Citizens of Probolinggo City actively participated in the We Love Cities campaign.
Source: Probolinggo City website
Probolinggo City in Indonesia is the Southeast Asian regional and overall global winner of this year’s World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) We Love Cities (WLC) campaign, besting 62 other cities across 27 countries.
We Love Cities is a public outreach initiative that enables people all around the globe to show their support for sustainable urban development by voting for their favorite finalists from WWF’s One Planet City Challenge (OPCC) and submitting recommendations for how these cities can be more sustainable.
This year’s competition garnered over 1.29-million votes and received over 116,000 suggestions on how participating cities can further be made environment-friendly.
(middle), Habib Hadi Zainal Abidin, Mayor of Probolinggo City, Indonesia during the We Love Cities campaign activities. Source: Probolinggo City website
In a statement on Probolinggo’s official government website, Mayor Habib Hadi Zainal Abidin shared his gratitude and the city’s sustainability initiatives, saying “We embarked on a comprehensive campaign of Probolinggo City’s environmental programs and encouraged citizens to engage and provide their support through voting, suggesting sustainability ideas, and social media interactions.”
It’s also revealed that Probolinggo’s environmental initiatives and public engagement campaign has placed it consistently within the top five WLC contenders in the Asia-Pacific region since the second week of the competition.
“Our deepest gratitude and appreciation to all those who supported the City of Probolinggo. We hope to carry over the momentum from this campaign by striving for a more sustainable and comfortable city to live in,” said the mayor.
Prior to participating in the We Love Cities campaign, Probolinggo City was selected as one of the national finalists for the 2021-2022 WWF One Planet City Challenge (OPCC). Probolinggo also hosted a site visit on 30 August to 1 September 2022 attended by WWF – Indonesia, ICLEI Indonesia, and journalists to showcase its sustainability and climate mitigation initiatives.