Global review of incentive schemes for the retention and successful establishment of trees on private urban land

Trees on private urban land (i.e., land owned and managed by private landowners) are central to the ambitious plans of many global cities to increase urban canopy-cover. This presents many problems and often causes tensions in local and state governments due to the difficulty in controlling and regulating private ownership. To help address this, the University of Melbourne, through funding from Horticultural Innovation Australia, partnered with a reference group of local experts to investigate the mechanisms (regulations and incentives, or “sticks and carrots”) that cities have adopted to retain, protect, and plant trees on private lands. These experts included academics, local government, and industry partners. This report presents expert opinions and a review of case studies on the progressive mechanisms that cities use to retain, protect, and plant trees on private lands. This is the second and final milestone of this project. This report is grounded in the understanding of this topic by Australian local governments, and its goal is to help these cities implement these progressive mechanisms. Experts, consulted through two workshops held at two international conferences, indicated that urban trees were mostly being lost on private land due to policies that stimulated urban densification and development, and due to ill-defined boundaries between public and private lands. These experts acknowledged the psychological impact of dealing with tree loss. Rather than advocating for stricter regulations, most participants advocated for policy and communitybased solutions. They noted that while many global cities have mechanisms to protect trees on private lands, implementing them depends strongly on community support.