About NatureLink Perth

What is NatureLink Perth?

NatureLink Perth is a ‘community of practice’ of diverse stakeholders, working together to integrate nature into our city, to conserve and enhance our internationally-recognised biodiversity and provide a healthy, liveable city benefiting the economy, the environment and people.

 

Why do we need NatureLink Perth?

In May 2019, the United Nations reported that 1 million species of plants and animals were under threat of extinction. Much of this biodiversity is concentrated in small areas on the planet (~2.4%). The south west of Western Australia is one such spot.  `Biodiversity hotspots’ are where exceptional concentrations of endemic species (plants and animals that occur nowhere else in the world) are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat (>70%). Acting now in biodiversity hotspots will make a huge difference to our city and our planet.

NatureLink Perth  provides a hub for people and organisations to work together to conserve our biodiversity or integrate nature into our city. Perth is one of the most biodiverse areas in the south west WA hotspot (Hopper and Goia, 2004, 2017). We must embrace nature in the city if we are to sustain our unique plants and animals into the future.

The good news is that contact with nature has been scientifically proven to improve people’s physical and mental health and benefit child development  – a green city is good for people as well as nature. NatureLink Perth seeks to sustain and integrate nature into our city for the benefit of people, the environment and the economy.

 

What do we do?

NatureLink Perth seeks to create a network of NatureLinks across Greater Perth joining nodes of high conservation value (bushlands and wetlands). NatureLinks are designed to make the urban landscape more friendly for wildlife and people.  Through restoration, creation or enhancement of natural areas and green spaces and through nature-linked urban design we can integrate nature into our city. NatureLinks help people connect to nature by improving greenspace, improving the amenity of walk trails and cycle paths and encouraging community engagement in restoration and wildlife habitat gardens.

NatureLinks promote Healthy People, Healthy Nature and Natural Infrastructure so important to making our city more resilient to climate change. 

NatureLink Perth’s role can be summarised in the anagram: LIVE 

  • Link: Connecting people to people, people to nature, nature to nature
  • Inform: Connecting people to factual information they need to nurture a healthy, liveable city connected to nature
  • Vision: Providing a practical, on-the-ground vision of Perth, based on an ecological understanding of what is required to preserve our world class biodiversity and provide essential greenspace for people in a growing city.
  • Empower: our stakeholders by championing nature linked urban design, greenspace and biodiversity conservation in our city.

 

Six Goals

Identify opportunities at a strategic level for NatureLinks based on science and agreement across all stakeholders

Facilitate collaboration across the Perth and Peel region to optimize information sharing and outcomes

Build a toolkit of resources and demonstration sites to facilitate best practice

Create and promote new techniques and biodiversity knowledge through partnerships

Increase community awareness, knowledge and engagement in nature

Promote and facilitate NatureLinks through strategic alliances, policy review and governance arrangements

What is Urban Nature?

To retain our biodiversity into the future we need to

Protect and enhance conservation reserves,  to sustain the natural habitats on which our flora and fauna depend. Although, on their own they are insufficient to preserve biodiversity into the future as conservation areas in the city have become increasingly isolated, small and fragmented.  

So, we need to: Restore urban nature, enhancing biodiversity in remnant bushlands and wetlands on public and private land, providing places where people can directly engage with nature. 

 

 

 

Create natural infrastructure in existing and new urban developments to restore ecological function, optimise ecosystem services and the benefit of nature to people and wildlife.

Bring Nature to People by increasing the biodiversity of our public open spaces to provide a sense of place, interaction with nature, multiple recreational opportunities and landscape diversity for people in higher density living. 

Nature at Home encourages people to incorporate native plants and greenery into their gardens, rooftops and balconies of apartments, homes and schools.

 

NatureLinks

A Novel Approach to Enable Everyone to Transition Perth to a Nature-Linked City

 

Rapid urbanisation in the Perth and Peel region of Western Australia is fragmenting the natural landscape causing significant habitat loss, endangering the area’s unique biodiversity. Urbanisation is increasingly reducing the size of remaining natural areas.

The smaller the natural area, the less diversity it can support, especially in the long-term. Isolated natural areas act like islands, each island is separate from each other and the biodiversity supported is only as much as the individual island can support.

Linking protected natural areas increases their sustainability.

To sustain biodiversity, native fauna need to be able to move between remaining sources of food and shelter in protected natural areas (conservation reserves) to maintain healthy populations.

Urban infrastructure can be hostile, exposing species to hazards such as dehydration, traffic and predation. However urban design can enhance support of biodiversity through urban greening and especially, by creating linkages between habitats: NatureLinks.

Using GIS, NatureLink Perth has identified how connected protected natural areas are in the Greater Perth region and located the best pathways between them. These NatureLinks are nature-friendly pathways joining two (or more) protected natural areas, that provide the least risk to species moving across the urban landscape.

How can I use this NatureLink resource?

The suggested NatureLinks provide a scientific basis and focus for improving the biodiversity connectivity and greening in your area. Rather than starting out with a blank slate, you can view these NatureLinks, see what land uses – road verges, residential gardens, green spaces, public open spaces, drains – they intersect and consider how you might improve locations along these pathways.

Everyone can be involved in improving NatureLinks from individuals  to organisations.

NatureLink Perth will be working towards providing guidance and resources to help everyone with best practice for different land uses intersecting or adjacent to NatureLinks.

 

Click on the map to the right to find out more about NatureLinks and how you can help.

 

 

NatureLinks connect our protected natural areas to better sustain biodiversity                   

What is our scope? 

We have five platforms under which we seek information and design our programs.

Nature

 

Where are our natural assets in Perth? What do we know about them and what do they need to be sustained?

What are the critical information gaps in biodiversity and how can we obtain the information needed and collect it innovatively?

 

Development

 

How can we better integrate nature into past, current and future development?

What are the challenges in getting approval for nature-linked urban design and how can we improve design regulations to mainstream it?

People

 

What facilities, education and community engagement programs should we target to better connect people with nature and sustain biodiversity?

Management

 

Integrating nature into the city requires careful management. What do we need to know to ensure the safety and wellbeing of people and nature.

Policy and Planning

 

How can State and Local Governments work together to better integrate biodiversity and greenspace into planning at all levels?

What can you do?

Sign up for our monthly newsletter. This will keep you up to date with news, events and new programs.  

To become a NatureLink Perth member and receive our weekly updates and resources, enter your email  address into the green “sign up” box below.

If you or your organisation have information, reports, knowledge, or activities you would like to share, can see an opportunity to work with us, if you want to be involved in NatureLinkPerth or have question email NatureLinkPerth@murdoch.edu.au

Join us now and nurture a healthy liveable city connected to nature