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Liverpool resident and friend of Engage Richard Scott, who is Director at the National Wildflower Centre (formerly based at Court Hey Park in Knowsley) and now part of the Eden Project in Cornwall, has just returned from attending the 10th UN Habitat World Urban Forum meeting in February in Abu Dhabi in his role as Chair of the UK Urban Ecology Forum.

Richard is well known around the city for his pioneering work in bringing wildflowers into the urban context and already in 2020 residents can see his work in the Sefton Street – Riverside Drive corridor where land is already sown with wildflower seeds awaiting a magnificent display later in the year. Sadly there is a gap where wildflowers had previously been sown at the start of Riverside Drive along the City Quay stretch of pubic open space due to a change in the Management Company where the sowing of wildflowers and the attendant benefit to wildlife and the environment is no longer a priority.

If anyone is interested in situating ourselves within the bigger international picture and learning more about how we can work more closely with nature for our own benefit as a species as well as clearly benefitting insects and wildlife in the process then you can read Richard’s report from the UN Habitat conference where there was a strong emphasis on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – which we should all be taking an interest in at this time. Richard’s report to the UK Urban Ecology Forum members can be read here:  WUF10 06.02.20 (Richard Scott)

It makes for fascinating and engaging reading with plenty of suggestions for how we in Liverpool could better connect with the developing agenda from the UN. The theme of the WUF gathering was Cities of Opportunities: Connecting Innovation and Culture and it was Richard amongst others who was pushing for a full inclusion of ecology and nature within the topics discussed at the forum. Let us know if you think there is more that Engage could be doing to further these ideas in Liverpool. What would you like to see us do to properly connect with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially No11 – which is Making Cities and Human Settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable?

Links that you might find useful: