3 October 2021: : CIL Director Dr Nilüfer Oral Was Invited to Speak at the Marmara Urban Forum (MARUF) at the Session “Habitat Matters: Preserving Biodiversity for Sustainable Ecosystems”

Marmara Urban Forum (MARUF) is a biennial international urban forum organized with the motto of “Cities Developing Solutions” by Marmara Municipalities Union (MMU), which is a local government association in the Marmara Region of Turkey with over 190 members. MARUF strives not only to discuss the challenges that cities face but also to seek solutions to them and multiply good practices at a global scale.

MARUF19, which was organized for the first time on 1-3 October 2019 in Istanbul, attracted over 5440 participants. With the contributions of 66 partners, 50 sessions were held, and different approaches on urban services and urban management were discussed by 250 speakers from 25 countries. MARUF19 hosted plenary sessions, parallel sessions, roundtable meetings, workshops, networking events, exhibitions, field trips, cultural events, booths, film screenings for 3 days.

This year, MARUF21 was organized as a “virtual event” on the theme of “Re-Think, Co-Act” and brought together urban thinkers around passionate debates on how to make cities more liveable, sustainable, resilient, creative, inclusive, innovative, and healthy. It gathered all stakeholders including professionals from cities, national, regional and local governments, private sector, NGOs, universities and other stakeholders that play a crucial role in the design, transformation and governance of cities.

Dr Oral spoke at the session “Habitat Matters: Preserving Biodiversity for Sustainable Ecosystems”. So far, only about 1.2 million species have been identified, though some scientists estimate there might be 8,7 million species on Earth – animals, plants, bacteria, people… everything that’s alive, meaning that much work remains to be done. Although increase in the cities’ population causes over-populated spaces, it also leads to changes in land cover and eventually to the fact that habitats of other species are interfered by human beings. As a result, we face a large number of ecological problems. Temperature rises and extreme weather events driven by global warming also resulting in the extinction of some species. All this requires us to focus on the concept of biodiversity on a global scale.

More about this event at the link: https://www.marmaraurbanforum.org/