The following excerpt is from an article featured in this Cities With Nature Buzz newsletter. It is posted here with permission from ICLEI.
Turku recently became the first Finnish city to join CitiesWithNature, a growing global initiative aimed at protecting and enhancing nature, and building resilience in cities across the world.
“Turku is taking a “Nature Leap” to become one of the leading nature cities. By investing in the conservation and restoration of local ecosystems, the city enhances well-being of all its residents, both human and other species”, said Mayor of Turku Minna Arve.
Turku is home to Europe’s first biodiversity park, located in the Skanssi neighborhood.
The Skanssi park in Turku is a mosaic of semi-natural and urban biotopes harbouring many rare, endemic and endangered species. In the development project, urban biodiversity is fostered through unique measures and collaboration with universities, companies, NGO’s and residents.
“This operating model can be applied in other neighborhoods, as well as in cities all over the globe,” said Arve.
CitiesWithNature is open to all cities and subnational governments, regardless of size, resources, capacity or level of progress in working with nature. Visit https://www.citieswithnature.org/ to find out more.