“… and the human habitat is full of surprises, plants, microbes, animals and cultural practices that all are mixed together: just when smart phones and absolute connectivity arrive, rats and pigeons lurk, new lenguages prosper, streets are transformed…The human ecosystem cannot impede the passage of species and of the forest and plains that life, always incarnated, find spaces in our cities to continue its evoultionary course... ” (Instituto Humboldt, 2016) MTRA. ANA MARGARITA ROMO ORTEGA Environmental General Director The Importance of Urban Biodiversity THE URBAN BIODIVERSITY INDEX AS A BASE LINE FOR THE INCORPORATION OF THE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN URBAN PLANNING: TOLUCA´S CASE, MEXICO. 2019. MTRA. KARINA ÁVILA ISLAS Director of Climate Change
Transcript
“… and the human habitat is full of surprises, plants, microbes, animals and cultural practices that all are mixed together: just when smart phones and absolute connectivity arrive, rats and pigeons lurk, new lenguages prosper, streets are transformed…The human ecosystem cannot impede the passage of species and of the forest and plains that life, always incarnated, find spaces in our cities to continue its evoultionary course... ” (Instituto Humboldt, 2016)
U R B A N B I O D I V E R S I T Y I N D E X O F T O L U C A
indicator tota
l
0 1 2 3 4
1 Green areas proportion 25.15% 4
2 Connectivity measure 5,889 ha 4
3 Native birds in urban areas 136 species 4
4 Changes in vascular plants 315 species baseline
5 Changes in native birds 136 species baseline
6 Native butterflies 65 species baseline
7 Changes in the number of reptile species 51 species baseline
8 Changes in the number of mammal species 15 species baseline
13 Recreation and Education: Parks with Natural Areas. 0. 518 ha 2
14 Recreation and Education: Number of visitors below 16 years old to parks. baseline
15 Budget assigned to biodiversity 0.125% 0
16 Number of projects assigned to biodiversity 18 projects 1
17 Existence of local biodiversity strategies and action plans. 2 action plans 2
18 Institutional Capabilities: Number of functions related to biodiversity 4 4
19Institutional Capabilities: local government agencies involved in the interinstitutio-nal cooperation with biodiversity.
5 4
20Participation and association: existence of formal or informal public consulting processes
2 consulting processes 4
21Participation and associations: agencies, private companies, etc. participation in biodiversity activities.
33 4
22 Education and awareness: if biodiversity topics are included on school subjects. It is included 4
23 Education and awareness: information spread and awareness events 23 1
TOTAL 47
Aichi Biodiversity Targets
DIRECCIÓN GENERAL DE MEDIO AMBIENTE
OWN ESTIMATION OF THE GENERAL DIRECTION OF ENVIRONMENT, TOLUCA, MÉXICO. 2019.
NUMERICRESULT
INDEX SCORE
@medioambientetoluca @MedioAmbienteDi
MTRA. ANA MARGARITA ROMO ORTEGAEnvironmental General Director
The Importance of Urban Biodiversity
THE URBAN BIODIVERSITY INDEX AS A BASE LINE FOR THE INCORPORATION OF THE
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN URBAN PLANNING: TOLUCA´S CASE, MEXICO. 2019.
The register was 14,459 observations of citizens inter-ested in the biodiversity of Toluca. We will be doing a thorough review to expand the scope of available infor-mation. In the governance aspect, is interesting to note the allocated budget, which is 0.125% of municipal GDP, a resource with which a large number of projects are de-veloped, and that is explained by the collaboration of 33 participatory entities (NGO’s, Companies, Civil soci-ety, etc.). This index should be improved and adjusted to the reality of Toluca, for example, among the topics that are not discussed is the impact of air quality on ecosystems, or on agricultural-food productivity. Measuring active (non-motorized) mobility efforts is important, because the impact is positive, as it not only reduces fragmentation between green areas; it pro-motes environmental education and mitigates climate change. On the other hand, we consider important to incor-porate the economic valuation of ecosystem services, because progress towards cost-benefit analysis is need-ed in public decisions made within the city. The discussion is just beginning; criticism, debate and above all interinstitutional linkage must be strength-ened to generate positive synergies for sustainability.
