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Summary Amenity is a term that has re‐emerged within both public policy and environmental management organisations in response to an increasing emphasis on the human benefits derived from ecosystems. However, practical implementation of amenity management has been difficult due to a lack of definitional clarity within operational and academic literature. This article discusses the need for definitional clarity and understanding of the component elements of amenity that are integral to ecological management and reviews the literature on the perceptions and definitions of amenity in varied contexts. This study argues that positive perceptions of amenity benefits of a place are influenced by both physical elements such as sight, sound and smell and social elements such as age, education and cultural values. These elements should be considered by management agencies in a structured manner in order for the full potential of amenity to be realised. We present a conceptual framework to provide definitional clarity to the concept of amenity and highlight the interactions among its constituent elements. For the management of human‐dominated landscapes, considering the relationship between amenity and biodiversity may improve the integration of ecological and social goals.

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Despite decades of effort, biodiversity has not attracted effective political discourse, policies, or action to halt its decline. In cities in particular, biodiversity conservation is challenged by short-term approaches, separately focusing on biodiversity or community well-being rather than on their interconnection, and pervasive beliefs that urban citizenry lack the requisite ethic or skills for conservation action or biodiversity governance. We describe how a systemic co-inquiry in Victoria Australia, conducted by citizen and agency practitioners alongside policy developers and academic researchers, modified understandings, practices, and institutional arrangements (governance) for urban biodiversity conservation. The most impactful outcomes of the early co-inquiry period were (1) start-up funding for a network to forge collaborations between community and local government actors that engage urban residents in supporting indigenous biodiversity in their gardens, and (2) empowered co-inquiry members driving the network's development. These efforts have led to on-going social learning and longterm institutional arrangements for a burgeoning network of municipally based nature stewardship collaborations that are nurturing local human-nature relations. Key challenges include(d): maintaining the co-inquiry, paradigms that undervalue urban biodiversity and the role of citizens, organizational inertia, and evaluation measures incommensurate with strengthening person-nature relationships. Our research shows how systemic co-inquiry involving citizen practitioners can surface misleading assumptions around biodiversity stewardship and governance, and help to empower citizen and agency actors to focus on nurturing sustainable human-nature relations in cities.