Last week at the Manchester Festival of Nature celebration event at Heaton Park, Manchester became the first UK City to sign up to the International CitiesWithNature portal, a Global network aimed at sharing best practice approaches around Nature conservation.
CitiesWithNature is a partnership between ICLEI- Local Governments for Sustainability, IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) and The Nature Conservancy. These international organisations have access to a wealth of expertise from city administrations and subject specialists worldwide.
This is also an exciting opportunity to promote the good work already happening in Manchester to a fast-growing international audience. One such example of this work is in West Gorton, where Manchester’s participation in the European-funded ‘Grow Green’ project will deliver a new community park with innovative water-retention features.
“Manchester takes it commitments to nature conservation seriously, and we want to shape our city accordingly with the best advice possible; CitiesWithNature will support us on our journey in making Manchester an even more nature-friendly city. It’s very appropriate that we make this statement after a month-long wildlife focussed campaign engaging with thousands of people through the City’s first Festival of Nature”.
– Cllr Angeliki Stogia