For this purpose, Toluca joined the CitiesWithNature platform supported by ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability; The Nature Conservancy, IUCN and the German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Pro-tection, Public Works and Nuclear Safety; and under which an interaction and exchange of experiences will be sought with cities committed to incorporating na-ture and ecosystem services into urban planning.
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MTRA. KARINA ÁVILA ISLASDirector of Climate Change
THE URBAN BIODIVERSITY INDEX AS A BASE LINE FOR THE INCORPORATION OF THE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN URBAN PLANNING: TOLUCA´S CASE, MEXICO.The creation of more attractive and livable cities is one of the major challenges for planning and urban manage-ment. This requires a better understanding of the eco-logical, social and economic dimensions and dynamics of the rural-urban landscape. It has been shown that cities can be rich in biodiversity and that public cost of water supply, improved air quality; recreational space generation, as well as flood prevention and control, decrease drastically when there is investment in the care and conservation of species through their eco-systems. In addition, an ecosystem-based adaptation ap-proach can be a cost-effective way to reduce vulnerability to climate change in urban and periferical-urban commu-nities, providing multiple environmental, social and eco-nomic co-benefits. Therefore, to visualize the importance of urban biodiversity usefully manage it is fundamental in the construction of a better city.
URBAN BIODIVERSITY INDEXThe City Council of Toluca, developed the Singapore In-dex or Urban Biodiversity Index (IBU for its acronym in Spanish) based on Peter Drucker’s phrase “what is mea-sured, can be improved” and, in this case, the IBU allows us to identify the areas of opportunity that require greater attention , as well as making decisions from a monitor-ing, verification and evaluation perspective. The Conference of Parts IX (COP-9) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (Bonn, 2008) recognized the role of cities and local authorities in the successful im-plementation of biodiversity strategies and action plans; one of the considerations was the need to generate weighting instruments designed for cities. In this way, a group of experts developed the Urban Biodiversity In-dex, aimed at the practical application of strategic issues for biodiversity.
“…Existing environmental indexes for cities are mainly fo-cused on so-called Coffee, Grey and Blue Agendas, such as drinking water, sanitation, energy efficiency, air quality and waste management. Current available biodiversity indicators are implemented at the national level and, while there are nu-merous publications and studies on urban biodiversity, there is no single index that consolidates all these indicators related to urban biodiversity at the local level. At COP-9 2008, the then Minister of National Development of Singapore, Mr. Mah Bow Tan, proposed the establishment of a city biodiversity index to assess the biodiversity conservation efforts of cities. Hence, the Singapore National Parks Board (NParks), together with experts from several countries, assisted to the CBD Depart-ment to develop the Index. The result was the formulation of the “Singapore Index on The Biodiversity of Cities” or the “Sin-gapore Index (SIS)”, named in recognition of Singapore’s con-tribution and leadership. This is a first self-assessment tool to help cities assess and compare their biodiversity conservation efforts…” (https://www.cbd.int/subnational/partners-and-initiatives/city-biodiversity-index).
The IBU is a self-assessment tool for cities to assess and monitor the progress of their biodiversity conservation efforts relative to their own individual baselines. It is integrated in two parts: 1. The City Profile, which provides basic information about the city.
2. 23 indicators measuring native biodiversity, eco system services and local management.
The IBU score is quantitative in nature. Each indicator is assigned a score range between zero and four points, with a possible total maximum score of 92. The first year a city performs this score will be taken as the reference year and this will be measured based on future IBU appli-cations to record its progress in biodiversity conservation. Of the 23 indicators, these are distributed in three components:
• From 1 to 10 correspond to the native biodiversity in the Urban System.
• From 11 to 14, ecosystem services provided by di-versity are considered.
• From 15 to 23, they address the governance and management of urban biodiversity.
