Melbourne s Urban Forest Strategy

Transcription

1 Melbourne s Urban Forest Strategy PRIA Golden Target Awards Submission 2012 City of Melbourne Category 12 - Environmental

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3 1. Executive Summary

4 Click Melbourne to edit Master is Australia s subtitle style garden city, but after 10 years of drought and severe water restrictions the City of Melbourne s tree population was in a state of unprecedented decline. A changing climate, new diseases and the pressures of a growing population were also threatening Melbourne s urban forest. In 2011 a new strategy was developed to respond to this situation. We needed the community to understand and support the strategy but this support was not guaranteed. Would the public misinterpret our intentions and mobilise to defeat the strategy, as had occurred in other local government areas? We developed a campaign, tied to the release of the draft Urban Forest Strategy and the opening of public consultation in November The campaign aimed to building public understanding of the challenges facing Melbourne s urban environment and gain support for our plan to protect it. We needed support for proposed tree selection and replacement and participation in a formal engagement process. This visually based campaign, drew on a mix of traditional and new communications channels to help us connect with the community, tell our story and establish a joint agenda for the protection of Melbourne s trees. The results were almost entirely positive, initiating discussion, eliciting many responses, setting the scene for further precinct-based consultation activities and helping establish the City of Melbourne as trusted guardians of its trees.

5 Fitzroy Gardens - current Click to edit Master title style Fitzroy Gardens predicted tree loss Royal Parade current Royal Parade predicted tree loss

6 2. Situation Analysis

7 Click There s to edit no Master doubt subtitle that Melburnians style love their trees and open spaces. For decades we have prided ourselves as the garden state. Our iconic parks and tree-lined boulevards are a major part of our heritage and identity. But after a decade of drought and severe water restrictions it was clear that our garden was not doing too well. Weather conditions, combined with disease and the pressures of a growing population, meant the city was set to lose a quarter of its trees in a decade and almost 50 percent within 20 years. As the custodian of more than 60,000 trees, the City of Melbourne recognised the need to act immediately to make sure that our trees and landscapes our urban forest could survive and thrive in a changing environment. Melbourne s Urban Forest Strategy was developed as our tree plan for the future, ensuring a diverse, resilient and responsive urban landscape.

8 The strategy, backed by a new tree selection matrix, was recognised by our tree experts and independent arborists as vital to the future of Melbourne s tree population but it offered solutions that we knew could be contentious in our community, particularly around the need to diversify tree species. While the plan advocated an increase in canopy cover from 22 percent to 40 percent by 2040 and actions to ensure 90 percent of trees were healthy, there were two distinct camps on the tree selection front those who wanted to maintain Melbourne s exotic tree heritage the traditional elms and poplars and those favouring native trees. The Urban Forest Strategy, advocating diversification in Melbourne s tree stock, met neither. This was coupled with ongoing scepticism about the City s motives in tree management. In the past, routine tree removals had turned into battles. With the Urban Forest Strategy, the City had a serious proposition to make to its residents, businesses and visitors about its future tree stock. Success rested on robust community engagement. We could not afford to be sidetracked.

9 Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, Herald Sun 9 January 2011

10 3. Goals and Objectives

11 Goal The campaign aimed to ensure community support for the strategy by building stakeholder understanding of the challenges facing Melbourne s urban forest and the value of healthy urban landscapes.

12 Communication objectives 1. To understand the community s thoughts and perceptions about the urban forest. 2. To raise community understanding and awareness of the value and necessity of a healthy urban ecosystem for a liveable city. 3. To introduce and build support for City of Melbourne s long term plan to protect the urban forest and build resilience for the future, linked to a changing environment and population growth. 4. To help stakeholders understand the reasoning behind the City s approach on tree selection and replacement activities. 5. To encourage community debate and participation in a formal engagement process and gain community endorsement of future activities.

13 4. Research and Analysis

14 Significant research into the impact and cost benefits of trees informed the development Click to edit Master of the subtitle Urban style Forest Strategy. The City s urban landscape team had also recently surveyed residents and workers on their use of open space. Certain things that we knew about our community and other local government areas impacted our approach. Melburnians are passionate and vocal about their trees and tree removals have long been a highly sensitive community issue. We also knew about other situations in Canberra, Sydney Newcastle where tree removals had ended badly, reflecting negatively on local government bodies. Conversations with communities around climate change are difficult. We needed people to accept certain notions of a changing climate and respond to our proposition based on that. A vigorous native vs. exotic tree debate had been running in Melbourne for decades. Groups already existed with stated interests in local areas ( Friends of Royal Park ) and species ( Friends of the Elms ). Council s Parks and Gardens Advisory Committee, an independent advisory board, helped keep the pulse on community interests and concerns.

