A regenerative approach to urban-rural governance

The problem

The logic of urbanization, arguably the most transformative human movement ever, is entering an inflection point. Almost 60% of our species lives in cities; following that pattern we will reach 85% over the next two decades. With population growth, we need to double urban infrastructure at the planetary level, with a corresponding increase of the footprint on rural and conservation land- and seascapes. As the global reference scientific assessment on biodiversity and ecosystem services puts it, “land-use change is driven primarily by agriculture, forestry and urbanization, all of which are associated with air, water and soil pollution”. Moreover, “distant areas of the world are increasingly connected, as consumption, production, and governance decisions increasingly influence materials, waste, energy, and information flows in other countries, generating aggregate economic gains while shifting economic and environmental costs”. Resource use in rural areas is increasingly “linked to remote, large-scale investments in land or area purchase or lease and freshwater demand”. The report even points to the parallel rapid evolution of a global “urban biome”: in response to anthropogenic drivers, “organisms show ongoing biological evolution so rapid that it is detectable within only a few years or even more quickly”.

In the past, along with development, this urban migration has also contributed to growing imbalances in the distribution of benefits between rural and urban areas. Though the pattern is uneven across regions of the world, the social and economic inequalities of opportunities called the “urban-rural divide” have often led to emigration and aging in rural areas, and to urban concentration of wealth and decision-making. Resulting inequalities have increased societal risks for food production, water, energy, cultural heritage, biodiversity, territorial intelligence, social cohesion, communications and mobility. They also stressed social protection systems and the welfare state; many areas in the countryside experienced depopulation and falling tax revenues. Decision-makers often saw no alternative than cutting back on infrastructure, which led to more emigration and less investment and services for the people and places left behind.

This is becoming even more urgent in the political and economic crisis associated with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. From the meetings mentioned, it became evident that for this situation to be reversed, the cooperation of local and subnational levels is essential, as connectors of policies and programs. The harmonious articulation of policies and programmes at land- and seascape levels is a condition for any blue and green economy.

Global policy tools towards a territorial solution

There is convergence on the tremendous potential of the governance of urban-rural linkages (URLs), the flow of goods, people, information, finance, waste, and information across space, as an actionable approach to integrate practice and implement policy. Many examples examined at the meetings mentioned above show that there is tremendous power in combining the power of nature-positive and sustainable consumption, including public and corporate procurement in urban and metropolitan human settlements, with cleaner production practices in rural environments, linking both via green incentives. This is backed by recent scientific findings on the nexus of interdependencies between food, water, energy, biodiversity and climate change mentioned above and below.

These linkages were already mentioned in 2016, when the UN issued its referential “New Urban Agenda” in Quito; several paragraphs already commit UN member countries to “supporting territorial systems that integrate urban and rural functions into the national and subnational spatial frameworks and the systems of cities and human settlements”, for “enhanced productivity, social, economic and territorial cohesion, as well as safety and environmental sustainability”. The links are also reflected in the recent UN General Assembly’s request for a “whole of government and whole of society” approach. In looking for solutions, there is growing awareness of the importance of transboundary and collective governance arrangements, connected mosaics of land-use to protect and secure access to natural resources for both rural and urban communities.

Guidelines and best practices on URLs were included in the outcomes of the WorldBio2022 event, hosted by the State of Sao Paulo and partners in June 2022. These findings also influenced strong and actionable decisions of the Rio Conventions and the UN. Last December in Montreal, 195 national government signing on to the Convention on Biological Diversity made history by adopting a global framework with 23 targets to achieve harmony between nature and people. Moreover, decision 15/12 on the engagement of subnational governments, cities and other local authorities proposes a Plan of Action on spatial coherence of biodiversity policies for the entire UN system. It also calls for the allocation of human, technical and financial resources to implement the Plan, and for support to technology and knowledge transfer. In a similar vein, the UN’s Convention to Combat Desertification issued decision 15/22 on migration, which invites Parties to promote sustainable territorial development, including multi-level governance and planning mechanisms to strengthen urban–rural linkages, mentioning peri-urban green belts, urban agriculture and forestry, and soil de-sealing. Both built on the concept of Nature-Based Solutions as adopted at the UN’s Environmental Assembly; the approach is already applied at urban and subnational levels by leading Multilateral Development Banks and the GEF.

URLs were again the focus in mid-March 2023, when UN-Habitat and the Regional Government of Extremadura organized an Expert Group Meeting on recovering territorial balance in the city of Mérida. Over 60 specialists and authorities from national, regional and municipal government, their networks, and international organizations discussed pathways and solutions to rebalance territorial development, starting from a local analysis and correlating it with global trends. Working with global experts and building on recent events led to some further reflections on how to operationalize urban-rural linkages.

How can a “URL analysis toolbox” help?

A URL approach can build on the useful concepts of urban telecouplings as proposed by Dagmar Haase and colleagues and reflected in the IPBES assessment, and Karen Seto’s team work on urban land teleconnections, explicitly linking land changes to underlying urbanization dynamics. It can map the opportunities for change in policy and incentives on the boundaries and synergies between urban, peri-urban and rural areas, increasingly blurred as urbanization and modernization continue, as proposed by UNEP-WCMC in the concept of urban ecosystem accounting. As the IPBES assessment puts it, “the landscape approach aims to allocate and manage land to achieve social, economic, and environmental objectives in landscape mosaics where multiple land uses coexist. Such integrated management should also include the urban-rural interface, and the importance of locally desirable livelihood activities less profitable than industrial agriculture, but key to meeting local and regional food security needs”.