The implementation of this index helps to guide ac-tions of: monitoring and evaluation (guides changes over time), development of indicators, good practices, supplies for urban planning, economic valuation of eco-system services, and development of local capabilities, among others. The Urban Biodiversity Index has been adopted in 40 cities around the world: in 14 of them, it was imple-mented by academics; 26 for local governments and 13 more are in the estimation process. Among the cities that have already implemented it are London, Frankfurt, Montreal and Los Angeles; in Latin America, it has the registration for Curitiba (Brazil), Antigua (Guatemala), Curridabat (Costa Rica) and Cuenca (Ecuador). For Mexico, Toluca is the first city to develop this tool and that puts us as baseline to observe our progress towards the future.
CITY PROFILEThe municipality of Toluca has an area of 426.85 km2, rep-resenting 1.8% of the state territory; its population reaches 900,855 inhabitants, 77% of whom live in urban areas. In the state context, Toluca ranks sixth in the num-ber of inhabitants and the second position in contribu-tion to Gross Domestic Product (168,567.19 MDP, base 2013), in addition to contributing 10.46% of the GDP of the State of Mexico. The economy is based on industrial, commercial and services activities, being the fourth municipality of Me- xico to receive most of the foreign direct investment of the State (Government of the State of Mexico, 2019).
CONNECTIVITY OF GREEN AREAS
One of two people in the world live in cities and this figure is estimated to increase bytwo-thirds by 2050. By 2020, in Mexico the level of urbanization will be 85.9% and its upper threshold is in the east-central region; in this context, Toluca, as the capital of Mexico’s fifth largest Metropolitan Zone, will be populated by 1,936,126 people (SEDATU 2019).
“Look deeply into nature and then you will understand ever ything better ”, Alber t E instein.
RESULTS Urban Biodiversity Index results by component:
Native Biodiversity Component. Regarding the out-come of the indicators, Toluca has a total proportion of green areas of 25.15%, which are distributed with an average degree of fragmentation; this favors the conservation of the habitats of the species, specifi-cally of those whose record was found: 136 species of birds, 315 species of native plants, 65 species of butterflies, as well as reptiles and mammals
Ecosystem Services Component. According to the climate regulation indicator, the cooling effect of vegetation is 11.71%. In terms of water regulation,
RESULTS DISCUSSIONThis first exercise, together, observes a series of indica-tors that tells us about environmental status of Toluca and the opportunities to follow a path towards sus-tainability and towards the integration of ecosystem services into urban planning. The information obtained allows us to see, for example, that there are 6.9 m2 of green areas per inhabitant, a number that is below the indicator of the World Health Organization (WHO) of between 9 and 15m2; however, removing protected natural areas and placing a more detailed perspective that takes us exclusively to the green areas existing in the populated urban area, it gives us the figure of 0.14 m2 /habit. Linking the treetop cover to the total surface of the city to have an approximation of microclimate regu-lation and carbon capture estimation, has been inter-esting in two ways: 1.- Learn the use of techniques of remote perception and use of free and available infor-mation, in this case from the European Space Agency- Copernicus Project, Sentinel 2, year 2018 and 2. Achieve data that contributes to improving climate conditions (11.72%) knowing that according to IBU estimates, 10% on the vegetable cover, reduces the local temperature by about 3 degrees. On the other hand, it highlights the potentially per-meable area that the municipality of Toluca still pre-serves: forest area, soil without vegetation, agricultural soil, soil with vegetation and grasslands, this territory, represents more than 75% of the area of the municipal-ity, in addition to water bodies that could still be sourc-es of supply. The information presents a contrast with the overexploitation of the Toluca Valley aquifer, docu-mented several years ago, where the balance between recharge and extraction yields a deficit of 142.29 Mm3 Regarding flora and fauna, there is an enormous wealth, 136 species of birds, 65 butterflies, 51 species of reptiles and 15 mammals, in addition to 315 species of plants. This information is achieved, thanks to the records prepared by the Conservation and Manage-ment Programs in the protected areas located in Tolu-ca and the information available of CONABIO; however, the data requires updating; also on invasive species no data was obtained. It should be deepened, making an intensive search to identify existing scientific output and identify specific needs. In 2019, Toluca participated for the first time in the Urban Naturalist Challenge con-vened by CONABIO through the “Inaturalist” platform.
potentially permeable soil (agricultural, forestry and bodies of water) was found in 75% of the municipal territory.
