Provision of expertise

The main rivers that cross Lilongwe are the Lilongwe, Lingadzi, Nankhaka and Chankhandwe Rivers, of which the Lilongwe River is the biggest and longest river and the primary source of water for Lilongwe city's residents. At 200 km long, besides its primary function, the river also supports several informal settlements and provides ecological, recreational, cultural and economic benefits. Despite these important functions that the river offers, it is still facing threats such as pollution, urban agriculture, sand mining, climate change effects, and a loss in the biodiversity of fauna and flora that this watercourse hosts. As it sustains a population of approx. 1 mil. inhabitants, the local authorities were interested in finding solutions to address the above threats. As early as 2016, ICLEI ( Local Governments for Sustainability), an international NGO that promotes sustainable development, worked alongside Lilongwe City Council and other stakeholders to protect the river as well as the people depending on it and implemented several actions, with the help of the local community. Eventually, this collaboration led to the issuing of a strategic plan for a sustainable and functional ecological corridor system in the heart of Lilongwe City. The Ecological Corridor aims to transform Lilongwe into a green, clean, prosperous, and resilient city, by ensuring the protection of its urban natural assets, and advancing complementary nature-based solutions. 1,2,3)

Mauritania is one of the Sahelian countries most severely affected by the periods of drought occurring since 1968. The resulting desertification is exacerbated by human activities, which have compounded climatic factors, with direct consequences for an already precarious situation. Environmental degradation, responsible for the dangerous displacement of sand dunes in Mauritania, has wiped out homes, livestock and livelihoods throughout the desert country. In Nouakchott, Mauritania’s capital and biggest city, the coast are protected by a fragile wall of dunes at risk from natural erosion, sand mining, grazing of livestock on dune vegetation, and careless abuse of the landscape for leisure like dune racing. In this scenario, protecting the dunes is a priority, and the government is using World Bank financing to overcome the challenge. From a climate change perspective, the intervention addresses accelerating erosion that allows seawater to wash into the city, assaulting buildings, roads, fresh water supply and public space. From a biodiversity perspective, the intervention aims at sustaining the balance between the food for the livelihoods of the local population and the preservation of the rich coastal biodiversity. (1,2)

Monavale Vlei is an important wetland area within the city of Harare, characterised by miombo woodlands that play an important role in the fragile ecosystem of the Manyame catchment basin, the main supplier of water for the city of Harare and its suburbs. Throughout the years, Monavale has been subjected to a number of threats such as construction developments, dumping of waste, fires, illegal farming, invasive plants, informal agricultural practices and loss of biodiversity. To address some of these challenges the local community organized itself into a group - Conservation Society of Monavale (Cosmo) Trust, to protect the area and, with the help of the municipality of Harare and some international bodies, implemented a series of actions designed to protect the wetland and reduce the loss of biodiversity, among many others. In 2009 the NGO was awarded a United Nations Development Programme Global Environment Facility Small Grant. The intervention had 3 objectives: to restore parts of the wetlands, to advocate with the local and international authorities for the legislative protection of the wetlands, and to engage the scientific community in research regarding the wetlands. This enabled Cosmo to restore Monavale vlei to an almost pristine wetland state, and other UN funding has made possible several training and awareness projects for a wide range of audiences. (1,2,3)

Beirut RiverLESS, a project initiated by OtherDada, aims to address the deterioration of the Beirut River and its negative impact on the surrounding communities and environment by developing a holistic response plan for the Beirut River Watershed. The river runs east to west, then curves north, separating the city of Beirut from its eastern suburbs, primarily Bourj Hammoud and Sin el Fil. The goal is to bring the Beirut River back to life by following a Landscape Ecology approach and by enabling local governance, leading to innovative ecological interventions. Throughout time, the river has been used as a water resource for drinking and irrigation. It also once had an important role as a space for recreational activities. In 1968, the river was transformed from a natural, healthy and performing ecosystem to a canalized infrastructure, becoming an open sewer of domestic and industrial wastewater, highly polluted and posing numerous health risks to its neighbours. The river also lost its recreational and social function as people no longer had access to it. (1)

The creation of Nyandungu Wetland Eco-Tourism Park is part of Rwanda’s efforts to restore and conserve ecosystems while promoting social-economic development. The Rwandese capital, Kigali, experiences regular flooding during rainstorms, due to the runoff from the surrounding urbanized hills, with the stormwater concentrating at the valley bottom in former wetlands. These floods cause disruption to traffic, preventing all travel between hillside communities. In order to address stringent issues, the focus turned on the wetlands surrounding the capital of the country. One of these wetlands is the Nyandungu wetland, which has suffered a lot of land use changes over the years, including agricultural activities, pasturing, cattle farms, sand mining, and wetland reclamation. From a climate change point of view, the project aims to address problems related with flooding and sustained base-flows in rivers. From a biodiversity point of view, the project aims to enhance biodiversity conservation. The main goal is the reconstruction of the Nyandungu Wetland Eco-Park with green infrastructure and services strategies for green energy, saving and recycling water, use of local and natural materials as well as architectural designs that maximize natural lighting and ventilation. (1,4)

