05/06/2025

Connecting nature to urban life in our fastest growing cities

A group of people, including adults and children, participating in a tree planting event. Each person holds a small plant in a pot. In the background, trees and green land are visible. — Tree planting campaign with a school in Moshi, Tanzania.

The INTERACT-Bio project was an IKI project that ran from December 2016 to December 2024. The project tackled the use and management of nature in some of our planet’s fastest growing cities.

INTERACT-Bio’s goal was to mainstream the global biodiversity framework at the local level and to provide urban communities with nature-based solutions and their associated benefits. Led by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the project aimed to improve nature management in fast-growing cities and their surrounding regions in Brazil, China, Colombia, India, South Africa, and Tanzania.

Supporting cities in all steps of biodiversity conservation

An overhead bridge along a road, with ladders supported by a structure. Surrounded by lush greenery and a traffic sign warning of a curve. A car drives on the road. — Fauna bridges were built in the metropolitan region of Campinas, Brazil.

Over eight years, INTERACT-Bio's work has helped to reshape the urban biodiversity landscape in its project countries by providing a wide range of technical support and training to the cities it works with, covering the full spectrum of biodiversity management.

For instance, INTERACT-Bio assisted cities in developing a better understanding of their local ecosystems through data collection, including ecosystem assessments, the creation of a City Biodiversity Index, and a Thematic Atlas. Based on this knowledge, the project also drafted local policies with the cities dedicated to localizing the Global Biodiversity Framework through a multistakeholder participatory process (Local Biodiversity Strategic Action Plans, LBSAPs).

INTERACT-Bio also provided concrete examples of how policies can be turned into action through seven tailor-made demonstration projects and helped local governments fund the implementation of their biodiversity policies by providing them with comprehensive trainings on biodiversity finance and how to mobilize funding from the private sector. In this context, the cities of Bucaramanga in Colombia, Kunming in China, and Waterberg in South Africa could develop proposals to be funded through the Transformative Actions Program.

Mobilizing civil society

One particularity of INTERACT-Bio was its capacity to mobilize a very broad range of stakeholders around urban biodiversity conservation. At a time when more and more studies show that urban living and the resulting lack of direct interaction with the natural environment leads to a diminished understanding and appreciation of the ecological systems that support the lives of urban dwellers, it was important for the project to showcase the diversity of benefits that local ecosystems provide to the local population.

The project worked with a wide range of stakeholders including architects, local businesses, academics, and NGOs to complement the project activities. With their support, activities such as the demonstration projects were designed to be a long-term testimony for all to see, demonstrating how integrating nature into urban planning can help address the everyday challenges faced by urban populations.

Local implementation

A park landscape with flowers, shrubs, and benches for sitting. A statue and a group of people sitting on a staircase are visible in the background. — Greening of Nyerere Square in Dodoma, Tanzania, with the help of an innovative wastewater irrigation system.

In Belo Horizonte and Londrina, Brazil, the project's creation of rain gardens and green buffers is educating the local population about the need to maintain green spaces in cities as a habitat for local species, but also to absorb rainwater and prevent flooding. Similarly, in Dodoma, Tanzania, the re-greening of Nyerere Square using an innovative wastewater irrigation system allowed local communities to benefit from an urban oasis that quickly became a popular place for socialising while reducing the urban heat island effect.

Many project activities aimed to involve youth in re-greening activities, such as planting trees with schools in Moshi and Arusha, Tanzania, or through the development of educational materials such as illustrated maps of the urban ecosystems, a comic book, and the creation of a Nature Interpretation Centre and an pollinator garden, which became very popular with local schools in Kochi, India.

From local to global

Beyond the model city-regions, INTERACT-Bio aimed to create a lasting impact by establishing a community of practice to share lessons learned and build on them. To this end, the project encouraged its project cities to join the global discussion by sharing their experiences at the Summit for Subnational Governments & Cities side events during the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP CBD) 14, 15, and 16 and to take an active role in the participatory process leading to the Edinburgh Declaration in 2022 and the Berlin Urban Nature Pact in 2024.

The project has created the CitiesWithNature-Initiative, the first reporting platform for local governments' commitments to nature, endorsed by the CBD Secretariat and CBD COP Decision 15/12. The initiative has been joined by more than 350 local governments from 78 countries and has quickly become a repository of best practices from around the world, providing a holistic approach to biodiversity through guidelines on related issues such as health, adaptation, finance, etc. Additionally, INTERACT-Bio facilitated connections between cities through South-South and North-South peer learning workshops.

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