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16 5. Target Publics

17 While we already knew many of our stakeholders, we needed to undertake a stakeholder analysis specific to the project. City of Melbourne has a community engagement framework that directs how we undertake our engagement activities. The framework is underpinned by IAP2 and through our planning process we identified our stakeholders and analysed potential level of impacts and controversy. Key target publics included: Residents and resident associations Businesses and precinct associations Workers Visitors Developers Community interest groups and peak bodies parks, health, heritage State government Neighbouring councils Universities and academics City of Melbourne Councillors, managers, committees and contractors

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19 6. Communication strategy

20 Our communications campaign emerged directly from our detailed issue and risk analysis and Click understanding to edit Master subtitle of each style stakeholder group. The project also offered the opportunity to trial a new integrated approach where existing community engagement planning tools informed and directed our choice of messaging and communications channels. The approach rested on three main directives. The initiative would not be seen as just green. It would be presented it in a way that demonstrated impact across many aspects of life in the City. The strategy was about mitigating the impacts of climate change and managing tree diversity and selection, but this forest in a city also had significant community health impacts and economic benefits. Our story needed to be told visually. To provide proof we needed information that people could understand and believe. Images would play a large part in telling the story of Melbourne s evolution. We would tap into the pride that Melburnians have in their garden city and frame this as an investment in the future. Making a great city greener. We could not tell the story alone. We would engage external advocates from across the community to back our story, provide support and build momentum. We would also draw on related projects to build awareness and understanding and demonstrate the connections and benefits that trees have across our community.

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23 7. Implementation

24 Click The to Launch edit Master subtitle style An internal directive was received to launch the strategy prior to year end, meaning we had very little time to engage audiences before the holiday season started. With most of December and all of January lost to the silly season, we extended the campaign to the end of March and had to build in activities to rebuild momentum. After a formal media launch in early November, when our web portals went live, we ran a series of face to face activities to connect directly with our community. These kicked off in November 2011 when more than 130 people attended a town hall event to learn about the strategy, discuss it and provide feedback. Location specific events were held in March Maintaining momentum As our campaign timing was not perfect, we knew that maintaining momentum would be a challenge. A set of online tools served as campaign landing spots. Social and traditional media was used to keep the story rolling over January. This was supported by proactive media pitches and a postcard campaign, featuring an illustration by artist, Michael Leunig.

25 Tools and tactics included: - web portal providing background information, promoting related events and activities. - online community engagement portal. Events The Strategy was cross promoted through council run events. We focused on big issues rather than PR. Our experts also spoke at a number of external events. Media targeted and adapted approach. Focus on major metro and niche outlets. Media launch with Lord Mayor and stories pitched over entire engagement period. Social media promoted through various City of Melbourne accounts on twitter and facebook. Regular updates on ways to engage. Supporting collateral: video infographic series of illustrations depicting before and after scenarios and projected images of the city, thermal images detailed Q&As shared through organisation for cross promotional opportunities Avant card drawn by cartoonist, Michael Leunig. Many ongoing conversations with residents and advocacy groups.

26 Telling the big story We used other related projects alongside the Urban Forest Strategy to tell the big story, show connections and demonstrate long term commitment to our urban landscapes. The launch of the city s first Open Space Strategy a plan for the future of our parks and gardens helped tell the bigger story about plans for the city s future. The launch of our Exceptional Tree Register continued the story about all the city s trees by asking people to nominate significant privately owned trees for preservation. The Urban Forest Art and Design competition engaged the wider community old and young in visualising our forest of the future. Winning entries were displayed through the city in November and December, cross promoting the urban forest consultation. Even Christmas took an urban forest theme, with the city s enchanted forest being used to cross promote our urban forest work.

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28 8. Results

29 Urban Forest Strategy document downloaded more than 800 times Almost 7000 corporate website hits, with 5,000 unique views 11,000 to the engagement portal; 20,000 page views 177 web commentators, writing 19,000 words Almost 2,500 video views 350 event attendees More than 30 media clips, including articles, letters and editorials in the Age and Herald Sun, TV and radio news More than 10,000 copies of a specially designed postcard by Michael Leunig distributed to promote the consultation through inner Melbourne 419 entrants submitted works for the Urban Forest Art and Design Competition. Winning entries were displayed through the city in November to promote the consultation.

