March 2018 ECHO Network quarterly update
Facilitators and youth attendees of the 2018 CIRC Forum engaging in a group exercise to draw connections amongst the cumulative impacts of resource extraction
Welcome to our first quarterly ECHO update for 2018!
We started 2018 off with a stimulating and thought-provoking event to fuel our thinking on the cumulative impacts of resource extraction and development. The UNBC Cumulative Impacts Research Consortium (CIRC), with support from the ECHO Network and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solu- tions (PICS), convened the 2018 CIRC Forum: Cumulative impacts policy and practice in northern BC. See page 3 for more information.
We are recruiting for our next Postdoctoral Fellow – please see the job post- ing at https://www.unbc.ca/46543/echo-network-postdoctoral-fellowship for this exciting and unique opportunity. Please feel free to circulate widely!
Our official ECHO Network website has launched! Check out the website at www.echonetwork-reseauecho.ca. The website will be updated quarterly and the design will be refined over time but if you have immediate feedback please feel free to send it to diana.kutzner@unbc.ca.
Looking ahead to key network activities for 2018, core team members are currently in the process of planning of knowledge to action workshops in- formed by regional priorities and subsequent learning and discovery work- shops across the ECHO Network. Stay tuned for updates on these opportunities for knowledge exchange and to learn about intersectoral tools and processes.
Our ECHO working groups and teams are actively progressing ECHO re- search goals. Team Watersheds is going to try to meet in early April—please email Diana (diana.kutzner@unbc.ca) in case of questions.
Our 2018 Annual Meeting is taking place July 29—Aug 1st, 2018. Look out for further details in the events section of this update!
Margot Parkes and Diana Kutzner recently attended a Tamarack Institute Evaluation Masterclass on March 16 in Vancouver—they look forward to feeding their newly gained knowledge about principles-focused evaluation into evaluation activities of ECHO Network Team Learning & Impact.
Following the foundational establishment of our ECHO Network Learning Community we are excited that one of our Postdoctoral Fellows, May Farrales, is conducting an ECHO Photovoice Activity with Network Members.
Results from May’s photovoice activity will fuel our next An-nual Meeting. Now is the time to submit your photos and reflections to May!
Invitations were sent to ECHO Network Members in the be- ginning of March. For more information or in case of ques- tions please contact May at may.farrales@unbc.ca.
ECHO preview: Upcoming meetings and events, involving or hosted by ECHO team members
We welcome team suggestions for future upcoming events and meetings. Please email ECHO Research Manager, Diana Kutzner at Diana.Kutzner@unbc.ca
April 16–20, 2018
The Foundation for Environmental Conservation (FEC), East-West Center, and University of Hawai'i have planned the 7th International Conference on Environmental Future (7ICEF) that seeks to advance the global and multidisciplinary conversation around environmental futures witha specific focus in 2018 on ‘Humans and Island Environments’. The conference will be held fromthe 16 – 20 April 2018 in Honolulu, Hawai’i, at the East-West Center’s Imin International Con- ference Center.
July 29-Aug 1, 2018
The ECHO Network Annual Meeting will be hosted by the University of Alberta and the Bat- tle River Watershed Alliance in Camrose, Alberta. The meeting will be an opportunity for active knowledge exchange and will be designed to advance important intersectoral linkages, actions, tools, and processes we have been progressing since the start of the ECHO Network launch, in May 2017. We look forward to hosting this event to help fuel the next phase of the ECHO Net- work.
A registration form and travel arrangement details will be circulated. Travel and accommodations will need to be booked through contacts at UofA. You should plan to arrive in Camrose on July 29th; the meeting is scheduled to end in the afternoon of Aug 1st. There are opportunities for ECHO related team meetings on the following day(s) between August 1st to August 4th. Please contact Diana Kutzner (diana.kutzner@unbc.ca) in case of questions.
