ICLEI in collaboration with the Government to conduct ‘Cities for Life Summit’ at CBD COP 11

Sept. 26, 2012 - PRLog -- Hyderabad, 25th September, 2012: As part of a global movement to bring nature back into cities, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity are collaborating with the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and the Government of India to organize the Cities for Life: City and Subnational Biodiversity Summit on 15 and 16 October 2012.
                             
This Summit will be held at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre in parallel to the CBD COP 11. Being the host city, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is facilitating the execution of this Summit. Shri Kamal Nath, Honourable Minister for Urban Development, GoI is expected to inaugurate this event.

The Summit will feature a high level interactive dialogue bringing together local and sub national governments from across the globe, aiming to help them to implement Decision X/ 22 on the Plan of Action on Sub national Governments, Cities and Local Authorities for Biodiversity. The purpose of the meeting is to take stock of progress since the City Biodiversity Summit at the CBD COP 10 at Nagoya; to outline the latest relevant tools and initiatives; to reiterate the importance of ecosystem services and understanding their value; and to present a response by local governments, subnational governments, academia and international organizations to the Plan of Action.

Cities for Life will be the third gathering of its kind to be organized in parallel to the COP, but the first to take place directly adjacent to the COP negotiations. The Summit will draw to Hyderabad over 300 participants ranging from city and sub-national leaders, national governments, international organizations, UN agencies and specialists from across the world, in a move to convene local authorities in support of the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity. So far over 200 delegates have registered for the Summit, representing 40 international cities and 16 Subnational Governments from 36 countries.

ICLEI, the world´s leading association of over 1200 cities and local governments dedicated to sustainable development, was one of the key partners who organized the City Biodiversity Summit at Nagoya, Japan in 2010.

For further information, please contact:

Chandra Polaggari                                                                       Vishal Thapa
cpolaggari@perfectrelation.com                                               vthapa@perfectrelations.com
+91 9603576330                                                                         +91 9701834446

Sunandan Tiwari
Sunandan.tiwari@iclei.org  
+91 9891456157