Leaders of Finland's 10 largest cities commit to halting biodiversity loss

The Urban Nature Forum brought together decision-makers and experts from municipalities, businesses and NGOs to discuss how to reconcile urban growth with nature and the link between urban nature and human well-being.

The state of nature is deteriorating rapidly both in Finland and globally. For example, up to 833 species living in Finnish forests are endangered. The cities' actions are needed, as they consume 75 percent of natural resources and produce 60-80 percent of climate emissions.

Keynote speaker Akanksha Khatri, Head of Nature and Biodiversity at the World Economic Forum, summed up the importance of cities working together to combat biodiversity loss.

- Coordinated city action for nature is not only vital, but also strategically necessary given the climate-, health- and infrastructure related urban challenges.

Cities stress the importance of joining forces

At the Nature Forum, the leaders of the 10 largest cities signed a historic declaration to halt biodiversity loss and enhance biodiversity. The leaders of Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Oulu, Turku, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Lahti and Pori recognise the importance of biodiversity for human well-being, health, the economy and the vitality of cities, and the seriousness and urgency of addressing biodiversity loss.

The city leaders commit to:

1. We will commit to developing and maintaining the blue and green areas of our cities in order to support biodiversity and to promote the well-being of citizens. In order to safeguard local nature, we will also pay attention to the global impacts of our activities.
2. We want to bring the pursuit of nature positivity alongside climate change mitigation in the strategies of our cities. We will consider nature-positive targets in the next strategy update, if they have not already been set in our city. We will investigate what stopping the loss of biodiversity by 2030 will require from our city. We will also set concrete, measurable targets for our city.
3. We will support and encourage both the EU and the Finnish Government in preparing and implementing their biodiversity-related regulations. We believe that, in order to achieve a feasible result that takes into account the specific characteristics of the regions, cities must be strongly involved in the planning of implementation, including in the case of growth centres.
4. We will pool our resources in biodiversity work and the preparation of an implementation plan for the EU Nature Restoration Law in Finland. We will set an example in Finland and internationally by sharing our best practices and collaborating with other cities and stakeholders such as businesses, research institutes, NGOs and residents and organisations. We will raise the ambition of our nature-related activities in our international networks by highlighting concrete, measurable actions.
5. We will meet once a year at the Urban Nature Forum to assess progress and update our collaborative agenda to tackle the loss of biodiversity. In 2025, we will meet in Espoo.

• Declaration of the cities