THE URBAN BIODIVERSITY INDEX AS A BASE LINE FOR THE INCORPORATION OF THE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN URBAN PLANNING: TOLUCA´S CASE, MEXICO.The creation of more attractive and livable cities is one of the major challenges for planning and urban manage-ment. This requires a better understanding of the eco-logical, social and economic dimensions and dynamics of the rural-urban landscape. It has been shown that cities can be rich in biodiversity and that public cost of water supply, improved air quality; recreational space generation, as well as flood prevention and control, decrease drastically when there is investment in the care and conservation of species through their eco-systems. In addition, an ecosystem-based adaptation ap-proach can be a cost-effective way to reduce vulnerability to climate change in urban and periferical-urban commu-nities, providing multiple environmental, social and eco-nomic co-benefits. Therefore, to visualize the importance of urban biodiversity usefully manage it is fundamental in the construction of a better city.
URBAN BIODIVERSITY INDEXThe City Council of Toluca, developed the Singapore In-dex or Urban Biodiversity Index (IBU for its acronym in Spanish) based on Peter Drucker’s phrase “what is mea-sured, can be improved” and, in this case, the IBU allows us to identify the areas of opportunity that require greater attention , as well as making decisions from a monitor-ing, verification and evaluation perspective. The Conference of Parts IX (COP-9) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (Bonn, 2008) recognized the role of cities and local authorities in the successful im-plementation of biodiversity strategies and action plans; one of the considerations was the need to generate weighting instruments designed for cities. In this way, a group of experts developed the Urban Biodiversity In-dex, aimed at the practical application of strategic issues for biodiversity.
“…Existing environmental indexes for cities are mainly fo-cused on so-called Coffee, Grey and Blue Agendas, such as drinking water, sanitation, energy efficiency, air quality and waste management. Current available biodiversity indicators are implemented at the national level and, while there are nu-merous publications and studies on urban biodiversity, there is no single index that consolidates all these indicators related to urban biodiversity at the local level. At COP-9 2008, the then Minister of National Development of Singapore, Mr. Mah Bow Tan, proposed the establishment of a city biodiversity index to assess the biodiversity conservation efforts of cities. Hence, the Singapore National Parks Board (NParks), together with experts from several countries, assisted to the CBD Depart-ment to develop the Index. The result was the formulation of the “Singapore Index on The Biodiversity of Cities” or the “Sin-gapore Index (SIS)”, named in recognition of Singapore’s con-tribution and leadership. This is a first self-assessment tool to help cities assess and compare their biodiversity conservation efforts…” (https://www.cbd.int/subnational/partners-and-initiatives/city-biodiversity-index).
The IBU is a self-assessment tool for cities to assess and monitor the progress of their biodiversity conservation efforts relative to their own individual baselines. It is integrated in two parts: 1. The City Profile, which provides basic information about the city.
2. 23 indicators measuring native biodiversity, eco system services and local management.
The IBU score is quantitative in nature. Each indicator is assigned a score range between zero and four points, with a possible total maximum score of 92. The first year a city performs this score will be taken as the reference year and this will be measured based on future IBU appli-cations to record its progress in biodiversity conservation. Of the 23 indicators, these are distributed in three components:
• From 1 to 10 correspond to the native biodiversity in the Urban System.
• From 11 to 14, ecosystem services provided by di-versity are considered.
• From 15 to 23, they address the governance and management of urban biodiversity.
The implementation of this index helps to guide ac-tions of: monitoring and evaluation (guides changes over time), development of indicators, good practices, supplies for urban planning, economic valuation of eco-system services, and development of local capabilities, among others. The Urban Biodiversity Index has been adopted in 40 cities around the world: in 14 of them, it was imple-mented by academics; 26 for local governments and 13 more are in the estimation process. Among the cities that have already implemented it are London, Frankfurt, Montreal and Los Angeles; in Latin America, it has the registration for Curitiba (Brazil), Antigua (Guatemala), Curridabat (Costa Rica) and Cuenca (Ecuador). For Mexico, Toluca is the first city to develop this tool and that puts us as baseline to observe our progress towards the future.
