Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities

Melbourne, Australia is a city rich in biodiversity. It contains a high proportion of open space and supports a large number of fl ora and fauna species, both indigenous to the region and introduced from around the world. The high levels of biodiversity are partly the result of historical planning decisions that did not deliberately consider biodiversity yet inadvertently favoured many plants and animals. However, Melbourne is currently at a tipping point whereby continued urban growth is likely to result in a loss of biodiversity if it is not explicitly and carefully considered in planning, policy and management. Enhancing biodiversity into the future will be aided by a reconciliation of underlying tensions…