OFF members enjoyed the August Monthly Presentation by Dr Judy Bush, who spoke about Urban Environmental Policy and in particular “Can policy protect our trees and urban nature?” The talk certainly resonated and aligned with OFF’s values and beliefs on the importance of trying to preserve and improve our tree canopy, biodiversity and natural environment.
Many of the ideas presented have been employed by OFF, such as Community engagement, tree planting events and political representation. It was reassuring to discover that OFF is on the right track! It was also interesting to hear of the Victorian and Melbourne experience and comforting to know that there are many other groups caring and working for better environmental outcomes.
This presentation can be viewed on OFF’s YouTube channel here (with sub-titles).
PROMO
We need trees and nature in our cities, for sustainable and resilient urban areas, to support health and wellbeing, and as habitat for urban biodiversity. The interlinked climate change and biodiversity crises make this more urgent and imperative than ever. Yet urbanisation processes and land use changes result in tree removals, and destruction of nature. Can policy protect our trees and urban nature?
Dr Judy Bush BSc (Hons) MEnv PhD is a Senior Research Fellow with the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at University of Melbourne. She is working on a 3 year research fellowship funded by the Australian Research Council, examining ‘Nature-based solutions for the climate change-biodiversity nexus in cities’, focused on environmental policy and governance perspectives, including collaborative governance, sustainability transitions and resilience