Nature in the City Strategy - Melbourne

The "Nature in the City Strategy" (2017-2027) aims to create diverse, resilient and healthy urban ecosystems in the City of Melbourne, Australia. In doing so, the city aims to enhance the environment and human well-being and provide the foundation for creating a more livable city with thriving biodiversity. The strategy, which has been co-designed in an extensive stakeholder collaboration process, sets out a series of objectives and priorities to guide the planning, development and management of the city's biodiversity and ecosystems up to 2027. It also includes a set of actions and targets to evaluate the success of implementation. The conservation and restoration of native plants, animals and communities is a priority of this strategy.

Overview

Type of instrument:

Legislative, regulatory and strategic instruments›Dedicated strategy, plan, or law

Challenges addressed

Ecologic connectivity
Soil quality
Green space management (e.g. accessibility)
Watershed restoration/water quality
Drought and fire risk
Flood risk: pluvial and fluvial / soil permeability
Heat stress and heat island effect
Air quality
Nature appropriation / stewardship
Reconnection to the biosphere / environmental education
Human health, comfort and well-being

Consideration of nature-based solutions:

The vision of the strategy is to support diverse, resilient, and healthy ecosystems that improve the environment and wellbeing, providing the foundation for a more livable Melbourne. Three goals and six priorities guide planning, development, and management of the city’s biodiversity and ecosystems until 2027. It also details a set of actions and targets to evaluate the success of implementation. The three goals are: 1) a more diverse, connected, and resilient natural environment 2) connect people to nature 3) demonstrate leadership in urban ecology and conservation of biodiversity. The priorities and underlying targets are: 1) improve ecosystem health and biodiversity - achieve a net increase in biodiversity, habitats, and ecosystem health; 2) develop a more ecologically connected urban landscape - become a more ecologically-connected city than in 2017; 3) increase the contribution of the private realm in supporting biodiversity conservation and ecosystem health within the municipality - by 2027, the private realm is playing a significant role in supporting nature in the city; 4) connect more people to nature to improve social resilience, health, and wellbeing - by 2027, more residents, workers, and visitors encounter, value, and understand nature in the city more than they did in 2017; 5) explore opportunities to use cultural and practical ‘Caring for Country’ principles to integrate people with nature - by 2027, the City of Melbourne will, in collaboration with Traditional Owners and the local Aboriginal community, have integrated, celebrated, and promoted ‘Caring for Country’ approaches; and 6) demonstrate local and global leadership in conserving biodiversity and creating and sustaining healthy urban ecosystems - deliver flagship biodiversity and urban ecology projects that are that are recognised locally and internationally as innovative and outstanding examples of enhancing nature in the city.

Targeted (peri-)urban areas:

Parks and (semi)natural urban green areas

Allotments, community gardens or agricultural areas

External building greens

Urban green space connected to grey infrastructure

Good practice characteristics:

Effective

Support multifunctional NBS

Sustainable in the long-term

Locally appropriate

Inclusivity

Governance

Government body/bodies

Initiating body:

City of Melbourne

Instrument design:

Details about how the instrument was designed:

The strategy is the product of a collaborative process, developed with information, ideas, and advice provided by a large number of stakeholders including local academics, interest groups (e.g. Traditional Owners and Friends groups), and the broader Melbourne community. This strategy was developed with the broader community in a highly collaborative and transparent way. In early 2015, the City of Melbourne released the discussion paper ‘Unleashing the Potential of Nature’ and 200 members of the public attended a facilitated public forum and a further 3,323 people contributed to the online forum online. Five external stakeholder meetings including with the Elders of Wurundjeri Tribe Land Council were held, as well as 18 internal stakeholder meetings. A Facebook campaign reached a total audience of 45,677 people. The feedback from this consultation has been summarised in the ‘Unleashing the Potential of Nature in Melbourne Community Consultation Report’. A draft Urban Ecology and Biodiversity Strategy was released for public consultation in mid-2016 after being endorsed by council, with 76 online submissions and 16 written submissions received. At approximately the same time (February – June 2016), the City of Melbourne engaged extensively with the community on creating the Future Melbourne 2026 Plan. The feedback from each of these phases has been used to inform and refine the ‘Nature in the City Strategy’.

Involvement of non-governmental actors:

Researchers, university

Citizens or community groups / NGOs

Traditional Owners

Type of actor involvement:

Expert task force consultation

Civil society consultation through e.g. workshops, surveys

Instrument implementation:

Type of involvement:

Citizens are helping to monitor progress on the Strategy's targets through citizen science initiatives.

Type of non-governmental actors involved:

Citizen monitoring and review

Citizen science

Targeted actors:

Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)

Private: household, real estate developer, business , financial

Researchers, university

Citizens or community groups (CBOs), NGOs

Financing

Sources of funding:

Public local authority’s budget

Budget:

Unknown

Details about instrument financing:

This strategy is implemented through the influence on existing City of Melbourne programs and projects, and is largely funded through existing budgets that are subject to the annual budget cycle process and service delivery priorities.

Monitoring, evaluation and impacts

Is a monitoring framework in place?:

Yes

A robust, ongoing monitoring program is considered fundamental to understanding the success of implementation programs, informing targets, and guiding future decisions. The monitoring of the strategy includes assessments as part of the adaptive management approach to decision-making, the evaluation of experiments, and general monitoring of biodiversity. The development of this monitoring framework is one of the first critical tasks to be undertaken, which is done in collaboration with scientists and other experts and implemented with City of Melbourne staff, professionals and citizen scientists.

Did an evaluation take place?:

Yes

This strategy will be evaluated in 2027 against the initial targets set. Importantly, many of the research actions are to be implemented in the first five years (2017-2022) and the results will be used to inform actions in subsequent years. The priority implementation actions identified under this strategy are based on research findings and will be reviewed halfway (2022) to ensure that the findings continue to represent best practice in the field.

Achieved outcomes and impacts:

A mid-term evaluation of priority implementation actions is expected in 2022, also looking at such criteria as the quality and quantity of habitats and people's attitudes towards nature and their perceptions and understanding of urban biodiversity. A full evaluation of outcomes and impact will be undertaken upon the strategy's conclusion in 2027.

Success factors and lessons learned:

At a time when the city of Melbourne is experiencing the impacts of rapid population growth, urban densification, an increase in invasive species, and climate change, a holistic framework is required for meeting these challenges. The strategy provides such a framework and opens up a range of opportunities and concrete options in response to the challenges. The strategy aims to understand how to mitigate the impacts of existing developments and recognises that reducing the impacts of new developments on biodiversity will be critical to its success. A comprehensive process of stakeholder engagement and combining traditional knowledge with modern insights are also success factors, directly contributing to the achievement of some of the outlined objectives (e.g. reconnecting people with nature) and increasing the uptake of the measures. This strategy has a ten year timeline because research and practice in urban ecology and biodiversity conservation are rapidly evolving and many innovations and developments are likely over a decade. Ten years is also sufficient time to allow for the delivery of longer-term strategic planning, whilst also implementing some shorter-term and project focused planning.

Sources and further information

Further documents

Weblinks:

https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/community/greening-the-city/urban-nature/Pages/…

Photos

@Jardines Botánicos Reales de Victoria