Trees in Cities Challenge
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
(
United Nations / Multilateral body
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#SDGAction33777
Description
Climate change is one of the leading challenges of our times. Cities are at the forefront of the battle against climate change, at the same time being most vulnerable to its effects but also embodying the potential to counter it. In 2019, the UNECE launched the “Trees in Cities Challenge” at the Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit (New York, 21 September 2019), aiming to raise the awareness of policy-makers of the potential of urban trees and forests as a nature-based solution to climate change. The initiative invites mayors and urban authorities to make a scalable pledge to expand their urban canopy cover within a year, and in that way give a local contribution to climate action and help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
The pledges from mayors are implemented through 4 main stages: (1) a pledge made by a city’s mayor to plant a pre-agreed number of trees; (2) progress tracking of the tree-planting and report to UNECE; (3) progress monitoring with a “tree-meter” on the TiCC website; (4) progress report provided by the UNECE to the participating cities and invitation of their mayors for knowledge sharing at relevant UNECE events. Moreover, UNECE supports participants through preparing policy briefs and recommendations on integrating urban and peri-urban forest ecosystems in green recovery plans, as well as organizing relevant webinars and policy events. Furthermore, by applying a bottom-up approach to identify key barriers and bottlenecks at the municipal level, policy recommendations to policy-makers on the national level can be made. This enables to strengthen the cooperation on urban forestry between local and national levels. All activities will include, whenever feasible, a reference to gender equality and seek to represent men and women equally.
The overall output of the project is improved awareness of local and national policy-makers in the UNECE member states of urban forestry’s potential in addressing some of the most pressing issues cities face nowadays, including climate change and the post-pandemic recovery. The project outputs enhance urban resilience, provide an essential contribution to climate action, and improve the quality of life in cities. Sustainability of the project’s impact is ensured since there are besides potential delayed green recovery actions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, no identifiable risks.
Vital for the realization of the initiative is the commitment of cities’ mayors within the project by pledging to plant trees. Participation is promoted and facilitated through promotional materials, the website, direct contact to mayors, press releases and the organization of webinars and policy events. However, due to COVID-19 and the related delays in planting the trees, the project was extended one year, ensuring the pledges’ achievement and enabling the participation of additional cities.
With promotion and facilitation of the inclusion of management, protection and restoration of peri-urban and urban trees and forests in COVID-19 recovery plans, as well as by strengthening policy dialogue between local and national authorities and increasing their awareness of the importance of urban forestry as a nature-based solution to climate change, this initiative promises to generate a long-lasting impact. Based on the growing momentum on climate action, urban forestry gains on importance. The performed communication, outreach, and policy support within the project may inspire cities that did not participate in the initiative to conduct similar activities independently. Since planting trees represents a comparable plain practice, imitation of the project activities is simple.
• Official project website: https://treesincities.unece.org/ • Official document for the 78th Session of the Committee on Forests and the Forest Industry (COFFI): https://unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/timber/meetings/2020/20201104/ECE_TIM_2… • Media coverage: “El Pais”, “National Observer”, “BalkanGreenEnergyNews”, UNECE news release • Promotional video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0IeNgMxh0c • Website of Helsingborg City, tools and guidelines of the City of Victoria, and media engagement
COVID-19 has had a particularly severe impact on cities, with an estimated 90 percent of all cases occurring in urban areas. The pandemic underscored the many challenges cities face today, including degradation and overexploitation of urban and peri-urban ecosystems. As a result, since the outbreak of the pandemic, the Trees in Cities Challenge has set the inclusion of urban forestry in green COVID-19 recovery plans to the core. Some participating cities reported delays in meeting their pledges due to the COVID-19 outbreak and related budget adjustments. Nevertheless, no city reported that they would be unable to meet their pledges due to the pandemic. To mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the project, its duration was extended by one year. Overall, the Trees in Cities Challenge is in line with recent global calls to keep up sustainable development and build back better.
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Beneficiaries of the initiative are local government officials and experts as well as citizens writ large. The implementation of the project is supported by the UNECE Committee on Urban Development, Housing and Land Management and the Geneva Cities Hub.
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