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IO: Natasha Pauli is a Senior Lecturer in Geography at the University of Western Australia, in the School of Agriculture and Environment. Natasha’s research focuses on human-environment interactions. With a broad range of experiences across the biological, environmental, and social sciences, she is passionate about finding opportunities for conserving and increasing biodiversity in urban, agricultural, and ‘natural’ settings, for the benefit of people and nature. Prior to becoming an academic, Natasha also worked in environmental consulting, state government, and the NGO sector.
ABSTRACT: The Australian city of Perth may be one of the most isolated cities in the world, but it still experiences intersecting environmental and social challenges stemming from global and national drivers. The region has experienced a steady decline in annual rainfall since the 1970s, and the growing human population is fuelling urban sprawl. With a substantial proportion of water use going towards maintaining suburban gardens over hot and dry summers, multiple water-saving initiatives have been put forward. Among these has been the promotion of native, ‘waterwise’ plants in landscaping – reflecting the region’s status as a global biodiversity hotspot. A growing number of residents are removing turf and installing native gardens on the nature strip adjacent to their homes. This form of ‘civic greening’, which was rebellious and forbidden just a decade ago, is now permitted by almost all metropolitan councils and represents a form of tacit public-private partnership.
This colloquium presents a synthesis of our research on how people in Perth are shaping the living architecture of the street by changing and challenging the way we use nature strips. We interviewed nature strip gardeners to understand their motivations and sources of inspiration and mapped the biodiversity values of the nature strip. Views on ecosystem services of nature strips and pathways of knowledge transfer were sought during interviews with a diverse array of stakeholders. The results of plant surveys, interviews, and stakeholder social network analysis alike all pointed towards a surprisingly high diversity of values and potential linking these forgotten informal greenspaces. Going further, could the normalization of nature strip gardening in Perth showcase a pathway forward for socio-ecological transformation in urban systems? A nature strip may be small individually, but added together throughout an entire city, they can be mighty!
Zoom link:
https://arizona.zoom.us/my/adrianazuniga
Snacks begin at 3:00 pm and the talk at 3:30, happy hour at 5:00 pm.