As UN Biodiversity Summit Reviews Global Progress, Landscape Architects Highlight Role of Cities in Meeting 2030 Targets

Washington, D.C., October 15 – As world leaders gather in Yerevan, Armenia, for the first global review of progress toward the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) will highlight how landscape architecture can help translate international biodiversity commitments into action in cities and communities. ASLA delegates will share the vision outlined in Landscape Architecture 2040: Climate & Biodiversity Action Plan.

“Landscape architects are uniquely positioned to translate the Global Biodiversity Framework into action in cities and communities around the world, “ said ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen, Hon. ASLA. “We need to accelerate our collective effort to achieve the 2030 targets and slow the biodiversity crisis. Through our planning and design work, we are ready to help protect, restore, and enhance communities’ biodiversity.”

ASLA delegates will explain how landscape projects at all scales can combat the major drivers of 
biodiversity loss – loss of habitat from destruction and fragmentation, invasive species, pollution, and climate change. Delegates will outline how landscape architects advance the key goals and targets of the UN Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which calls for increased access to and benefits from green and blue spaces in urban areas, alongside biodiversity-inclusive planning, native biodiversity, and ecological connectivity: 

• Design urban landscapes as ecological infrastructure that supports wildlife habitat, water cycles, carbon sequestration, climate regulation, and nutrient cycling.
• Protect existing biodiversity and restore degraded ecosystems to support ecological health, community well-being, and thriving human and wildlife populations.
• Integrate nature-based solutions to address biodiversity loss and climate change while supporting community health.
• Collaborate with Indigenous knowledge holders and scientific experts to inform landscape planning and design.
• Reduce the impacts of invasive species through appropriate plant selection, including robust native plant palettes that support ecological function and resilience (among others).

“World leaders need to make much greater progress towards the global 2030 biodiversity targets. At the Biodiversity COP, we will push for increased investment in urban nature, which too often gets overlooked. We can leverage more urban parks and recreation areas, natural systems like rivers, and commercial and residential property to protect and restore more urban biodiversity,” added Aida Curtis, FASLA, PLA, Chair, ASLA Climate & Biodiversity Action Committee. 

At COP17, ASLA will host Biodiverse Cities: Landscape Designers Addressing the Crisis, a session in the Upper Stage of the publicly accessible Green Zone on October 19, 1.30-2.30 p.m., Central European Time / 7.30-8.30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. In this session, case studies and resources from the U.S. will show how biodiversity can help cities improve resilience, advance action on climate change and social inequities, and support an improved relationship with the natural world. 

ASLA will also co-host Advancing Landscape Architecture for Urban Biodiversity to Ensure Human and Environmental Health, a joint session with the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) and U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in the Upper Stage of the Green Zone on October 22, 2.45-3.45 p.m., Central European Time / 8.45-9.45 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. In this interactive session, landscape architects, urban planners, and architects will provide a framework for reimagining the urban built environment as a refuge for biodiversity. 

ASLA will be represented by two delegates at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Yerevan, Armenia. ASLA is an official observer of the UN CBD Conference of the Parties (COP) process. ASLA’s delegates: 

• Jennifer Dowdell, FASLA, Practice Leader: Landscape Ecology, Planning & Design, Biohabitats; Co-Chair, ASLA Climate & Biodiversity Action Committee Biodiversity Subcommittee; Biodiversity Lead, ASLA Climate & Biodiversity Action Plan Task Force  
• MaFe Gonzalez, ASLA, Landscape Designer and Botanist, BASE Landscape Architecture; Member, ASLA Climate & Biodiversity Action Plan Advisory Group; Co-Chair, Northern California ASLA Climate & Biodiversity Action Committee

ASLA’s delegates will be joined by delegates from the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA): 

• Sohyun Park, ASLA, PhD, Associate Professor, Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Connecticut 
• Indra Purs, President, IFLA Europe

Media: Delegates are available for virtual and in-person interviews at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Yerevan, October 19-25. Contact [email protected] to arrange an interview.  Learn more about ASLA’s work at this year’s Biodiversity COP here.