Authors: Cliquet, An;

It is increasingly recognized that nature in cities plays an important role for mitigating and adapting to climate change, for human-wellbeing and for biodiversity. Policy attention for urban conservation and restoration has increased substantially in recent years. Most of the commitments are voluntary and legally non-binding. If people want to survive in cities in times of climate change, substantial efforts for conserving and restoring nature in urban environments will be necessary. In this presentation we will analyze recent commitments in the (draft) post 2020 biodiversity framework under the Biodiversity Convention, as well as the commitments in the EU biodiversity strategy 2030. We discuss EU legally binding provisions that could be applied to urban environments and the need for additional binding provisions (such as the EU nature restoration law). We address the issue of what restoration means for urban environments: can it go beyond mere greening, remediation and rehabilitation and restore native ecosystems. We will also address the role of private actors and will discuss the Biodiversity plan of Ghent University as an example.