CITY PROFILEThe municipality of Toluca has an area of 426.85 km2, rep-resenting 1.8% of the state territory; its population reaches 900,855 inhabitants, 77% of whom live in urban areas. In the state context, Toluca ranks sixth in the num-ber of inhabitants and the second position in contribu-tion to Gross Domestic Product (168,567.19 MDP, base 2013), in addition to contributing 10.46% of the GDP of the State of Mexico. The economy is based on industrial, commercial and services activities, being the fourth municipality of Me- xico to receive most of the foreign direct investment of the State (Government of the State of Mexico, 2019).
CONNECTIVITY OF GREEN AREAS
One of two people in the world live in cities and this figure is estimated to increase bytwo-thirds by 2050. By 2020, in Mexico the level of urbanization will be 85.9% and its upper threshold is in the east-central region; in this context, Toluca, as the capital of Mexico’s fifth largest Metropolitan Zone, will be populated by 1,936,126 people (SEDATU 2019).
“Look deeply into nature and then you will understand ever ything better ”, Alber t E instein.
RESULTS Urban Biodiversity Index results by component:
Native Biodiversity Component. Regarding the out-come of the indicators, Toluca has a total proportion of green areas of 25.15%, which are distributed with an average degree of fragmentation; this favors the conservation of the habitats of the species, specifi-cally of those whose record was found: 136 species of birds, 315 species of native plants, 65 species of butterflies, as well as reptiles and mammals
Ecosystem Services Component. According to the climate regulation indicator, the cooling effect of vegetation is 11.71%. In terms of water regulation,
RESULTS DISCUSSIONThis first exercise, together, observes a series of indica-tors that tells us about environmental status of Toluca and the opportunities to follow a path towards sus-tainability and towards the integration of ecosystem services into urban planning. The information obtained allows us to see, for example, that there are 6.9 m2 of green areas per inhabitant, a number that is below the indicator of the World Health Organization (WHO) of between 9 and 15m2; however, removing protected natural areas and placing a more detailed perspective that takes us exclusively to the green areas existing in the populated urban area, it gives us the figure of 0.14 m2 /habit. Linking the treetop cover to the total surface of the city to have an approximation of microclimate regu-lation and carbon capture estimation, has been inter-esting in two ways: 1.- Learn the use of techniques of remote perception and use of free and available infor-mation, in this case from the European Space Agency- Copernicus Project, Sentinel 2, year 2018 and 2. Achieve data that contributes to improving climate conditions (11.72%) knowing that according to IBU estimates, 10% on the vegetable cover, reduces the local temperature by about 3 degrees. On the other hand, it highlights the potentially per-meable area that the municipality of Toluca still pre-serves: forest area, soil without vegetation, agricultural soil, soil with vegetation and grasslands, this territory, represents more than 75% of the area of the municipal-ity, in addition to water bodies that could still be sourc-es of supply. The information presents a contrast with the overexploitation of the Toluca Valley aquifer, docu-mented several years ago, where the balance between recharge and extraction yields a deficit of 142.29 Mm3 Regarding flora and fauna, there is an enormous wealth, 136 species of birds, 65 butterflies, 51 species of reptiles and 15 mammals, in addition to 315 species of plants. This information is achieved, thanks to the records prepared by the Conservation and Manage-ment Programs in the protected areas located in Tolu-ca and the information available of CONABIO; however, the data requires updating; also on invasive species no data was obtained. It should be deepened, making an intensive search to identify existing scientific output and identify specific needs. In 2019, Toluca participated for the first time in the Urban Naturalist Challenge con-vened by CONABIO through the “Inaturalist” platform.
potentially permeable soil (agricultural, forestry and bodies of water) was found in 75% of the municipal territory.
