Speaker
Description
The Birrarung, also known as the Yarra River, located in Victoria, Australia, flows for 242 kilometers from the mountains of north-east Melbourne down through the heart of Melbourne city, out into the bay. The Birrarung is known to the original Wurundjeri people as the 'river of mists and shadows’. Colonization and development of the greater Melbourne area have led to the straightening and deterioration of the river quality and functioning. In 2017, The Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act was passed. This Act enshrines the legal recognition of the river as a single living and integrated natural entity. Sequentially, the Birrarung Council was established to represent the interests of the Birrarung. Council members include Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people and Bunurong people, Traditional Owners and custodians of the Birrarung, as well as urban planners, landscape architects, ecologists and agriculture representatives. This governance arrangement enables the foregrounding of Traditional Owner knowledges, cultures and values, to guide governance and planning with, for and along the Birrarung. Additionally, under the Act, the Yarra River Strategic Plan was developed in 2022. The 10-year Strategic Plan, coordinated by the Victoria State Government, sets up a strategic plan in collaboration with the Traditional Owners which places the Birrarung at the heart of forward-looking land-use planning and decision making. This plan intends to meet diverse priorities including the safeguarding of a healthy river and lands, the embrace of diverse cultural meanings, and the improvement of quality parklands for a growing population. Within this context, we focus on the manifestation of trade-offs in the governance and planning arrangements of the Birrarung following the Act and the Strategic Plan. The protection strategy for the Birrarung provides an important and unique case of an urban nature-based solution in which to unpack the existence of trade-offs. We investigate how priorities and values held by different constituencies may lead to trade-offs in governance arrangements and planning choices. Importantly, we view these trade-offs through a justice lens to unpack the implications of trade-offs for achieving just, sustainable and inclusive city outcomes. We use an analytical framework of three types of trade-offs, namely; rigid, governance and functional trade-offs (Stijnen et al., 2024). To investigate the trade-offs within the governance and planning arrangements of the Strategic Plan, interviews were conducted with relevant actors, including the Birrarung Council members, Traditional Owners, government entities, landscape architects, ecologists, urban developers, and civic organizations. Within the wider Birrarung restoration plan, we specifically zoom into the floating wetlands project, and the ongoing greenline development in the inner city reaches of the river. We compare the differing values, and the perceived costs and benefits of the Strategic Plan across the interviewed constituencies. Hereby we aim to shed led on the diverse perceptions and experiences of trade-offs, as well as the justice implications of trade-offs related to the restoration of the Birrarung. Overall, we highlight the trade-offs and tensions around the protection of the Birrarung in the inner city, and the justice implications for planning and governance choices.
References
Stijnen, C., Frantzeskaki, N., & Wijsman, K. (2024). 'Beating around the bush: A scoping review of trade-offs for just planning and governance of urban nature-based solutions'. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, Vol. 102.
| Keywords | urban river restoration, Traditional Owners, trade-offs, governance, planning |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
