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- Title
The Evolution of Open Space Planning within a Developing, Biodiverse City (Durban, South Africa).
- Authors
McLean, Cameron T.; Roberts, Debra C.; Slotow, Rob
- Abstract
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.
- Subjects
DURBAN (South Africa); SUSTAINABLE Development Goals (United Nations); OPEN spaces; INSTITUTIONAL investments; ENVIRONMENTAL degradation; ENVIRONMENTAL protection planning; DEVELOPING countries; BIODIVERSITY
- Publication
Sustainability (2071-1050), 2024, Vol 16, Issue 7, p3073
- ISSN
2071-1050
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/su16073073