Hyderabad: The global urban population is estimated to be 6.3
billion by 2050, nearly doubling the 3.5 billion urban dwellers
worldwide in 2010, posing a challenge in management of
biodiversity, says a report by Convention on Biological
Diversity. "More than 60 percent of the area projected to be
urban has yet to be built. Most of this growth is expected to
happen in small and medium-sized cities, not in mega cities,"
said the report. The report 'cities and biodiversity outlook'
was released on Monday during 'cities for life', a city and
subnational biodiversity summit, organised in parallel to the
ongoing 11th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP11) to the
Convention on Biodiversity (CBD). Mayors, governors and other
officials from 90 cities, including 50 international cities are
attending the two-day summit, to share their experiences and to
discuss an action plan for reducing biodiversity loss. Braulio
Dias, executive secretary, CBD, called upon the subnational and
local governments to draw an action