“… and the human habitat is full of surprises, plants, microbes, animals and cultural practices that all are mixed together: just when smart phones and absolute connectivity arrive, rats and pigeons lurk, new lenguages prosper, streets are transformed…The human ecosystem cannot impede the passage of species and of the forest and plains that life, always incarnated, find spaces in our cities to continue its evoultionary course... ” (Instituto Humboldt, 2016)
U R B A N B I O D I V E R S I T Y I N D E X O F T O L U C A
indicator tota
l
0 1 2 3 4
1 Green areas proportion 25.15% 4
2 Connectivity measure 5,889 ha 4
3 Native birds in urban areas 136 species 4
4 Changes in vascular plants 315 species baseline
5 Changes in native birds 136 species baseline
6 Native butterflies 65 species baseline
7 Changes in the number of reptile species 51 species baseline
8 Changes in the number of mammal species 15 species baseline
13 Recreation and Education: Parks with Natural Areas. 0. 518 ha 2
14 Recreation and Education: Number of visitors below 16 years old to parks. baseline
15 Budget assigned to biodiversity 0.125% 0
16 Number of projects assigned to biodiversity 18 projects 1
17 Existence of local biodiversity strategies and action plans. 2 action plans 2
18 Institutional Capabilities: Number of functions related to biodiversity 4 4
19Institutional Capabilities: local government agencies involved in the interinstitutio-nal cooperation with biodiversity.
5 4
20Participation and association: existence of formal or informal public consulting processes
2 consulting processes 4
21Participation and associations: agencies, private companies, etc. participation in biodiversity activities.
33 4
22 Education and awareness: if biodiversity topics are included on school subjects. It is included 4
23 Education and awareness: information spread and awareness events 23 1
TOTAL 47
Aichi Biodiversity Targets
DIRECCIÓN GENERAL DE MEDIO AMBIENTE
OWN ESTIMATION OF THE GENERAL DIRECTION OF ENVIRONMENT, TOLUCA, MÉXICO. 2019.
NUMERICRESULT
INDEX SCORE
@medioambientetoluca @MedioAmbienteDi
MTRA. ANA MARGARITA ROMO ORTEGAEnvironmental General Director
The Importance of Urban Biodiversity
THE URBAN BIODIVERSITY INDEX AS A BASE LINE FOR THE INCORPORATION OF THE
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN URBAN PLANNING: TOLUCA´S CASE, MEXICO. 2019.
The register was 14,459 observations of citizens inter-ested in the biodiversity of Toluca. We will be doing a thorough review to expand the scope of available infor-mation. In the governance aspect, is interesting to note the allocated budget, which is 0.125% of municipal GDP, a resource with which a large number of projects are de-veloped, and that is explained by the collaboration of 33 participatory entities (NGO’s, Companies, Civil soci-ety, etc.). This index should be improved and adjusted to the reality of Toluca, for example, among the topics that are not discussed is the impact of air quality on ecosystems, or on agricultural-food productivity. Measuring active (non-motorized) mobility efforts is important, because the impact is positive, as it not only reduces fragmentation between green areas; it pro-motes environmental education and mitigates climate change. On the other hand, we consider important to incor-porate the economic valuation of ecosystem services, because progress towards cost-benefit analysis is need-ed in public decisions made within the city. The discussion is just beginning; criticism, debate and above all interinstitutional linkage must be strength-ened to generate positive synergies for sustainability.
For this purpose, Toluca joined the CitiesWithNature platform supported by ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability; The Nature Conservancy, IUCN and the German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Pro-tection, Public Works and Nuclear Safety; and under which an interaction and exchange of experiences will be sought with cities committed to incorporating na-ture and ecosystem services into urban planning.
RETO
NAT
URA
LIST
A U
RBA
NO
201
9-TO
LUC
A:
COVE
R PH
OTO
: JES
ÚS
JAIR
VA
RGA
S A
LBA
RRÁ
N.
PHO
TOS:
em
x203
0.or
g,
SUSA
NA
YO
HA
NA
CU
ENC
A D
ÍAZ,
MA
. FER
NA
ND
A A
LVA
BU
ENTE
LLO
, MA
RTH
A D
ÍAZ
AYA
LA, L
EOPO
LDO
ISLA
S FL
ORE
S, A
LBER
TO V
ALD
ÉZ R
AM
ÍREZ
, FRE
DY
SÁN
CH
EZ E
SQU
IVEL
.
MTRA. KARINA ÁVILA ISLASDirector of Climate Change
