The bioregional plan of Australia and its suitability as good practice for the United Kingdom and Ireland’s emerging systems

Abstract

This paper appraises the procedure and plans preparatory to the entrenchment of an effective Bioregional plan for the United Kingdom, most especially Great Britain and Ireland using the Bio-Regional plan of Australia as a template for emulation because of the widespread adulation of Australia as one of the most developed countries in terms of bio-regional plans in the world. This Article realises that there exists a yearning need to herald an ecosystem approach in the planning and management of land and seas through proper planning. This is particularly so as it has become increasingly recognised all over the world the need for the planning and management of the natural environment and the natural resources which are consequent on the proper functioning of the component ecosystems. The aim of this paper is therefore to find out whether the continued sustainability of economic systems, prevention of extinction of animal life (biodiversity and wildlife conservation), the preservation of the quality of human life are dependent on the maintenance of healthy ecosystems through the hatching of a plausible bioregional plan and whether or not the absence of a holistic action plan and management is capable of combatting the challenges occasioned by the complex interactions of humanity with its environment who are ultimately at the receiving end of all the fallouts of an unplanned ecosystem. This paper employs a doctrinal (desk-based) approach and relies on secondary data from statutes and reports by agencies of several governments. This study concludes that since there is no centrally created government-hatched bioregional plan for the United Kingdom as a whole including its component regions (Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland) with Ireland inclusive, it is desired that a bio-regional plan that would maximize and encourage living without injuring the earth and its abundant resources and consequently achieving sustainable biodiversity be formulated for them, irrespective of the structural inapplicability of Australia’s Bioregional plan for both countries.