Conference 2003
Greening the City:
Bringing Biodiversity Back
into the Urban Environment
Abstract:
Globalisation,
Conservation and the Urban Environment
David R. Given (IUCN Species Survival Commission Plant Programme
and Botanical Services Manager, Christchurch City Council)
Plant
conservation has moved centre-stage globally with the adoption of
a Global Plant Conservation Strategy by the Convention on Biological
Diversity in April 2002. This novel programme includes 16 targets
to be reached by the year 2010. A number of these relate to urban
environments: cities are themselves often located within areas of
significance for biodiversity, cities impose a distinctive set of
threats to indigenous species and ecosystems; and, while it is well
recognized that the activities of people are a primary cause of
biodiversity decline it is also the activities of changed people
that are crucial to restoration of biodiversity and the processes
that maintain it.
Within
the urban fabric botanic gardens play an increasingly major role
as a primary interface between people and nature. The implications
of this are briefly explored, especially in relation to the International
Conservation Strategy for botanic gardens. But there are many other
opportunities for taking the global picture down to the local level
in urban environments as part of an enlightened greening of cities,
not only in a physical sense but also intellectually, socially and
spiritually. Innovation, sparked by passion and backed by good science,
along with developing community confidence in the conservation movement,
is essential to achieve global targets in a local setting.
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