Stockholm Resilience Centre researchers contribute to the initiative as experts on urban biodiversity.

Request for multilevel cooperation
Mayors and key decision-makers from local governments around the globe convene on the occasion of the 9th Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention of Biological Diversity from 26-28 May in Bonn, Germany.

They demonstrate their commitment towards cooperation and action and, at the same time, request a multilevel cooperation for improving biodiversity globally. Professor Thomas Elmqvist at Stockholm Resilience Centre is one of the speakers at the Mayors' conference in Bonn presenting a new article on urban systems (pdf, 3 MB)that will soon appear in Encyclopedia of Ecology.
 
- Local governments stand for the well being and the will of half of the world´s population and play a key role in the successful implementation of international framework conventions such as the UN Convention of Biological Diversity, says Elmqvist.
 
Urban sprawl is rapidly transforming and endangering critical habitats of global value and is viewed as a driving force for increased homogenization of fauna and flora. But cities may also be very rich in biodiversity and a remarkable amount of native species diversity is known to exist in and around large cities such as Singapore, Canberra, Rio de Janeiro, Chicago, Berlin, New Delhi and Stockholm.

Urban green areas also provide a number of very important ecosystem services like hydrologic services, recreation and other cultural services, noise reduction, air cleaning and carbon sequestration.

Facing challenges on all levels
- The rapid urbanisation represents both a challenge and an opportunity to ensure basic human welfare and a viable environment. The opportunity lies in that urban landscapes also are the very places where knowledge, innovations, human and financial resources for finding solutions to global environmental problems are likely to be found. The opportunities in urban areas for innovative experiments and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services are large, says Thomas Elmqvist.
 
- Political decision makers and social actors at all levels face today a host of new challenges and opportunities. There is clearly a need to integrate and use all sources of knowledge — scientific, tacit, informal, local and experiential — for innovation and coping with change, Elmqvist adds.

On Thursday 29 May the local governments gathered in Bonn present a Bonn Call for Action (pdf) to the COP delegates of the UN Convention of Biological Diversity. The Bonn Call outlines the willingness of local governments to offer their experience and their influence to strengthen and promote the implementation of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity within a global and multilevel partnership.

In the Bonn call the local governments also request policy framework conditions, which enable them to unfold the local potential for protecting global biodiversity.