Conference 2003
Greening the City:
Bringing Biodiversity Back
into the Urban Environment
Abstract:
Waikumete
Cemetery, its Biodiversity and Management
Penny
Cliffin, Leslie Haines & Katrina Simon (UNITEC, Auckland)
The management of landscapes
involves the evaluation of a wide range of physical, cultural, biological
and temporal aspects, and decisions made as to how these aspects
will be sustained or controlled over time. Ecological values, landscape
design values, religious and cultural values, tree collection values,
historical values, are among those which are typically identified
by bodies charged with managing landscapes. These values may be
mutually reinforcing and they may also be partially or directly
in conflict, and critically, these values may change over time.
Cemeteries are landscapes in which these potential conflicts in
values are thrown into particularly clear relief, as they are landscapes
in which communities and individuals have a high stake, which may
endure for generations.
This poster outlines
a case study of one significant cemetery in Auckland, Waikumete
Cemetery. Examples of how some of these conflicts are evident within
this site include:
- The physical preservation
of historic grave furniture and monuments may be in conflict with
ecologically rich self-sown flora and the designation of a Wildlfower
Sanctuary;
- The desire to protect
healthy specimens of historically important examples of structural
planting is now at odds with the designation of some of these
species as noxious weeds;
- The designation of
a large part of the cemetery site as a protected indigenous ecological
zone is challenged by the reduction of the cemetery's time-span
for future burials by up to 80 years.
The Waikumete Cemetery
case study is used to develop a new model for identifying and relating
different value sets by examining them within the ecological concepts
of disturbance and its relationship to cultural and biotic diversity
and complexity. Key features are traced over time and the range
of deliberate and unintentional disturbances are examined. The importance
of designatory events and the changed values these embody, are revealed
as key determinants of change in the cemetery landscape.
Conference sponsored
by:
Follow this link to
view other organisations
supportive of the conference
Top
of page
|
