ground solutions for the achievement of biodiversity conservation and management for the benefit of its citizens.

Post signing the Durban Commitment, the Deputy Mayor of Kaohsiung City said:
“I would like to express my appreciation of this opportunity to represent Mayor Chen to sign The Durban Commitment today. By signing this commitment, it shows that Kaohsiung has achieved a certain level of progress and made efforts regarding biodiversity.

Biodiversity is without doubt an important index to value one country’s level of sustainability. What we have done so far would be absolutely regarded as the backbone for our city to pursue sustainable development.

In public engineering, environmental protection, agricultural development and so on, the importance of maintaining biodiversity is of utmost importance which could not be ignored by the city government. This principle has been obeyed in the past, and it will be further followed in the future.”