Unfulfilled Promise: the case of the Mornington Peninsula and Western Port Biosphere Reserve, Australia

Abstract

UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) was established in 1968. Since then, its flagship project has been the designation a worldwide network of multi-functional biosphere reserves (BRs). Australia has 15, and one of the more recent is the Mornington Peninsula and Western Port Biosphere Reserve (MPWPBR, 2002), located in the peri-urban region to the south of metropolitan Melbourne. It is subject to a range of pressures. The paper examines these and explores the lost opportunities represented by the limited stature of BR status in Victoria. A particular focus is the current State government's pro-growth policy which involves relaxing controls on outer suburban residential expansion and the encouragement of freeway construction. These have major implications for the MPWPBR.

Keywords:

• Biosphere reserves
• Australia
• peri-urban regions
• Melbourne
• coastal development

Notes

1. See the Biosphere Reserve Nomination Form at http://www.unesco.org/mab/BRs/offDoc.shtml, 17.6.1, 17.6.5

2. With a permanent population of around 17 000, Bookmark BR is the only other Australian BR with a substantial population living within the boundaries of the reserve.

3. Early discussions among local proponents in the lead-up to the nomination process often made reference to an ‘urban biosphere reserve’. Even though the reserve is home to a sizeable population, the fact that only a relatively small proportion of the area is built over meant that that particular designation was eventually dropped. By comparison, the Mata Atlantica urban BR in Brazil is home to a permanent population of 100 million people. Mata Atlantica is 138 times larger than the MPWPBR and its population density is four times higher.

4. A recent study by the Department of Parliamentary Services (2008) matched socio-economic data from the 2006 national census with electoral division boundaries. The data point to an above-average level of socio-economic disadvantage (ranked 95 out of 150) for the MPWPBR judged against the national benchmarks for all electoral divisions.

5. The ‘Montreux Record’ currently identifies 56 Ramsar-listed sites that are ‘in danger’. Writing in 1993, Dugan and Jones calculated that as many as 289 sites potentially could be placed on the record. It also needs to be pointed out that the Australian Commonwealth government's commitment to resourcing World Heritage sites has not been strong and has also been declining over the years.

6. Three Departmental Directors are now known respectively as the Directors of Sustainable Environment, Sustainable Planning, and Sustainable Economic Development.

7. The counter-argument is that, even assuming very low-density residential development, there is already a 25-year supply of future residential land within the urban growth boundary without extending it (see Buxton and Goodman 2008).