Biodiversity Tools in Urban Planning

The Transversal Strategy for Green Growth established in the document Bases del Plan Nacional de Desarrollo 2014-2018 (Bases for the National Plan of Development 2014-2018) identifies the inclusion of biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban planning as one of the necessary actions to ensure the sustainable use of natural resources in the country. Taking this into consideration, and motivated by the lack of knowledge and interest to support better decisions, the Humboldt Institute and the Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible (Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development)¹ developed a conceptual framework for a plan of action. They identified three types of tools to facilitate the incorporation of biodiversity and ecosystem services criteria in urban planning and environmental management: 1. Management of knowledge, 2. Territorial management and 3. Social appropriation. It was a challenge for both entities to test such tools by technically accompanying and strengthening environmental authorities and metropolitan areas and municipalities, prioritizing the incorporation of the tools in the Planes de Ordenamiento Territorial (Land Use Planning Strategies--POT for its initials in Spanish) due to their impact on decisions related to the territory.

An essential goal that contributes to improving the quality of life in the cities is that of strengthening the technical and comprehension capacities regarding the importance of biodiversity inside urban areas of the involved actors, as well as those of the civil society. In this sense, the development of a conceptual framework produces a guide for the identification of goals and opportunities in biodiversity for urban planning and territorial management. The overarching aim includes facilitating the understanding of concepts and perspectives related to: 1. Meaning and significance of viewing urban areas as socio-ecological systems that function in regional contexts, 2. Forms in which urban biodiversity functions and expresses itself, 3. Roles of urban biodiversity in the offer of ecosystem services in cities and its relation to the wellbeing and quality of life of those people that live in the city, 4. Phenomena that currently challenge the survival of urban biodiversity and the opportunities that still exist for its persistence, 5. Concepts of integrated management for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services in cities and its relation to urban land planning tools.

Challenges:

• Success depends on the combined effort of territorial and environmental authorities in the management of information, land planning, and decision making directed towards an integrated management that ensures the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services in Colombian cities.
• Recognizing the essential role of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the cities requires a short, medium, and long term management that includes monitoring indicators, budgets, and the improvement of technical and operative capacities of both territorial and environmental authorities.
• It is an imperative to advance in the management of knowledge and information of urban areas so that updated data with good spatial and temporal resolutions is created. Also, the implementation of geographical information systems should be improved.
• Biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban areas should play a major role in public agendas. Agreements between and within institutions should imply the planning and execution of the determined actions in the territorial management of a city or metropolitan area.
• It is ideal to involve inhabitants in the process through citizen science in order to monitor the established tools before and after implementation. This contributes to governance through the comprehension of land planning and the construction of necessary information as a management tool for their own territory.