Dis-integrated Urban Biodiversity: An Analysis of Urban Policies, Plans and Projects in Italy

Since its recognition as a major global challenge at the Cities for Life Summit parallel to the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held in Hyderabad (India) in 2012, Urban Biodiversity (UB) has become a central topic in science and policy worldwide. Indeed, several research have pointed out the potential that cities have in supporting a broad array of plants and animals but also in playing a critical role in biodiversity conservation with initiatives that enhance residents’ knowledge and stewardship of biodiversity (Secretariat of the CBD, 2012). Nonetheless, several challenges and obstacles emerge when scaling up the key benefits of UB through effective policies, plans and projects in cities. This contribution presents the outcomes of an analysis of urban policies, plans and projects in Italy where the objectives of UB safeguarding, restoration, and enhancement are explicitly acknowledged. The research is conducted within the activities of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC) and, specifically, of the Spoke 5 of NBFC oriented to examine urban biodiversity dynamics and values in cities. The research findings show that, while at the European and national levels, a clear trajectory of policies regarding urban biodiversity can be observed, at the local level policies mainly have a sectoral focus as well as an ambiguous impact on UB and lack tools and mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating their implementation. Concerning the plans, the survey highlighted the pervasive, although rhetorical, diffusion of UB strategies and actions in spatial plans. Nevertheless, the scarce integration between thematic and statutory plans results in the difficulty of implementing and monitoring in an integrated way the objectives related to the protection and restoration of urban biodiversity. The analysis of architectural and urban design projects reveals that strategies for conserving and enhancing UB are more often implicitly than explicitly considered. However, the complexity of coordinating networked projects within cities and their commissioning and development process hinder the creation of implementation strategies that last over time and provide tools for restoring UB through maintenance and monitoring tools. Lastly, an important factor that is observed transversally refers to collaborative governance mechanisms which hindrance the integration between policies, plans and projects especially those aiming at implementing urban biodiversity actions locally with citizens. That is in part due to the lack of communication between different actors and in some cases also because of lack of facilitation between different directorates or local authorities within the same municipality.