The City of Greater Dandenong's Urban Forest Strategy provides a holistic approach to delivering a healthy, green and resilient urban forest.
Climate Change is already impacting our municipality through increased average daily temperatures, less rainfall and increased intensity of storm and fire events. On 28 January 2020, Greater Dandenong Council declared a 'Climate and Ecological Emergency' committing Council to emergency action on Climate Change. The urban forest plays a significant role in mitigating against climate change by cooling our urban environment.
The City of Greater Dandenong is the most disadvantaged municipality in metropolitan Melbourne. Our vulnerability is further compounded by a very low canopy cover of 9 per cent, this is the lowest of all metropolitan Melbourne municipalities on the eastern side of Melbourne. Vulnerable people, such as the elderly, children, people with pre-existing medical conditions and disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds are at an even greater risk to extreme heat events and a changing climate.
The City of Greater Dandenong's Urban Forest Strategy is the overarching document to:
- Greening Our City - Urban Tree Strategy 2018-28 which considers the current status, issues and opportunities for Council managed trees; and
- Greening Our Neighbourhoods 2021-28 which considers the current issues and opportunities for trees on privately owned land.
The Urban Forest Strategy (UFS) has a set vision for:
A healthy, green and resilient urban forest that is well managed, protected and provides benefits to the community.
The key objectives that Council aims to work towards are:
- Provide a framework for managing the urban forest
- Improve Greater Dandenong's resiliency to climate change
- Cooling through greening our city
- Improve the health of our community
- Engage and educate our community about the importance of trees
By strategically planting more trees in locations of greatest need and advocating for greater quality landscaping, and canopy trees on privately-owned land, Council aims to have increased its canopy cover to 15 per cent by 2028.
