Image by SayZu (cc) hanspetermeyer.ca As I write this, climate change folks are huddled together in Cancun for COP 16. A year ago it was Copenhagen. With much closeted discussion, public protest, and – eventually – disappointment. How does this high-level hoopla connect to what's happening in your region?
In the past year my community hosted a sustainability strategy, a regional growth strategy, and an ongoing conservation strategy. Are any of these being used to connect our everyday lives with bigger challenges - like the reality of climate change?
Everyday reality: getting the kids to school, public safety, more and better-paying jobs, traffic, the cost of housing. These aren't separate from the global sustainability chatter in Cancun, or the various strategies unfolding in my region. But in my town – and similar small cities and rural areas – we don't have non-partisan venues or public leadership connecting the dots.
Connecting the dots...
Most of the work I've done over the past 15+ years has been about connecting the dots in rural and small town BC. When I worked with the Real Estate Foundation of BC I was talking to, and learning from, land use practitioners across BC. They were doing good stuff on sustainability, real estate development, housing, stream stewardship, land trusts, NGO-government collaborations – and lots more. Very inspiring stuff.
The problem is that people and organizations doing inspiring stuff often aren't very good at telling their stories. So knowledge, experience, insight – and great examples – aren't being shared, aren't inspiring others. Again: a problem of connecting the dots. Housing connects to streams connects to public safety connects to climate change and long-term community quality of life. But if you're not telling your story, it's hard for others to "get" how it connects to them.
"The work" (building an emerging housing shelter, saving the woods from the axe) always seems more important than talking about it, so story-telling is hard to resource. This isn't new. "Marketing" and "communications" (what the pros call story-telling) isn't a popular place to spend money in any business, let along local government or the NGO sectors. When revenues drop, it's also one of the first things to get the axe.
Telling stories, sharing inspiration
But what is "the work?" If we're talking about sustaining a community, an organization, or a business the work is about growing through change - or closing the doors. Most of us are reluctant to close the doors on our communities. But how do we grow when resources are shrinking and challenges are expanding? We step outside our shrinking box. We engage others. We energize ourselves by engaging with the passions and commitment of others. We use the tools available to stimulate conversation and imagination – and, we change. Telling stories isn't the goal; it's part of the process of making the change that is making our communities better, more resilient places to live.
I get lucky on a regular basis. I always seem to have clients doing interesting and important stuff. The Comox Valley Land Trust and the Comox Valley Conservation Strategy are examples: good people doing good stuff, making my place a better place.
My job is to collect and share stories about what CVLT and CVCS are about, making it easier for others to connect the dots. What are they about? Figuring out how to be smarter with our land base and ecological systems. Smarter land uses means more likelihood that my region remains a beautiful, healthy place to call home, raise kids, run a business, play, and have fun. That's cool. It's also cool that by contributing to better quality of life in my neighbourhood, CVLT and CVCS are addressing something way beyond the neighbourhood: climate change.
The people I'm interviewing are doing one of the most concrete things any of us can do to keep our community healthy. By taking responsibility for a wee creek in the backyard they're also making sure that the trees are there, that the water in the creek and in the ground around the creekside, is clean. They're protecting habitat for animals – including us humans who appreciate a walk in the woods, fresh air, and clean water.
Local action and climate change
Here's the connection with climate change: predicted climate changes in our region are for more warm and wet. Yes, it's cold outside today, but research commissioned by the Real Estate Institute of BC strongly indicates that over the next decade or two our region is going to see significantly more rain. That means the natural hydrological systems – how the land handles downpours, for example – are going to be taxed. When Brian, one of the stream guys I interviewed recently, does his "save the salmon" thing on Millard Creek, he's also helping everyone who lives in the watershed. A "properly functioning" stream is part of a hydrological system that absorbs water, stores it, releasing it over time rather than flushing it as a degraded creek, river, or an expensive big-pipe system does. In other words, if Brian is your neighour, he's helping your backyard stay where it is, not in Comox Bay.
Brian's story is an example of how one guy's commitment to place and willingness to put his feet in the water ripples out into greater community resiliency. When we look after a creek we also look after individual homes. Looking after individual property values means local taxes aren't dealing with so many crises, and maybe some dollars can be spent on things like dealing with public safety and housing issues. Investing our tax dollars in basic social supports reduces the opportunities for criminal investments in poverty. Making our communities more resilient makes them attractive places to outside investors – retirees, young families, businesses. In the context of big changes, resiliency means sustainability.
Like I said, I get lucky a lot: a number of my projects involve story-telling about making change – sustainability communications. But I'm still looking for leadership in our small town and rural BC communities to create the non-partisan spaces for these conversations. Are our sustainability/growth/conservation/economic development strategy dead letters to the future? Or do they live and change in the context of a community conversation?
A recent "scrape" of the Twittersphere with SayZu showed what the conservation conversation looks like for 160km around the Comox Valley (see figure at top of the page). I'm curious: Where does the sustainability conversation live in your community or region? What does it look like?
Hi Hans:
ReplyDeleteThanks for this. One of the biggest challenges for the Comox Valley Conservation Strategy is to "connect the dots" between conservation, and the many other community challenges such as taxes, aging infrastructure, flooding, quality of life, investment, transportation, that residents, landowners, taxpayers, businesses, farmers, families, political representatives, local government staff, developers, are facing.
Most people think that conservation is an environmental issue, that only concerns environmentalists. Conservation benefits everyone. Your blog is helpful in clarifying the need to "connect the dots" and provides some much needed stimulation on how we might be able to do it...Maybe we need to launch a connect the dots campaign.
David Stapley
Project Manager
Comox Valley Conservation Strategy Community Partnership.
Thanks Mr. Stapley. It's fun working with the CVCS on this "connect the dots" campaign. It's also a pleasure to be doing work that's related directly to enhancing the quality of my life in my home community.
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