Twenty-one Ecuador mayors join CAF’s BiodiverCities Network

CAF—development bank of Latin America—the municipality of Manta and the Humboldt Institute held the National Meeting of BiodiverCities in Ecuador, where 21 autonomous decentralized municipal governments from all over the country signed the Declaration of Barranquilla and pledged to promote sustainable local development, in balance with nature and focused on the bioeconomy.

“Through this event, we seek to foster dialogue and a path to reestablish the relationship with nature while recognizing the value of cities as a hub to devise solutions to fight inequality and poverty. Therefore, CAF has encouraged mayors to become protagonists of this reflection, in an attempt to turn cities into biodivercities,” said CAF Executive President Sergio Díaz-Granados.

Furthermore, Minister of Urban Development and Housing Darío Herrera welcomed CAF’s initiative and highlighted the importance of having a sustainable urban development strategy to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of the cantons and contribute to the well-being of all citizens.

The meeting is part of a series of events led by CAF in various countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, in an effort to open a space for the exchange of knowledge, experiences and best practices among cities in the region, to help build a new urban management model that reconciles growth and productivity with environmental sustainability and biodiversity conservation.

At the meeting, local authorities discussed the use of green infrastructure and nature-based solutions as pillars of an urban development strategy and pledged to work on ways to transform cities into Biodivercities.

The event included the discussion “Nature as an opportunity to generate sustainable urban infrastructure in Ecuadorian cities,” with the participation of CAF’s Corporate Vice President of Strategic Programming Christian Asinelli, Presidential Advisor for Environmental Issues Roque Sevilla, German Cooperation Agency Resident Director Christiane Danne, and Grupo Faro Executive Director Ana Patricia Muñoz, who contributed with their knowledge and experiences to the discussion to consolidate the biodivercities model.

In addition, CAF and the Heifer Foundation signed the agreement “Development of an enabling environment for sustainable businesses based on Ecuador’s native biodiversity,” which aims to promote sustainable businesses based on other value chains of native biodiversity.