“Blue Ecology is a water first ecological philosophy. The UBC workshop provided a timely opportunity to introduce a pan-Canadian audience to the work of Michael Blackstock, in particular his paper on Blue Ecology and climate change,” stated Kim Stephens.
“Climate change commentary consistently dominates our newspapers, radio and television and it can be said with some confidence that the majority of scientists now agree global warming is a reality. But, what does all this mean on a day-to-day level for the practitioner?,” asks Eric Bonham.
Vancouver Island is the pilot region for implementing Beyond the Guidebook: The New Business As Usual through a precedent-setting approach to continuing education for local government practitioners. “Each series comprises three sessions that provide an inter-departmental learning opportunity for collaborative exploration. Each series is conducted as a cumulative process, from philosophy to tools,” stated Kate Miller.
Under the theme of Green Approaches to Development, Eric Bonham and Kim Stephens provided a progress report on “CAVI – Convening for Action on Vancouver Island”. In his part, Bonham articulated the CAVI vision for water-centric planning and a Design with Nature way-of-thinking and acting to create liveable communities in balance with ecology. His unifying theme was collaboration.
“We wanted to explore a collaborative approach that we believed would help local governments make informed land development decisions that meet multiple objectives. The idea was an outcome of the Green Infrastructure Leadership Forum that CAVI and the Association of Vancouver Island Coastal Communities co-hosted in December 2007,” stated John Finnie.
There would be value in funding a catalogue of local government policies and practices that accommodate settlement while at the same building in green value. “The ultimate objective in developing the catalogue is that it will enable the sharing of preferred practices across regions,” stated Chris Jensen.
The mission of the Water Sustainability Action Plan is to facilitate the move toward a more sustainable approach to water resource management. “In 2006, a notable highlight was conducting a consultation workshop to launch ‘Convening for Action on Vancouver Island’,” wrote Ray Fung, Chair.
“In moving towards water sustainability, we envision that developers that balance settlement and ecology will be rewarded. Because time is money, we believe that environmental environments can be paid for through money saved as a result of faster approval times”, stated Graeme Bethell. “Because we believe that Vancouver Island has all the ingredients in place for success, we believe that it will emerge as a water sustainability pilot for North America.”
“The CAVI vision is that water sustainability will be achieved through implementation of green infrastructure policies and practices. The CAVI role is to provide venues which create opportunities to start conversations that will ultimately lead to action. CAVI is facilitating the move from awareness (interest) to action(practice) in changing where and how land is developed, how water is used, and how water runs off the land,” stated John Finnie.
The workshop addressed this question: how does a community weigh the benefits and liabilities of changes driven by demand for land use? “What will determine the long-term wellbeing for a community or region? In a nutshell, ‘wellbeing’ is about sustainability of what communities allow or prevent happening on the land. Wellbeing is about balancing settlement activity…or change…and ecology,” stated Tim Pringle.
