CITIES4FORESTS FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Cities4Forests is an initiative that aims to catalyze political, social and economic support among city governments and urban residents to integrate inner, nearby, and faraway forests into city development plans and programs. Cities4Forests cultivates awareness among urban residents to recognize the importance of forests and trees to human well-being. The project seeks to stimulate action to better conserve, manage, and restore these forests.

Cities4Forests is an initiative led by the World Resources Institute based in Washington D.C., the communications agency REVOLVE based in Brussels, and Pilot Projects Design Collective based in Montreal and New York City. These three partners make up the Cities4Forests Secretariat. 

Cities4Forests is funded by Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI), the FEMSA Foundation and the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). For more details about supporting Cities4Forests, visit: www.cities4forests.com/funders/.

As of 2019, over 60 cities from around the world have joined Cities4Forests. For the full list of participating cities, please visit: www.cities4forests.com/cities

By joining Cities4Forests, cities receive technical support from leading forest experts, get access to special tools, research and other resources, and join a unique network of other cities working on forest issues at a variety of scales.  For example, cities will benefit from:

• workplace assistance and forums for peer-to-peer exchange and learning,
• technical assistance in the form of a “forest footprint” analysis and activity prioritization,
• links to climate and resilience strategies,
• a database of tools and programs to help cities select the interventions that best suit their needs,
• introduction to financing sources, and
• a citizen engagement and communications package to reach city residents.

The time and resource commitment will vary for each city. Once the partnership is active, for many cities the time commitment is roughly 1 day per month.

Cities4Forests is the only global platform that connects cities with forests within their boundaries, as well as forests nearby and far away. Participating cities gain access to special tools, databases, and technical assistance as part of a peer-to-peer exchange network. Cities receive support in conducting analyses to identify issues, quantify benefits, and prioritize actions. Cities4Forests also provides financial capacity-building, search assistance, and proactive match-making with donors, and finally, participating cities receive a citizen engagement communication package highlighting best practices and city leadership.

Cities4Forests conducts a city prioritization exercise to identify key actions for each city. Areas of technical assistance include science, policy, economics, finance, land-use planning, supply-chain management, collaboration, and innovation.

Cities will be responsible for paying their own staff’s time. For cities facing financial constraints, a limited budget may be provided to cover travel costs for some of the city’s representatives to attend Cities4Forests’ events.

Yes, the Cities4Forests Secretariat will support participating cities to fundraise for tree planting and protection programs by offering: (1) a database of financing products and sources, both domestic and international, public and private, (2) search support and capacity-building from founding partners, and (3) proactive introduction and matchmaking with funders.

Cities4Forests plans to host one global convening and several regional gatherings per year, in parallel to other international and regional conferences and events. For more information on our events and timeline of activities, visit: www.cities4forests.com/events.