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Time to save fringe farmlands from redevelopment?
Until recently, little research had been done anywhere in the world on the unique problems faced by farmers and market gardeners operating on the fringes of major cities. But now a Spanish researcher who has spent some of his time studying urban planning in WA—including Perth’s peri-urban Swan Valley—has just completed his PhD in the subject.
Dr Valerià Paül of the University of Barcelona focused his investigations on Barcelona’s own agrarian spaces—fields that have been under agricultural production for more than 2,000 years.
Unfortunately he discovered that urban pressures are now so great that the entire peri-urban industry could be lost unless strong new planning laws, innovative governance systems and improved management strategies are introduced.
Trans Scan editorial committee member, Dr Fiona McKenzie who is familiar with Paül’s work says he examined the dynamics of ‘urban’ agrarian spaces themselves and the land-use conflicts caused when they have not been protected or managed.
“Dr Paül was able to show that planning policies in metropolitan Barcelona had caused a noticeable diminution of the agrarian spaces—even though there has been a rhetoric defending their preservation,” she writes.
“He showed that the most productive and irrigated areas had been the most affected by urban encroachment.
“He argued that it was a lack of strategies and comprehensive policy-making by the agricultural administration, that was causing the problems, and that the growing role of the environmental administration was having contradictory impacts.
“While agricultural space of outstanding environmental value was protected, too little assistance was being given to the management of agricultural spaces.” In fact farmers had too little say in how the peri-urban lands were being planned.
“Urban agriculture offers an irreplaceable potential to cities, yet if action is not taken to secure its future, it will disappear in coming years.”
Dr McKenzie said a similar problem was developing in the Swan Valley.
“We should certainly be taking a close look at what is happening there,” she said.
“These peri-urban areas provide an important buffer zone for the city and in many ways such green areas also represent Perth’s ‘lungs’.”
