World Urban Parks Habitat III event a success

(from: http://worldurbanparks.org/en/news-events/news/449-world-urban-parks-habitat-iii-event-a-success).
The World Urban Parks Large Urban Parks Committee (and Network) held a successful side event at the UN Habitat III Conference in Quito on 17 October 2016, titled Large Green Spaces and Urban Forests, Key Public Infrastructure for Equitable, Healthy and Sustainable Cities. This event was presented in collaboration with the Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology (SISEF).
Large Urban Parks Committee Co-Chair Dr Richard Murray congratulated Patricia O’Donnell for leading the event, and the panellists for their contributions, noting the side event was the best-attended side event of that day of the programme.
Together with a successful Habitat III side event held in Barcelona earlier this year, this event highlighted the value of large urban parks and raised the profile or World Urban Parks, as well as developing relationships with allied organisations.
A short debrief from Simone Borelli of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation follows:
Large Green Spaces and Urban Forests, Key Public Infrastructure for Equitable, Healthy and Sustainable Cities.
“This side event focused on Green infrastructure including a wide set of components, from city parks, to large urban parks, urban forests and peri-urban parks plus the greenery of cemeteries, gardens, street trees etc. Special emphasis was given to large urban parks and urban forests and their strategic role in green infrastructure planning and in city governance.
Speakers included: Patricia O’Donnell, WUP, Large green spaces, key public infrastructure for equitable, health and sustainable cities, Fabio Salbitano and Giovanni Sanesi, SISEF, The strategic role of Public Green Spaces and Urban Forests in Latin America and the Caribbean for a new inclusive urban agenda, Andrew Potts, ICOMOS, Connecting natural and cultural heritage, the role of large urban parks in achieving SDG target 11.4, Jeet Mistry, WWF, Large Green Parks as Urban Solutions, Simone Borelli, FAO, Urban parks – balancing city and nature, Raquel Penalosa, IFLA, The role of a large park in a large city – the case of Montreal.
Concluding the event, a set of recommendations for city planners was presented and discussed. Overall, I think UF and green spaces got quite a bit of attention and I hope that the New Urban Agenda will serve as a useful reference for the years to come.”
The presentation of Patricia O’Donnell is available at http://www.worldurbanparks.org/images/Documents/ODonnell-Large-green-spaces-forests-17Oct2016-Habitat-iii.pdf, the presentation of Fabio Salbitano, co-authored with Prof Giovanni Sanesi is available at http://www.worldurbanparks.org/images/Documents/The-strategic-role-of-public-green-spaces.pdf, and the presentation of Simone Borelli is available at http://www.worldurbanparks.org/images/Documents/The-strategic-role-of-public-green-spaces.pdf.
(segnalato da: Giovanni Sanesi)