Climate change has become a constant topic for the administration of Israel, mainly due to the country's exposure to the effects of climate change. These include water shortages and pollution, the shrinking of the Dead Sea, waste production and disposal, air pollution and increased population density. Haifa is no stranger to these changes and the administration of the city is trying to align itself with international organisms that can help it to overcome such critical situations. The City of Haifa’s leadership strives to join the capitals of the world, share knowledge and establish operative cooperation. In December 2020 it joined the Paris Agreement, and in July 2021 signed the Urban Nature Declaration pledging a greener and more sustainable city with the 40C Cities Climate Leadership Group, an international organization of about 100 major cities worldwide. On a local level, the city initiated Haifa2030, a program that aims to prepare for global warming and to develop strategies for urban resilience. Among the actions taken into account by the municipality refers to green roofs, which the city intends to transform into an overall city program. Two demonstration roofs have been erected on municipal buildings, and additional roofs are planned. (2,3)

The city of Bishkek once had the status of one of the greenest and most pleasant cities in the Soviet Union. The situation has deteriorated from year to year, so much so that in 2009 Bishkek was ranked sixteenth in the list of the thirty dirtiest cities in the world in a study published by The Blacksmith Institute, an American NGO which discloses each year an urban environment assessment report. This is why it seems urgent to us to react and work to protect, renovate and develop the green spaces of Bishkek. The proposed project aims to protect the unique forest of Bishkek called Karagachevaïa Rocha (“grove of elms”) and to redevelop it to make it an environmental education centre. This center, which would be the first of its kind in Kyrgyzstan, would include in the same place an arboretum, a leisure area as well as an animal park in which various rare or endangered species, present in Kyrgyzstan or in the countries of Central Asia, would be kept in semi-freedom. Karagachevaya Rocha has nearly 123 hectares in total, which is the largest green space in Bishkek and one of the oldest. This adds a symbolic character to the project. (3)

The Armenia Tree Project is a national initiative founded in 1994. The project engages in involving different community members in an urban planting program, environmental education and outreach. ATP has targeted the most vulnerable communities with the most need for greenery. The focus and attention that is given to these areas help trees to grow and flourish but also creates a stronger bond between the inhabitants and the land they live on. Major greening sites are typically public parks, schools, kindergartens, cultural centers, military bases, churches, historical monuments and other significant landmarks. ATP also focused on Yerevan, the capital of Armenia which has become the "theatre" of many planting campaigns. From a climate change perspective, the project addresses issues of clean air and temperature regulation, as Armenia confronts a frequency of extreme weather events, worsening desertification and land degradation. From a biodiversity perspective, the project aims to conserve the country's rich biodiversity and to restore its ecosystems. (1,2,3)

Kibera is Nairobi's largest slum/informal settlement. Kibera houses about 250,000 people and is the biggest slum in Africa and one of the biggest in the world. The Government owns all the land in this settlement. 10% of people are shack owners and many of these people own many other shacks and let them out to tenants. The remaining 90% of residents are tenants with no rights. Most of the inhabitants confront themselves with a food crisis. The project at Kibera is a recent initiative of the National Youth Service (NYS), a government agency that promotes youth affairs through the ministry of devolution and planning. The approach is seen as a cheap and healthy solution to food insecurity and runaway unemployment in Nairobi’s slum. The project also addresses climate change as food insecurity is related to an intense period of droughts: longer periods of drought (likely a result of climate change) in sub-Saharan Africa, meant the farmers had to depend on rainfall to water their crops. From a biodiversity point of view, the project will help with the urban biodiversity restoration (1,3)

The intervention targeted a section of the Dominguez Creek for restoration, with the aim of achieving a "multi-benefit project [which] creates passive and active recreation opportunities for park-poor communities, reestablishes native riparian plantings and captures stormwater before entering the channel along the Dominguez Creek in cities of Gardena and Hawthorne" (Ref. 2). Previously being characterised by the local community as a “Triple U” (Undesirable, Unsafe and Unusable) area, the project aimed to support a variety of environmental, sustainability, and humanitarian activities (Ref. 1). The nature-based solution interventions which were implemented as a result of the project mainly pertained to the planting of in situ trees, shrubs and groundcover plants; restoration of the riparian habitat; temporary installation of a "mini-urban forest for a shaded respite from the harsh downtown streetscape"; aiding in stormwater capture; conservation of water resources through using native plant species; and creating "watershed awareness" (Refs. 1, 2, 4, 5 and 8).