30 4,249 Visitors Virtual Forum 11,991 Site visits 20,316 Page views 1,595 Downloads 818 UFS Downloads 177 Commentators 19,000 Words

31 World Café Forum Click to edit Master title style 135 Participants Best community engagement meeting I ve ever been to! Other: Professional 8% Interested person 5% Interest person (outside municipality) 3% State Government 6% Q1: Describe yourself Academic 17% Related industry 19% Resident 42% Q2&3: Attendee Understanding Before and After Forum 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% -10% 10% No Understanding 20% 0% 0% Very Little Understanding Q2: Understanding Before 10% 20% 25% 32% 10% Q3:Understanding After 0% 0% 19% 58% 22% 25% 19% Basic Understanding 58% 32% Good Understanding 22% 10% Very Good Understanding

32 Urban Forest Art and Design Click to edit Master title style Competition Trees are nice because if we didn't have trees we couldn't live. Trees breath in what we breathe out. The animals like the trees. I like the park but I don't like the park if there are no trees

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34 06-Jan-2012 Click to edit Master title style

35 24 March 2012

36 9. Evaluation

37 The success of this campaign was evaluated in meeting stated objectives. Our community engagement sessions were well attended. With more than 350 residents, business owners, workers and interested parties attending 10 events we were able to understand existing community perceptions and concerns about our urban forest. This information was fed directly back into the final strategy document. (Objective 1) Our community forum was very successful in educating people about the situation and process. Surveys of participants showed that prior to the forum 55% of attendees had a basic or no understanding of the situation or our proposal. After the forum this dropped to under 20%, with 80% reporting a good to very good understanding. (Objective 2) Considerable, mostly positive, media coverage supported our efforts in reaching broad audiences. The campaign was assisted by a strongly supportive editorial in the Age. Strategy advocates such as Friends of the Elms provided an independent voice when negative and/or incorrect information was published. (Objectives 2 and 4) Even among highly vocal critics, perceptions changed throughout the engagement period. Some transitioned from blanket opposition to a more nuanced understanding. Others were never to be convinced otherwise. (Objective 2)

38 The Art and Design competition, which attracted more than 400 entries from across the State, was successful in setting the scene for our conversation about the urban forest. Through art we were able to make our proposition tangible and visible and gain access to a wide audience, particularly children. (Objective 2) From previous experience, we expected that eliciting response on a high level strategy would be difficult. But in this case, community appetite was strong. We saw high numbers of full document downloads (more than 800), website and engagement portal hits (more than 18,000) and the number of formal submissions received around 200 formally written and online submissions were more than ever expected. (Objective 3) Feedback revealed that the community predominantly supported the strategy. It received widespread academic and industry support locally, nationally and internationally. Almost all commentators expressed opinion about species preference. Only one submission challenged our approach to climate change. (Objective 4) Community debate and participation in the engagement process exceeded expectations. Conversations took place in person at events, online through our engagement portal and into the media. An overwhelming number of submissions endorsed the strategy and our approach. (Objective 5)

39 Do you agree with the principles Click to edit Master title style and targets in the UFS? 13% 28% 9% 50% Fully Agree Mostly Agree Somewhat agree Do not agreet

40 What the community said Click to edit Master title style This is a fantastic and comprehensive strategy. I am so pleased. I strongly support this strategy. I particularly support the push for greater diversity of species. I think it's a great idea and one that I'm sure we'll see replicated in Sydney in the not too distant future. I commend you for the vision and the planning and research which underpins the strategy. The plan to look after our existing forest is excellent as an ongoing activity and I can see things happening already, which is a great thing to see and feel. Great Stuff!

41 Friends of the Elms We would like to congratulate the authors of the document, for having the foresight, of not only tackling the difficult situation of an aging tree population, but also to double the number of trees and canopy cover, in the city. We also appreciate the nature of the consultative process and value the opportunity we have been given to respond.

42 I love what the City of Melbourne is doing. I love their attitude & respect for the urban forest. I love that they are including the community & want them to have a say in how their streets will look in the future for their children & their children s children. I really love that the urban forest will increase by almost 100%. It s going to be so beautiful. I love that global warming is being factored in to the Council s decision-making. Lastly, I love that this is all planned & there is nothing hotchpotch about it. Melbourne s public trees are spectacular. With a graduated system of removal & replacement, plus the planting of many thousands of extra trees, this city will continue to be a green jewel in our land.