Governance of nature-based solutions through intermediaries for urban transitions – A case study from Melbourne, Australia

This paper uses as a NbS case study the development and initial implementation of the metropolitan urban forest strategy in Melbourne Australia for analyzing the multi-actor landscape that emerged, through the lens of intermediation. The paper investigates which actors, partnerships and platforms acted as intermediaries in the transformative agenda of the Urban Forest strategy, how these actors interacted over the course of the strategy’s development and how their roles and functions shifted during the early implementation stages of the strategy. Authors found that an ‘ecology of intermediaries’ adopted a range of roles to support key functions including building collaboration, informing and disseminating policy learning, and strengthening political support. While intermediaries’ roles and functions shifted across the strategy’s development, their contributions were critical in the complex metropolitan governance context.