S07 - Session O2 - Keynote: The FAO Green Cities Initiative: building more resilient and inclusive cities

Authors: Simone Borelli *

The European Landscape Convention states that the value of a landscape n that is, an area the character of which is the result of the action and interaction of natural or human factors n is only fully realized with the active participation of the local community. Therefore, multi-actor involvement should not an option but a paradigm in the governance of cities and urban and peri-urban landscapes. This notwithstanding, many institutions deliberately choose to exclude or minimize a broad range of actors involvement in planning, design and management, claiming that it is too expensive, time-consuming, conjectural or conflictual, or it is impractical. However, benefits of community engagement has a wide number of benefits e.g. public support for planning decisions; common vision and awareness on building city resilience; avoidance of protracted conflicts and several others. City planners and other actors should bear in mind that, while public participation is often a requirement for decision-makers, it is always voluntary for citizens, who are most likely to participate if they anticipate a rewarding experience or hope to influence planning, design and management processes. The keynote presentation will provide an overview of the FAO Green Cities Initiative (GCI), which focuses on improving the urban environment, strengthening urban-rural linkages and the resilience of urban systems, services and populations to external shocks, through improved access and availability to green spaces and sustainable agri-food systems. It will also review some or the main reasons for involving people in planning, design and management of multifunctional urban green spaces that combine forestry and agriculture or other food systems infrastructures, and will present a number of case studies from the FAO GCI and from other projects in different cities around the world.