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Vision 1 - In my travels I have observed globally the trend known as “the resurrection of the city state”. Cities and bioregions taking advantage of the globalization process to get direct economic advantage. So rather than going through a national government, they are seeking business development and cultural attachments directly to other regions of the world. And increasingly, cities and bioregions are doing this to reposition themselves in this globalized world. There are some problems that they have: how do you attract and retain the brightest and the most creative to be part of the new economy? There is global competition for those Richard Florida calls the “creatives” who will drive the new economy. There is also competition to attract capital investment, especially for investment in the new economy: environmental services and information services.
So a lot of cities are going through extensive strategic rethinking about how they can reposition themselves as city states in a new global economy. I’ll mention just three.
Seattle has been doing this in a major way for some time.
Urbino in Italy is less well-known but is moving innovatively on a number of fronts. It is an old historic town on a rocky knoll. So, what’s Urbino’s interest in a globalized world? How can an historic city reposition itself as part of as sustainable future? Well, the story is that Urbino lays claim to being the origin of the Renaissance, because it was the home of Raphael. The Duke of Urbino was Raphael’s patron and the Duke’s castle was the first castle built that wasn’t purely for fortification but also for artistic expression. But Urbino claims to be one of the catalysts and origins of the Renaissance. So the city of Urbino argues that “To meet the challenges of sustainability, we need a new Renaissance” – that’s their tag line. They endorsed the Earth Charter in a very public way as part of their broad vision for the future, capitalizing on their heritage to reposition themselves.
Chicago in the USA is another city which is talking about its bioregion now. Chicago is in Illinois which has a similar GDP to Australia, a similar population and a National Guard similar in size to Australia’s combat-ready forces. Although they made their wealth through old industries they are now thinking creatively about what their future is in the new economy.
Drawing on these three examples we can see initiatives such as biosphere reserves providing one way a city can make clear its intention of its future direction.
So a biosphere nomination from Canberra and the ACT, could be used by the government to provide a fresh and clear direction and intent to help frame their long term strategic planning for where Canberra might be going. I don’t know of any other capital city that is using biosphere reserves in this way; but I’m suggesting, in terms of pitching this to the ACT government, we could consider putting this to them. Because, if they would like to see Canberra going in this direction—participating on its own initiative in a global economy while retaining a focus on its bioregion and its people—a biosphere reserve could be used to frame the dialogue and debate about that.
Vision 2 - The other global challenge we have in the face of climate change is about facilitating adaptation, particularly in terms of species and ecosystems. And so we find the NSW state government looking at issues of large-scale connectivity between protected areas and across all land tenures to promote the flow of organisms to facilitate adaptation processes and hence this Atherton-to Alps initiative, of which the ACT could be a vital part.
Again, a biosphere reserve nomination could be part of an ACT government – and, indeed, a federal government – integrative climate response policy and programs.
So that’s just by way of suggesting a couple of areas in which a biosphere reserve nomination could be very helpful and perhaps things we haven’t been thinking about when considering the value for the ACT of a biosphere reserve nomination.
See also Ian Anderson's draft vision statement, which complements these remarks, here.
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Updated 25 May 2007. For more information about the biosphere reserve nomination, e-mail our office