Announcing a New Initiative to Foster Collaboration Focused on Economy and Ecology – ‘Vancouver Island 2065′
Pedro Marquez announcing VI 2065 at the 2013 Economic Summit (VIEA President, George Hanson in the background)
Vancouver Island 2065: “Economy and Ecology – A Necessary Partnership for Water Sustainability”
A new partnership Initiative was announced at the 2013 State of the Island Economic Summit, held on October 29/30 in Nanaimo, BC.
About the Partners
Vancouver Island 2065 is a partnership initiative of the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance (VIEA) and Convening for Action Vancouver Island (CAVI). VIEA and CAVI have been collaborating on this theme for three years and are well placed to engage in this process given the nature of their respective roles.
VIEA has a mandate to foster collaboration for a vital and sustainable Island economy while CAVI is a regional initiative delivered by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for BC.
Support from Royal Roads University:
Joining this collaboration and thus launching the Vancouver Island 2065project, is Royal Roads University (RRU). Royal Roads will support the VIEA-CAVI partnership by investigating novel approaches to developing a sustainable vision for Vancouver Island.
RRU faculty member Dr. Richard Kool will work with RRU graduate student Claire Steel, from the master’s program in environmental education and communication, to investigate models of multi-stakeholder visioning and scenario planning that can be applied to the VIEA-CAVI initiative.
Economy and Ecology in Balance
To ensure a sustainable economy is achieved, the issues of climate change, food and energy security, water sustainability, economic growth and the protection of the natural beauty of Vancouver Island need to be addressed.Vancouver Island 2065 calls for a ‘top-down bottom-up’ strategy to form collaborative and effective relationships amongst key stakeholders island-wide in order to achieve ‘settlement in balance with environment and ecology’.
Quotable Quotes:
“As our economy diversities, our communities grow, and our population expands, we must find ways of working together so that we will balance the inevitable demands of growth with the equally important issue of protecting our coveted and life-sustaining natural environment. We believe that Vancouver Island 2065 is an important step towards increasing awareness as well as inter-regional cooperation.” states George Hanson, VIEA President.
“This is an exciting partnership that will result in a comprehensive approach to visioning and planning that will ultimately benefit many diverse groups on Vancouver Island,” adds Pedro Márquez, VIEA board member and Dean of the Faculty of Management at Royal Roads University.
“The collaboration between VIEA, RRU and CAVI has the potential to put Vancouver Island on the right path towards a sustainable environment through its interrelationship with ecology, economy and education,” concludes Derek Richmond, CAVI Chair.
