ICLEI Oceania kicked off the new CitiesWithNature Australia webinar series on 14 July 2021 with a

session targeted at councillors. It aimed to raise councillors’ awareness of the

importance of embedding Nature and Biodiversity in all city plans to boost the health and

liveability of their communities.

We heard from Prof Niki Frantzeskaki of Swinburne University about the many dimensions

of nature-based solutions and how they interface with climate, socio-economic and socio-

cultural systems. This was followed by three stories from Australian cities:

•  Biolink and Woody Meadow projects in City of Port Phillip

•  Creek Recovery Campaign and Creek Heroes in City of Onkaparinga

•  Living With the Bush and Keep Cats Safe At Home initiatives in the Blue Mountains.

And finally we learnt about the Living Melbourne initiative which is delivering an integrated

Urban Forest Strategy across the 32 municipalities of Greater Melbourne. ( Link to presentation)

“Local Government is where great work is being done to re-introduce Nature to our cities”

said ICLEI Chair and webinar moderator Cr Amanda Stone. “It was inspiring to hear directly

from councillors about innovative projects in their cities.”  

This was just the first of a series of CWN webinars to be held this year. In August 2021 there will

be a focus group webinar for cities which have participated in the ICLEI-Swinburne needs-

assessment research interviews (participants only), and in September there will be a special

webinar dedicated to Indigenous Land Management and how this can be applied in urban

areas (open to all).

Keep an eye on the CWN Oceania website here for updates.

A recording of the webinar is available from this link.