Mainstreaming Biodiversity through Urban Nature Plans

This open access book examines how Urban Nature Plans (UNPs) can mainstream biodiversity and nature restoration into urban planning, governance, and decision-making. Against the evolving European policy landscape, it addresses a critical challenge for cities: translating ambitious biodiversity and nature restoration commitments into integrated and long-lasting planning practices.

Moving beyond sectoral approaches and individual greening interventions, the book positions urban nature as a structural component of resilient, healthy, and livable urban systems, requiring systemic and adaptive approaches across sectors, governance levels, and territorial scales.

Based on collaborative research and experimentation within the EU-funded UNPplus project, the book introduces the UNPplus Framework, connecting strategic ambitions with the operational conditions needed for implementation. It explores interconnected dimensions including justice and equity, co-creation, citizen science, local-regional integration, financing, biodiversity and ecosystem services monitoring, and reflexive learning.

Combining conceptual and methodological contributions with lessons from Barcelona, Paris, Belgrade, Burgas, and Mannheim, the book connects research, policy, and practice, showing how UNPs can move beyond static planning documents toward adaptive governance processes. It identifies challenges, enablers, and transferable approaches for advancing biodiversity and nature restoration as integral components of long-term urban and territorial transformation.