Urban areas are often overlooked and undervalued in conservation planning. However, Australian cities remain notable for their biodiversity, and support significant remnant vegetation, threatened ecological communities, and populations of threatened species.
To encourage positive actions for nature in our cities, the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes (CAUL) Hub released a new booklet featuring lessons and tips shared by urban environmental managers across Australian cities. Researchers spoke with managers from 25 different organisations to learn about the breadth of urban biodiversity conservation projects they pursued. They shared many valuable lessons, such as engaging with communities early to make change happen, using policy and commitments to drive action, and focusing on the small wins.
The booklet serves as a companion document to a 3-part CAUL project exploring opportunities and pathways for urban conservation action. The first stage of the research involved interviews with environmental managers to find out what kinds of things they did for urban biodiversity, the challenges they faced and how they achieved their goals. The second part of this project was led by independent Indigenous agency INDIGI LAB and outlined opportunities to integrate Indigenous knowledge and practice in urban biodiversity conservation. Finally, the researchers created a handy inventory of 353 actions to inspire urban land managers.
Image: The illustration shows some of the lessons shared by urban environmental managers in an example of a new conservation project: Restoring a degraded urban patch into a biodiversity-friendly urban wetland. Illustration: Elia Pirtle