Protecting rivers as urban natural assets

Project summary

This cutting edge project is designed to support the daily challenges that local governments in Africa experience around protecting and revitalising their urban natural assets, in particular their river systems. It aims to integrate nature-based solutions into land use planning for increased resilience.

This project is funded by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), through SwedBio at the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

Project aims

Mainstream biodiversity and nature-based solutions into land use planning and decision-making processes

Increase awareness of ecosystem services through capacity building

Mobilise project activities through alignment with international policies and processes (such as the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the Sustainable Development Goals)

Improve co-ordination between key stakeholders to work together towards integrating biodiversity into land use planning

Connect local communities with nature to encourage appreciation, cultural activation and enhance human well-being

Implement community-based projects along urban river systems to improve river restoration and revitalisation, and improve human well-being and livelihood creation

All project activities intent to transform the city landscape. The project aims to play a role in the process of transformation by effectively challenging dynamics that created the challenges in the first place. This project places emphasis on ensuring effective processes for sustainable change as well as on producing tangible products.