Nature Positive Cities Efforts to Advance the Transition San Francisco 2025

2 Assessment of enabling environmentOverview City programmes to enhance skills and capabilities for government staff are necessary to develop a strong foundation of knowledge on nature across municipal departments. At present there is a high reliance on the prior knowledge of staff, with limited specialized nature-related upskilling and training programmes available. Ensuring the availability of key resources is essential for embedding nature-positive action into government departments’ operations. San Francisco aims to ensure that appropriate skills are available through initiatives with schools and universities, and through partnerships with the private sector.Students Students are an integral part of the volunteer and support workforce, which is an important supplement to the nature conservation efforts conducted across the city. School programmes promote environmental education and stewardship, complemented by field trips to national park sites in the school district, from a young age. Private sectorPrivate-sector participation, while limited, presents a great opportunity for the city to enhance capabilities and resources. Various private-sector leases and events help to supply funding to major departments such as Recreation and Parks. At present, there are limited coordinated methods for sourcing key nature restoration and conservation skills and capabilities, or conducting internal training. There’s also incomplete understanding of which skills are available to make use of across departments. Challenges identified – T raining materials required to upskill staff on nature and environmental topics are not always updated. – Ther e’s insufficient focus on mainstreaming biodiversity into city planning processes. – Potential leader r eticence to champion nature-positive solutions in San Francisco limits progress. – Inef fective use of volunteer pools limits the benefit of corporate volunteer initiatives for city nature objectives. Impr ovement areas –Update and tailor cor e nature-focused training curriculums for staff across departments. –Mandate a “biodiversity champions” pr ogramme for all relevant departments, with special emphasis on the Planning Department. –Develop a clear volunteer engagement initiative to addr ess resource constraints and increase citizen nature awareness and advocacy.2.7 Capabilities 30 Nature Positive: Cities’ Efforts to Advance the Transition