We are an organisation that promotes the recognition of the importance and potential of urban areas for biodiversity in south east Queensland.
Across urban areas of south east Queensland, we aim to improve and expand native biodiversity. We will encourage all residents to plant locally native flora, in their home and work places, to encourage the growth of local fauna. Further we wish to educate our residents to both the beauty and wonder of our wildlife and to the ways that nature can enrich their lives.
We hope to achieve this by the following;
• Encourage all residents to recognise and enjoy their existing biodiversity in their backyards.
• Encourage all residents to increase and improve the potential habitat within their backyards, by specifically planting more local native plant species, controlling exotic plant species and, where possible, reducing and replacing lawn.
• Educate all residents in a variety of strategies to improve their backyard biodiversity.
• Encourage the co-operation of residents across distinct local areas for the purpose of biodiversity, for example, streets or suburbs.
• Encourage all local councils to promote and support Backyards for Biodiversity; both within their Council services and to their residents.
• Encourage all local councils to participate in the scheme by dedicating parts of parks and gardens for the construction of habitat gardens, encouraging council landscapers to use only local plant species along nature strips, traffic islands etc.
• Encourage private parks and gardens to develop biodiversity policies that leads to growth in local fauna and flora.
• Educate and encourage local landscapers, nurseries and gardens to support Backyards for Biodiversity.
• Encourage Schools, Retirement Villages, Industrial Areas, Shopping Centres - indeed any urban land use type - to join the Backyards for Biodiversity scheme.
• Encourage gardening firms to develop, promote and sell biodiversity ‘makeovers’ for backyards.
• Establishing a range of educational materials online through websites, social media and Youtube. Conventional media should also be utilised.
• Continually sharing stories and examples of success to motivate and inspire.
• Establishing a coalition of contributing individuals and organisations sympathetic to the above aims.
WHY?
We are in the midst of a global biodiversity crisis. Nature, both locally and globally, is suffering a death of a thousand cuts. Every citizen on our planet receives the life-giving gifts from nature; fresh air, filtered water, functioning ecologies and yet few consider that they ‘owe’ nature anything. We all owe our planet a great deal and it should start where we live – our backyards.
According to a recent, Science for Policy paper from the Threatened Species Recovery Hub, “Restoring and maintaining diverse urban nature with a wide range of animals and plants is beneficial to both people and the environment. Exposure to nature in cities has been found to deliver a remarkable range of health and well being benefits, including stress reduction, reduced mortality, and improved cognitive development in children.”
In addition to health benefits for people the same report notes, “Habitat can be enhanced or created in existing urban areas by using native plant species and increasing vegetation complexity,” in addition to recognising, “Residential gardens can be significant habitat [snip] resident -led wildlife gardening programs can make a valuable contribution to biodiversity.”
Backyards for Biodiversity believes that promoting backyard biodiversity will make a positive difference to people, nature and nature conservation more broadly. As stated, quality of human life and health will improve with increased nature in and around our homes. Creating more natural habitat within our urban backyards will provide both homes for wildlife and corridors between natural reserves allowing species to move throughout the environment. Inviting nature into our yards will allow us to more easily understand and value our unique flora and fauna, thus motivating us to protect it across our entire landscape.
Lastly but importantly, we do not see this project as a total response to our biodiversity crisis. It is merely one important strategy. We support efforts that protects existing natural habitat and threatened and endangered species, that promote native revegetation on private lands and regenerative agriculture which respects biodiversity and replenishes soils, that promotes sustainable energy use by utilising renewable resources – as all are important to solve our biodiversity crisis.
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