Greener, healthier, more sustainable: why cities of the future need more biodiversity

Jan 6, 2020

The CN Tower is seen through branches at Tommy Thompson Park located on a man-made peninsula known as the Leslie Street Spit, in Toronto May 24, 2015. It was created over 60 years ago by the dumping of dredged sand, concrete chunks and earth fill, expanding what was once just a thin strip of land in the city's busy harbor. An unexpected urban oasis, the development brings marshes, lagoons and forests to the centre of Canada's largest city. REUTERS/Mark BlinchPICTURE 9 OF 29 FOR WIDER IMAGE STORY "EARTHPRINTS: LESLIE STREET SPIT"SEARCH "LESLIE SPIT" FOR ALL IMAGES - GF10000216969

Biodiversity is an indicator of an ecosystem's health. By improving biodiversity, we can improve the health of an ecosystem's residents. Image: REUTERS/Mark Blinch

Viktor Weber

Founder & Director, Future Real Estate Institute

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Cities and Urbanization is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Cities and Urbanization

Have you read?

Sheep graze in Englischer Garten in Munich to provide natural fertilization. Image: Adam Jones, Ph.D./Creative Commons

Discover

How is the World Economic Forum supporting the development of cities and communities globally?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.