The IUCN Local Action Summit took place on 3 September 2021—the opening day of the IUCN World Conservation Congress—in Marseille, France. Leaders convened to showcase and galvanise conservation efforts in cities and regions, make the case for a nature-based recovery to COVID-19, and announce ambitious action pledges for nature. Here follows a transcript of the speech delivered by Oscar Mora, President of Curridabat Municipality.
Good afternoon or good morning, particularly those who are online in Latin America. I’m very happy with what I’ve heard today. In Curridabat we have considered increasing public happiness as the ultimate aim of our municipal offices. This influences all of the public policy and everything that we’re doing. Curridabat Municipality has based its development on science, inspired by nature. We believe that this is the best way to provide value-added to the planet and to use the resources that we have wisely.
Curridabat is known as the Sweet City. This entails looking at how we can use the species and all the resources that we have sustainably. This Sweet City has hummingbirds, bees, and a beautiful watercourse. Many people could tell you about the social and economic realities as well. Our Sweet City vision is multi-dimensional. We are trying to reduce social inequalities and threats resulting from people not having access to territorial services. It’s important that people have access to nature including hills, watercourses, ravines, gullies, and also parks in urban areas.
We’re looking at farms and means of production. We’ve looked at changing that which has been a major plus point for the area. Today we have an investment portfolio that is the most ambitious we have ever had. We’re looking at nature-based changes. We want to change our design paradigm, looking at how we can green areas, restore watercourses and ensure we can protect them.
When we talk about a Sweet City, we mean justice, equality and bringing people closer to nature. We want to create green jobs to address social and economic challenges. We are developing with nature, safeguarding the services that it provides to us.
One of the major challenges is rising temperature. We have to take action and if we don’t, we could have up to 260 dangerously hot days in a year. We must plan. We have an adaptation plan for climate change and are looking at establishing a recreation park in the local area. We want to reconcile the natural and the built environment. We have prioritised what we do in the area based on science. We have weather stations and monitoring systems. We provide this information to citizens so that they can understand the importance of the environment.
We have also indicated that we would like to become an active member of IUCN, to help ensure that what is done locally contributes to what is done globally, and so that we can close the gaps that there are in biodiversity conservation.
We invite you to Curridabat. We see it as a laboratory for finding solutions for the future. For the environment and climate, and the challenge of political leadership. We know that social progress is shown by happiness and wellbeing. Everyone, including those who are vulnerable to climate change, has the right to live in a Sweet City.