Biodiversity: Why it matters to cities
The Philippines’ biodiversity and that of many other countries are in a state of crisis.
Species are disappearing faster than ever before in human history, and roughly three-quarters of all land environments have been heavily degraded by human activity. Yet, it has seen relatively little action.
An urban lifeline
Biodiversity is critical for cities and for the changing climate. At the same time, cities have a role to play in protecting and improving it. Here’s why.
Biodiversity improves ecosystem stability and cities’ resilience to the impacts of climate change. Natural infrastructure and ecosystems, such as mangrove forests, act as buffers to climate hazards, helping to regulate climate impacts and protect urban residents and infrastructure.
However, urban nature is also at risk from the effects of climate change. Rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns and extreme weather events are putting pressure on species already threatened by other human activity.
Biodiverse ecosystems are more resilient to climate risk, changing conditions and other pressures, such as disease, pests or fire.
Biodiversity significantly increases the sequestration potential of natural systems, making it crucial to limiting temperature rise. Natural ecosystem landscapes that are unbroken and biodiverse, such as tropical forests, sequester twice as much carbon as planted crops in a given area.
Land-based ecosystems could provide up to 30 percent of the climate change mitigation required to ensure that global warming stays below 1.5 degrees Celsius toward 2050, but biodiversity is needed to achieve this potential.
Bulk of intact natural systems lie beyond city borders, but cities can protect them by shaping resource extraction and consumption patterns that drive destruction and degradation, and by protecting and increasing the area, quality, and connectivity of urban nature in and around the city.
Cities and their residents and businesses depend on biodiversity to thrive. Ecosystem services give us secure food production, safe drinking water, clean air, nature-based recreational opportunities and much more, in addition to protection from climate hazards.
Many modern medicines and medical advancements are derived from biodiversity. Critical economic activities that depend on nature, such as agriculture and fisheries, are at risk of disruption from biodiversity and nature loss.
Moreover, investments in improving biodiversity—including watershed rehabilitation, management of invasive species, and other nature-based infrastructure interventions—are said to have the potential of creating 59 million quality jobs in cities by 2030.
Healthier ecosystems
Urbanization and urban consumption patterns further put biodiversity under threat. But there are many other ways cities can help protect and enhance biodiversity.
Promote sustainable diets. Our use of land—primarily for production of animal-sourced food—is the main driver of biodiversity loss.
Roughly three-quarters of all land environments and two-thirds of the ocean have already been heavily degraded by human activity. By helping residents eat healthy and sustainably, cities can play an important role in reversing this trend.
Ensure that the urban environment provides a safe refuge for a wide array of plants and animals, including threatened and endangered species. By understanding and providing for the needs of a large variety of native species, cities can provide valuable stopover sites and migration corridors.
This might mean integrating local ecosystem considerations into urban planning regulations; prioritizing a variety of native species in planting projects; implementing programs to restore priority areas of degraded land; and offering biodiversity-focused incentives to homeowners and businesses.
Promote denser, infill development to reduce encroachment on natural habitats through urban expansion. This is especially important for cities adjacent to biodiversity hotspots like Manila Bay.
Most future urban expansion is forecast to occur in the world’s most biodiverse regions, such as low-elevation coastal zones. In cities that face flooding, reducing sprawl can also help reduce risk.
Minimize air, water, and noise pollution; the use of harmful chemicals; and the over-exploitation of local natural resources. These degrade natural environments, can harm or kill plants and animals, and disrupt the behaviors and communication of species. A notable example of an effective action is urban rewilding.
Human-nature coexistence
Biodiversity and the climate crises are inseparable and must be solved together.
Cities are increasingly experiencing ecological degradation, often made worse by the effects of the climate breakdown with rising temperatures and more extreme weather.
Cities need to adopt processes that restore natural habitats and their urban spaces, working towards a state of human-nature coexistence.
The author is the principal urban planner of CONCEP Inc. and a Fellow Emeritus of both the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) and the Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners (PIEP)
