World Cities Day 2024: Embracing Biodiversity and Youth-Led Action for a Greener Future

This year’s theme, "Youth leading climate and local action for cities," highlights the important role young people play in addressing one of the most urgent challenges of our time—the climate crisis. Our team shares this belief, with many of our pilots involving children in both the co-design process and maintenance of nature-based solutions (NbS) in our pilots. We understand that it is essential to involve and educate young people on the importance of urban greening and biodiversity to cultivate a stronger connection with nature, encourage biodiversity, and inspire local actions that contribute to creating greener, more resilient cities.

Biodiversity is not merely a ‘nice to have’ for cities—it is a vital component of a healthy urban ecosystem that benefits both nature and people. As urban areas continue to expand, green spaces are often sacrificed for infrastructure, resulting in biodiversity loss and diminished environmental services. This imbalance creates numerous challenges, from increased pollution and temperatures to reduced physical and mental well-being for residents.

Diverse plant and animal life in cities brings benefits far beyond aesthetics, it plays a critical role in maintaining the health of ecosystems. Urban green spaces like parks, rooftop gardens, and community forests act as natural filters for air and water, while also providing habitats for pollinators and other wildlife. For residents, exposure to biodiverse environments has been shown to improve mental health, reduce stress, and increase overall wellbeing. Biodiversity is not only essential for ecological balance but is a cornerstone of vibrant, liveable, and healthy cities.

Through Biodiverse Cities, we promote biodiversity in urban areas to transform the region’s cities into nature-inclusive societies. We pilot Bio-Nature-Based Solutions (Bio-NBS) in five cities, focusing on innovative designs, and co-creation methods. By promoting biodiversity across cities, businesses, and communities, we are helping to build more resilient urban ecosystems that can adapt to climate change and ensure long-term sustainability. Our project also prioritises biodiversity at investment, governance, and policy levels to ensure it becomes a fundamental aspect of urban development, rather than an afterthought.

World Cities Day 2024 celebrates the power of youth in leading climate and local action, and we're grateful for the opportunity to help young people drive real change in their communities. 

In one of our pilot cities, Växjö, they are building the Gemla schoolyard from the ground-up with NbS. Växjö’s approach has been to map the work that needed to be done, and ask themselves - can it be solved with the use of Nbs? To ensure the needs of the preschool are addressed, Växjö has asked key questions: How can nature-based solutions solve practical challenges in a preschool yard? How do they enhance children's activities and learning experiences? Through this approach, children play with natural materials and are introduced to NbS and the importance of biodiversity from an early age. Similarly, in Brest, efforts are underway to greening  numerous schoolyards using NbS. Brest is educating both students and teachers about the importance of biodiversity; the goal is for teachers to pass on this knowledge to students and, in turn, to parents, growing awareness throughout the community.

Another initiative engaging children took place in Bremen, in collaboration with the Secondary School Gröpelingen (Neue Oberschule Gröpelingen, NOG). Here, they developed a framework to educate pupils on climate change and biodiversity loss, empowering them to take action towards a better future. They gathered young people's perspectives on the public green infrastructure and how it could be improved, the results will be brought into the landscape architect competition in 2025. A key component of this initiative was to provide youth with hope in the face of biodiversity loss and the climate crisis, and this was achieved in step three with hands-on activities that activate and motivate participants.

In Aarhus, they have a school project that involves art and folklore as well as nature and natural building materials. The kids were asked to create stories about trolls living near Vilhelmsborg using clay, moss, sticks and stones and other natural materials found in the Vilhelmsborg area. By bringing more stones to the field, the children are reviving a microhabitat that has been missing in the fields for decades, where farmers removed all stones from the field to produce crops. These added stones provide substrate and shelter for many species and create temperature variation in the new habitats and are the first of many that we plan to bring in and distribute throughout the new nature near Vilhelmsborg. 

Through hands-on activities, creative social design workshops, and community-led initiatives, we inspire youth and adults to reconnect with nature and take an active role in the transformation of their cities. By empowering citizens—especially youth—to take part in these initiatives, we can teach and encourage the next generation to promote biodiversity and climate action in their cities.

During our partner meeting in Växjö, we visited the Summer street, a temporary nature-based solution co-designed with children. Ylva Eriksson from the city of Växjö shared a moment when a child remarked, "Imagine if the adults actually listened to us, and used our ideas —wouldn't that be amazing?" Children have a valuable voice that is often overlooked. Their involvement in urban biodiversity initiatives ensures that the voices of those who will inherit the future are heard today. 

As we bring Urban October to a close, World Cities Day reminds us of the potential for cities to be engines of positive change. Join our project's mission to foster a balanced coexistence between humans and nature, and encourage behaviours and mindsets that prioritise sustainability and environmental awareness. By integrating biodiversity into urban planning and development enhances ecosystem resilience, we create spaces where both people and nature can thrive. Let us work together to accelerate biodiversity action and create greener, healthier, and more inclusive cities for all!