Underskog

Urban agriculture as a strategy for building ecological resilience

In many cities food insecurity and poverty are on the rise, particularly in regions suffering from armed conflict, underperforming economies and dire natural disasters. As such, the ability to grow ones own food, either in community gardens or on public or private land, constitutes an important additional resource in such circumstances. Today 800 million city dwellers worldwide use their agricultural skills to feed themselves and their families.

The growth of localised agricultural provision in both urban and peri-urban areas undoubtedly improves sustainable development and reduces environmental hazards in many cities. Furthermore, rising levels of urban food production can also effectively contribute to the creation of new jobs, better nutrition levels and a host of other economic improvements, particularly for the poorer sections of the urban population.

At this year’s World Habitat Day, Habitat Norway will seek to draw attention to the global Urban Food Security situation including how to increase the ecological resilience of cities.

Amongst the speakers are:

Rafael Tuts, UN Habitat
Florence Egal, FAO
Henk de Zeeuw and Marielle Dubbeling, The RUAF Foundation
Augustine Kai O. Banya, Director Country Planning, Ministry of Lands, Sierra Leone
Laura Bracalenti, Professor at Faculty of Urban Planning and Design, National University of Rosario and advisor of the Urban Agriculture Programme of the City of Rosario, Argentina
Jianming Cai, Professor at Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resource Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and advisor to the Urban Agriculture Programme of Minghang District, Shanghai, China

Arranged by Habitat Norway in co-operation with Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NORAD, Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, UN Habitat and the RUAF Foundation.

Full conference program is available on our website.

Habitat Day evening event