Greening Africa’s Cities : enhancing the relationship between urbanization, environmental assets and ecosystem services

This report is based on a suite of eight research exercises undertaken over the period 2015-2017, all of which, together with accompanying datasets, are available on-line: a regional desk-study which examines and synthesizes available material, providing an overview of the key situational dynamics and trends in the natural environment in Africa’s main cities; detailed urban environmental profiles of three case study cities of Durban, Kampala and Dar es Salaam developed using the ‘Rapid Urban Environmental Assessment’ (RUEA) methodology; Ecosystem Services Valuation (ESV) studies which provide a valuation of urban natural capital and ecosystem services and the identification, quantification and valuation of the costs and benefits associated with specific development interventions in the three cities of Durban, Kampala and Dar es Salaam. Drawing on TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) methodologies, these studies were conducted through a number of key steps involving both extensive technical work and intensive stakeholder dialogue; and a toolkit of policy measures, instruments, and planning and management strategies taken largely from both developed and developing country experience which can be adapted and utilized by city and national governments to address the sorts of environmental externalities and ecosystem services impacts identified in the environmental profiles and ESV studies.