Practitioner perspectives on nature conservation at the urban edge

As the boundaries of our cities expand, many new suburbs are being developed near nationally listed threatened ecological communities and threatened species habitat. For example, all new greenfield development in the ACT is occurring in lowland settings that support threatened grassy woodland communities. This study uses semi-structured in-depth interviews (n=35) and focus groups (n=2) to ask urban practitioners about their experiences with greenfield development in Gungahlin and the Molonglo Valley in the ACT. The practitioners include development managers, planners, ecologists and engineers and, the reserve managers and ecologists with research and management responsibilities for threatened grassy woodlands. Practitioners were asked about challenges of developing near nature reserves, the processes, knowledge and practices employed to mitigate impacts, and the value of collaboration with community stakeholders during the process. Challenges in marrying policy objectives of both delivering housing and protecting ecosystems is commonly cited by informants. The complexity involved in translating strategic environmental commitments into acceptable measures at site scale, and the collaboration and types of knowledge needed for these deliberations, is not well understood by decision-makers. Willingness to experiment and respond in creative and innovative ways to manage biodiversity impacts is being hampered by the realities of post-construction handover to the municipal agency. Limited capacity to maintain and monitor the effectiveness of on-site measures is perceived to be a barrier to take up of new approaches. Failure to invest in post-occupancy review of development processes and measures in sensitive ecological settings represents a missed opportunity for professional reflection and knowledge transfer, for maintenance of conservation and management activities, and the development of an important community of practice with application beyond the ACT.