PhD Candidate: Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu

PhD Supervisors: Professor Neil Perry (WSU), Associate Professor Paul Rymer (WSU), Professor Juan Francisco Salazar Sutil (WSU), Dr Stephanie Hernandez (DCCEEW)

Project Summary: Western Sydney's population is projected to reach 3 million by 2036. Population and urban growth will exacerbate the pressure on land systems and biodiversity, further fracturing people’s relation to nature.  

With this context in mind, the government of New South Wales developed the Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan (CPCP) to enable sustainable growth in the Cumberland Plan. The Plan provides the blueprint to manage the trade-off between development and sustainability of the region’s unique biodiversity. Landscape connectivity is one of the pillars of CPCP. As a conservation tool, connectivity is used to reverse biodiversity loss on fragmented landscapes. Achieving connectivity requires executing conservation measures across property boundaries and land tenures. Connectivity is a simple concept in the abstract, but difficult to accomplish in the real world. This is because landscapes comprise diverse stakeholders. To connect the landscape, it is imperative to connect the people to one another and to the land. Conservation is a social process with ecological ramifications, not the other way around.

There have been growing calls to integrate social and cultural values into private land conservation in order to enhance conservation effectiveness. However, little is known about how we can simultaneously improve landscape connectivity and people’s connection to nature.

This chapter will survey people who live and work in the Cumberland Plain to elicit information on values, barriers and issues that influence people’s connection to nature and participation in private land conservation in this region.

The key research questions in this chapter are as follows:

• How do people value and care for nature on private lands?

• Are landholders amenable to public access to their lands for volunteering, scientific reference, natural harvesting, and recreation?

• How do people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds connect with and care for Australian wildlife?

Overall, this project will help us to inform policy toward leveraging social connections to scale up private land conservation, improve landscape connectivity, and diversify opportunities for people to contribute to conservation, restoration, and Caring for Country.