This week, Green Adelaide released a state-first strategy on how to improve greening in SA. CityMag asked around to gauge how effective targets are.

On Tuesday, Green Adelaide launched a draft Urban Greening Strategy, a state-first document that outlines how to increase Adelaide’s climate resilience.

The strategy involves consistently monitoring urban greening across Adelaide, and says greening targets look likely to be met  “with the aid of strong leadership at all levels”.

The existing target for South Australia is to increase urban green cover by 20 per cent by 2045. This was set in a 2017 Greater Adelaide Plan and is currently being reviewed, according to the report.

The target was a way of recognising that as Adelaide develops new housing in existing suburbs, there’s a need to also create shady and leafy places to live.

According to Green Adelaide Presiding Member Chris Daniels, 30 per cent canopy cover is the widely accepted target.

Data first reported by InDaily in April found only 17 per cent of metropolitan Adelaide is covered in tree canopy.

“17 per cent is indicative that we’re a long way from what we need,” Chris says.

He says that when it comes to setting targets, it’s not just about having a number of trees or a percentage of area to cover; thought is needed about the best types of trees to serve an area, and that different regions have different needs.

“So if you’ve got some local councils that are only eight per cent, there’s a lot of need to really focus on that area, that’s what that shows,” he says.

“I’m not a fan of targets because I think you get distracted by them. Even increasing by 20 per cent, well, if you’ve got five per cent and increase up to eight per cent, you exceeded your 20 per cent increase but you still haven’t got enough trees,” Chris says.

This interpretation of tree canopy targets – to increase existing cover by 20 per cent – is how some local councils set goals.

The City of Onkaparinga’s 2017-2022 strategic plan said its baseline urban tree canopy cover was 12.5 per cent in 2017. The council is currently analysing the latest findings from Green Adelaide to see how its tree canopy cover has grown since then.

The target is to have an overall urban green cover of 15 per cent by 2045, which is a 2.5 per cent increase overall but still meets the need to increase existing cover by 20 per cent.

City of Onkaparinga acting planning director Matthew Lawrence says the council is reviewing the 15 per cent target, with a key focus to minimise tree loss and advocate for changes to the state government’s planning system, which includes improving legislation that protects trees.

“Our analysis so far indicates we’ve had positive increases in our urban canopy cover, and we’ll be releasing this data as soon as our analysis is complete,” he says.

To support tree cover goals, the council said in April that it had partnered with One Tree Per Child to encourage planting on private land as a measure to improve canopy.

11 councils across metro Adelaide have urban greening strategies, according to the Green Adelaide report. This picture: Tree canopy cover by LGA, from Green Adelaide

The City of Charles Sturt’s tree canopy improvement strategy 2021–2024 has a minimum target to increase existing canopy from 14.28 per cent to 17.14 per cent as a minimum. This meets an increase of 20 per cent on the baseline measure of 14.28 but is only a three per cent total rise.

The council said that while 17.14 per cent was the minimum goal, it had an ambitious target of 25 per cent cover by 2045.

Matt Farrell, the founder of Sellicks Woodlands & Wetlands Action Network – a community group founded to oppose Sellicks Beach housing developments – has advocated against this method of target setting.

Matt made a presentation to the Urban Forest Inquiry in 2023 asking that the Greater Adelaide Plan revise its target to be specific and above 30 per cent, and that councils reset their canopy cover targets in line with this.

“The targets are wrong, but they are meeting those targets, but a solution to a problem that doesn’t solve the problem isn’t a solution,” he says.

Chris Daniels says the solution to increasing tree canopy put forward in the Urban Greening Strategy is a combined effort of protecting existing trees and planting new ones.

“The type of tree, its size, its relevance within a community setting, all of those things need to be incorporated in the legislation, and that’s a role for the state government,” he says.

Flinders University researcher Dr Gerti Szili, who has a background in urban and regional planning, agrees state government legislation has a role to be explicit to help guide local councils to meet targets.

“Having a benchmark or a baseline I think is really important, otherwise, we might lose sight of this completely,” Gerti says.

“I think the 20 per cent target is a good start, but I think the general sort of rule of thumb of what we should be doing is aiming for around 30 per cent.”

Daniels agrees that 30 per cent is a good target, but prefers to look at the broader picture of what is needed to increase canopy.

“We have to understand that each area is unique, I would have just had one target that is an indicative target, not something that can then be either misinterpreted or lead to unintended consequences,” he says.

“Increasing your canopy by 20 per cent isn’t very helpful, what is more helpful is what does success look like?”

Chris mentioned greater social equity through greening, planting the right trees in the right places, preserving existing canopy and seeing an increase in biodiversity and property values are all elements of success.

“When we are sitting up in the nursing home down the road here in 20 years, what does the city look like?”

The draft Urban Greening Strategy is now available for the public to read and give feedback via YourSay until June 28.

The state government aims to implement the strategy by the end of 2024.