Governance lessons from Australian local governments for retaining and protecting urban forests as nature based solutions

Abstract

Urban forest strategies aimed at the retention and protection of existing urban trees are an expression of nature-based solutions (NbS), understood broadly as actions that can address environmental, ecological, and societal challenges. Many cities have established long-term goals to retain and protect already existing urban trees as an NbS, but they also face significant governance challenges related to urban development and community conflicts. While urban greenspaces and urban tree planting programs have been studied extensively to extract NbS governance lessons, complementary lessons can be gained from studying urban forest retention and protection strategies. In this research, we provide a theoretical framework for understanding the governance in the context of urban forest retention and protection and discuss governance lessons emanating from a collaborative knowledge co-production research project carried out with professionals working in an urban forest capacity within local governments in Victoria, Australia. These lessons include: (1) engaging in collective decision making to influence development decisions; (2) enhancing inter-departmental coordination; (3) innovating in regulations and incentives for trees on private urban lands; (4) adopting a multifunctional narrative in urban forestry; and (5) engaging with the community. We suggest that innovative urban forest governance lessons can be elicited when research is empirically grounded on the view of local government stakeholders. In this way, urban forest researchers and professional practitioners can address a wide range of future governance challenges, such as development, community conflicts, climate change and global pandemic effects.