Is Canberra’s reputation and aesthetic as the ‘Bush Capital’ at stake?
An investigation by the Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment warns that it is because legislation, policies, plans and strategies for planning, conservation and biodiversity, over the past 20 years have not been sufficiently implemented.
A report released in May, An investigation into the effects of urban expansion on the environment of the ACT, is highly critical of the failure to protect biodiversity in the ACT from further degradation from urbanisation.
The report analyses trends and condition in native vegetation and species and reviews generations of planning and conservation policy and legislation.
While existing conservation reserves, such as national parks and protected areas, provide some protection from the ecological impacts of urban expansions, this approach is not sufficient to protect biodiversity, the report says.
Assessments of ecosystems in reserves under the Conservation Effectiveness Management Program (CEMP) found many in poor condition, threatened species and areas of high conservation value are often located outside the reserve system. In some cases, ecosystems and species of national and global values have insufficient protections.
The report points to the continued losses of valuable ecosystem such as of Box-Gum grassy woodland and describing as a ‘death by a thousand cuts’.
Canberra’s natural environment sits, more than ever, in a place of great precarity, under stress from the broad trends of climate change, national and global biodiversity loss, and urban encroachment.
At stake in our approach to urban development is Canberra’s reputation and aesthetic as the ‘Bush Capital’.