Biodiversity and Climate Change Management in Cities: Malawi and Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa is one of the least studied regions in terms of biodiversity dynamics and climate variability, and also a region where biodiversity loss and climate change vulnerability can impede efforts to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It has been argued that policy makers in Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) cities lack guidance on the options for successfully creating synergies between the ambitions of SDG 11 (sustainable cities) and environment and natural resources SDGs such as SDG 15 (life on land) and SDG 13 (climate change action). Similarly, the implementation of SDG 15 in Africa’s rural and urban contexts is characterised by financing gaps which are increasing the threats of biodiversity and ecosystem services losses. This chapter presents an analysis of how the implementation of the SDGs in Africa can be enhanced through the integration of sustainable urban development paradigms and approaches/policies for protecting biodiversity and ecosystem services. The chapter highlights that Africa’s urban sprawl patterns could have more adverse impacts on biodiversity and SDG 11 outcomes than the urbanisation process itself. It might therefore be concluded that SSA cities can potentially improve on their SDGs implementation, biodiversity protection, and climate change outcomes by simultaneously improving urban planning systems, implementing policies/programmes to support the uptake of environment focused business processes and increasing population densities.