The convergence of partners at the historical COP 15 in Montreal also seems to point to three priority strategic directions that can be further developed into action-oriented programs and projects:

a)    Measuring progress to focus efforts and investments on the best way ahead

Governments at all levels being committed to green and blue economic development, or signing on to guidelines for a circular or nature-positive economy are necessary first steps. Now, however, we need to systematically apply Galileo’s principle, “measure what can be measured and make measurable what cannot be”. The Task Force for Nature-based Financial Disclosures and the UN System of Environmental Economic Accounting are just two of many leading initiatives providing valuable inputs on the accountability and measurement side, as are the diverse programs and initiatives on urban development and mainstreaming promoted by leading multilateral development banks. We can now define the standards for biodiverse and “biospheric” cities, provinces, states, and metropolitan regions at global levels. The “what” and the “how” of how public and private executives achieve multi-stakeholder, multi-level management have been tested in such “territorial patchwork laboratories” as innovative networks of UNESCO Biosphere reserves, as well as geoparks, metropolitan areas and river consortia. We already have examples of indexes for green cities, and the associated construction blueprints, building codes and maintenance procurement guidelines. We now need to “package”, upscale and report on these approaches coherently and systematically, refining the diversity of cases considered, and building better metrics towards standards and certification, as the ways and means to monitor and report on progress. Specialists are developing feasible operational and technical standards for being certifiably sustainable and nature-friendly, thus reducing risks and providing an enabling environment for development, attracting investments, generating jobs and know-how. Now, green cities need to become excellent investments.

b)    From “proof of concept” to transformative investment choices

The dynamics of homeostasis means that the green and blue economy needs to grow as the old gradually recedes. Progress cannot depend just on avoiding or stopping perverse economic practices alone – tested best practices already exist in economic development tools, generating “co-benefits” for climate, nature and people. Redirecting support and subsidies towards the increasingly sustainable options requires new partnerships to demonstrate how local and subnational governments, with the support of the finance and business sector and through socially acceptable consultation and accountability systems, can be agents of change in mainstreaming. Yet this requires proactive management and corrective action. The work of existing green economic exchange platforms and investment promotion agencies needs to be brought to the local and subnational levels, and new ones set up, to identify, incubate and accelerate sustainability solutions, and support leaders and champions. We need effective programme- and project generating mechanisms to demonstrate how urban-rural teleconnections can work for the blue-green economy and for society.

c)    The intelligence to learn as we go

These multi-scalar, multi-stakeholder “whole of government and society” approaches are not sedimented and should not be – they are work-in-progress, forever improving. In addition, the methods for transdisciplinary analysis, the scientific production and the human and technological capacity needed to upscale these ideas are not yet globally available. Nature-based solutions will also be complex, diverse and decentralized to be effective. Like never before, these new approaches can take advantage of innovation, social as well as technological. How can we build the leaders of tomorrow on today’s basis, using the “learning by doing” approach as well as the latest IT distributive learning tools and the technology to make it available? We need to set up and expand dynamic and evolving knowledge production networks to support these ideas, building capacity at all levels. There are leaders, influencers and youth in the world’s million municipalities and around 60,000 provinces that need to learn about the successful and replicable practices in territorial governance of urban-rural linkages, the set of tools and instruments for “whole of government” territorial approaches. It is urgent to mobilize the collective know-how of global and regional organizations dedicated to this theme.

The pledge and pitch - ways ahead

Many groups of experts are working with leading local and subnational governments and their development agencies to align the use of productive landscapes and coastal areas so it can incorporate climate resilience and biodiversity as capital assets, adopting appropriate subsidies and incentives, and offering “proof of concept” incubators and match-making facilities. New experiences on URLs are evolving. In Spain, by tackling the rural demographic decline and reduced political representation, the España Vaciada movement is making progress. The Government of Extremadura incorporated the URL principles in their "Sustainable Land and Urban Planning Law”. The Biscay province in the Basque country implements fiscal policies aligned to the entirety of the Sustainable Development Goals, in best practices recognized in the World Economic Forum. Many platforms are offered to show the way ahead at the local and subnational levels.

Now, the collection of science-based data and information on the dependencies and impacts between economic development and biodiversity needs to be improved and accelerated. We need stronger evidence-based advocacy, and multilateral and decentralized cooperation around these solutions need to be scaled up urgently. We urgently need a bankable portfolio of development projects with co-benefits for nature and people, and capacity development on issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, food autonomy, energy and water security, and sustainable infrastructure. How can the collective effort and know-how of global and regional organizations dedicated to this theme multiply these practices in territorial governance of urban-rural linkages?

The acronym URL also means “universal resource locator”; the intelligent use of these geo-locators can help identify where and how people, resources and technology come to interact smartly on land and sea. Surfing on the language of innovation, we need to “hack” for solutions that reconfigure relationships and restore balance while also providing jobs and investment opportunities. Redistributing value and wealth from large metropolises towards smaller and intermediary towns is critical as they act as bridges between urban and rural communities. Let us organize brainstorms, hackathons, restoration camps and communities, revitalization initiatives, and arts and communications adventures to enhance these solutions. We need urban and territorial development policies that promote cohesion, and locally tailored social policies that support diversely ageing regions and address the lack of opportunities for residents and marginalized social groups.

This article was produced with direct edits from Thomas Forster and Arthur Getz Escudero, and valuable advice and input from the professionals below. I am thankful for the opportunity to exchange with them.

·      Florence Egal

·      Paul Dale

·      Grace Githiri

·      Ana Beatriz Jordão

·      Gonzalo Lacurcia

·      Ana Maria Hernandez Salgar

·      Remy Sietchiping