ASLA Achieves Official Observer Status to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity

^{ASLA 2024 Professional Urban Design Honor Award. Urban Balcony Embracing Rewilded Nature. Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China. Turenscape} 

By Jared Green

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has been granted official observer status to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Council of Parties (COP). ASLA will send a delegation of landscape architects to the Biodiversity COP17 in Yerevan, Armenia in October. 

“Landscape architects will have a seat at the table where global decisions are being made about biodiversity,” said ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen, Hon. ASLA. “Our participation in the Convention on Biological Diversity will complement our long-standing advocacy work at the UN Climate COPs. Landscape architects know we must address biodiversity loss and climate change together.” 

“Landscape architects have a lot of practical knowledge to offer policymakers on how to design cities and communities that protect and restore biodiversity,” said Aida Curtis, FASLA, President, Curtis + Rogers Design Studio, and Chair, ASLA Climate & Biodiversity Action Committee. “Combatting biodiversity loss is as critically important as reducing the impacts of climate change. Landscape architects can now advance solutions to both challenges at an international level.”

ASLA 2020 Professional General Design Honor Award. The Native Plant Garden at the New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, New York. Oehme, van Sweden (OvS) 

In 2022, 196 countries agreed to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which established a vision for 2050 and goals and targets for 2030. ASLA and its more than 16,000 members, including landscape architects, designers, and educators, announced their support for the vision, goals, and targets. 

ASLA’s Climate & Biodiversity Action Plan outlines an integrated approach to address biodiversity loss and climate change together. The plan calls for all landscape architecture projects to protect, conserve, restore, enhance, and manage biodiversity by 2040. Landscape architects are also committed to leveraging their projects to protect and restore at least 30 percent of terrestrial, coastal, and marine ecosystems by 2030 – referred to as the 30 x 30 commitment. 

Landscape architects advance global biodiversity goals by:

• Protecting and restoring ecosystems
• Conserving habitat for species
• Planting native trees and plants
• Protecting and restoring soil health
• Managing invasive species
• Creating ecological corridors
• Mitigating and adapting to climate change

They plan and design projects and conduct research at all scales in urban, suburban, and rural areas.

ASLA 2025 Professional General Design Honor Award. More than Human: A Land Bridge for Cultural and Wildlife Connections. San Antonio, Texas. STIMSON, Rialto Studio / Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy 

The Convention on Biological Diversity was formed by 150 government leaders at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. The convention recognizes that “biological diversity is about more than plants, animals, and micro-organisms, and their ecosystems – it is about people and our need for food security, medicines, fresh air and water, shelter, and a clean and healthy environment in which to live.” The U.S. government is not a party to the convention.