Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• McLean, Cameron T
• Roberts, Debra C
• Slotow, Rob

Titel

The Evolution of Open Space Planning within a Developing, Biodiverse City

Ist Teil von

• Sustainability, 2024-04, Vol.16 (7), p.3073

Ort / Verlag

Basel: MDPI AG

Erscheinungsjahr

2024

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Conserving and restoring biodiversity is central to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The need to curb biodiversity loss through the mainstreaming of biodiversity considerations within land-use planning is consistently highlighted in global biodiversity assessments intended for policymakers and practitioners. We present a Global South local government-led examination of the mainstreaming of biodiversity issues within a biodiversity hotspot area. Here, we evaluated the four-decade-long evolution in open space planning in Durban, South Africa, in response to shifting urbanisation, governance and policy/legislative contexts. We assessed the role of science in responding to contextual changes, the need for champions, and key institutional interventions undertaken to embed a biodiversity function within local government. In addition, we investigated how biodiversity concerns have been incorporated into land-use planning applications via the city’s environmental planning function. We provide evidence of the advancement of mainstreaming biodiversity concerns within local government processes, institutional functions, and land-use decision-making. This has been achieved through effective and sustained leadership; the use of science and scientific information in advancing the policy and legislative environment and building political support by responding to shifting governance contexts; investment in institutional scientific capacity and generating scale-appropriate biodiversity information. Learnings from this paper may be useful for other local governments addressing biodiversity loss through land-use planning processes, by identifying critical investment areas that may shorten the time required for effective mainstreaming.