Land in urban areas and on the fringe of urban development has similar biodiversity conservation issues to those of the rural landscapes, but with additional pressure and less flexibility within the local landscape. This type of land occurs extensively around metropolitan Melbourne but also around the regional centres of Victoria. Because of its proximity to urban areas, the land has development potential and consequently increased economic value. Urban fringe areas may have retained significant biodiversity values.

The key management approaches in urban areas and urban fringes are:

• to assist local government, developers, communities and urban infrastructure providers to protect and manage sites of significance;
• to promote and facilitate urban community involvement in the stewardship of biodiversity values;
• to focus resources on the more ecologically viable remnants.

Established urban areas often have small remnants of habitat, which are highly valued by the local community. The biodiversity values remaining in these areas can be particularly important for providing unique examples of pre-existing flora and fauna, for protecting sites of biological significance and as seed sources for revegetation with indigenous species. Importantly, those areas provide local and other urban dwellers with a direct link to the natural heritage of a locale, contributing to a sense of place in urban environments.

Threats to these biodiversity values include habitat removal and increased fragmentation, environmental weeds, cats and dogs, intensive recreation pressures, urban infrastructure projects, and ecologically inappropriate fire management. These areas typically need intensive management to protect them from degrading.

Protecting biodiversity values in the urban fringe landscape is often more difficult than in the broader rural landscape because of the value of the land, increased human presence and interference and the risk involved in some management practices. Conversely, creative and careful planning and management can produce opportunities for ‘hobby farms’, ‘bush retreats’, or novel urban developments to protect and enhance biodiversity values.

New format planning schemes developed under the Victorian Planning Provisions (VPP) will provide both a consistent framework and a strategic direction for decisions on land use and development (see section on Legislation and Self Regulation). These apply state-wide but are particularly relevant in urban and urban fringe areas. The earlier in the planning cycle the biodiversity values can be identified to all interested parties, the more chance there is of achieving the best biodiversity outcome for all stakeholders.

The Department of Infrastructure, through its publication Victoria in Future, has projected populations for all local government areas and identified future growth areas. These projections will provide a focus for setting priorities to improve our knowledge and information base. This will enable us to maximise the opportunities for the most significant sites to be conserved and remain relatively viable in the long term and ensure that biodiversity values can be considered in planning decisions. It will also assist our ability to make decisions about where to direct limited resources, so that sites with good long-term ecological viability are not overlooked in favour of urban or urban fringe sites with lower biodiversity value or higher vulnerability.

The long-term maintenance of biodiversity values and the relative cost of maintaining the ecological viability of important sites must be taken into account.

In urban areas there will need to be increased community custodianship and direct management. In some urban fringe areas, particularly where biodiversity values are already degraded, urban development may have the potential to enhance local biodiversity through targeted planting of indigenous species, improvement of waterways and disposal of wastewater.

In urban fringe areas, where property sizes are larger, some of the new landholders may have little knowledge or experience in land management and may unwittingly degrade biodiversity values. Land for Wildlife, Landcare and Property Management Planning for small landholders, could address this through education and provision of carefully targeted expert advice.

Key Directions

• Increase the provision of accessible strategic advice, such as the new format planning schemes being developed under the VPP, to local government planning processes to promote development in the least sensitive areas and to protect and promote corridor areas such as the Metropolitan green wedges.
• Enhance current information management systems so that information about biodiversity values for any particular area can be easily accessed early in the planning cycle by local government, developers, and conservation groups.
• In the urban fringe encourage landholder involvement in schemes such as Landcare, Farm$mart, Land for Wildlife.
• Promote community group projects that assist in restoring and rehabilitating flora and fauna habitats, e.g. Botanic Guardians.