August 15-18, 2018
Some ECHO Network team members are looking ahead to the 7th biennial conference of the International Association for Ecology and Health in Cali Columbia; see also http:// ecohealth2018.co/. Abstracts deadline is at the end of December 2017.
April 7-11, 2019
This event in Rotorua, Aotearoa New Zealand, may be an opportunity for exchanges with Oceania ECHO groups: 23rd IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion “Waiora: Promoting Planetary Health and Sustainable Development for All”. http://www.iuhpe2019.com/
Summer 2019 (dates tbc)
The next ECHO Network Annual Meeting will be hosted by the Université de Moncton and NBEN in New Brunswick. Dates will be identified and announced as soon as possible.
Publications led by, involving, or of interest to ECHO Network Members
Buse CG. (2018). Review of Sustainability Planning and Collaboration in Rural Canada by L. Hallstrom et al. Canadian Ge- ographer, early access: doi: 10.1111/cag.12446
Buse, C., Oestreicher, J., Ellis, N., Partrick, R., Brisbois, B., Jenkins, A., McKellar, K., Kingsley, J., Gislason, M., Gal- way, L., McFarlane, R., Walker, J., Frumkin, H., & Parkes, M.W (2018). Public health guide to field develop- ments linking ecosystems, environments and health in the Anthropocene. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. Doi: 10.1136/jech-2017-210082
Jenkins, A., Horwitz, P., & Arabena, K. (2018). My island home: Place-based integration of conservation and public health in Oceania. Environmental Conservation, 1-12. doi:10.1017/S0376892918000061. https:// www.cambridge.org/core/journals/environmental-conservation/article/my-island-home-placebased-integration- of-conservation-and-public-health-in-oceania/5CC905DB8E6A9D5FF990F027687413FE
Stewart-Harawira, M. and Kinder, J. B. (2018). Resilient Systems, Resilient Communities. University of Alberta and Kule Institute for Advanced Study. An open access copy of Resilient Systems, Resilient Communities can be found at https://era.library.ualberta.ca/files/bgq67jr41j#.WrksMmbMyQ4
Northern British Columbia Regional CasE
Panel Session: Assessment of Cumulative Impact on Health and Wellbeing at the 2018 CIRC Forum
On January 18-19, 2018, the UNBC Cumulative Impacts Research Consortium (CIRC),
with support from the ECHO Network and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions
(PICS), convened the 2018 CIRC Forum: Cumulative impacts policy and practice in northern BC.
This event brought together over 100 people interested in the cumulative impacts of re-
source development and climate change throughout northern BC. In a public keynote
address on January 18, Megan Leslie, President & CEO of World Wildlife Fund Canada,
discussed cumulative impacts in the context of wildlife and habitat conservation. Throughout
the day on January 19, sessions focused on a variety of topics, including cumulative effects assessment frameworks, Indigenous land use planning, watershed governance, impacts to health and wellbeing, and wildfires. We were also lucky enough to host a youth delegation, who facilitated an interactive discussion that challenged participants to reflect on how they could enable more meaningful youth participation in their ongoing work. Session recordings are available for viewing here or at https://www .unbc.ca/events/45388/2018-circ-forum-january-18-19-2018.
Megan Leslie, President and CEO of the WWF responding to discussion questions by Art Fredeen following her keynote address at the 2018 CIRC Forum.
We are also pleased to announce the release of reports from the Health Impacts of Resource Extraction and Devel- opment (HIRED) Project, a research collaboration between UNBC and Northern Health. This includes a Phase 1Report (“Towards a better understanding of health in relation to mining and oil & gas extraction: A scoping review”) and a Knowledge Synthesis Bibliography. In addition, Northern Health and the BC Observatory for Population and Public Health recently released a report, “The social determinants of health impacts of resource extraction and development: A summary of impacts and promising practices for assessment and monitoring”. All 3 reports are available on the Office of Health and Re- source Development webpage.
First Nations Health Authority Regional Case
FNHA Regional Case team members have had a busy start to 2018, including planning its engagement in the Gather- ing Our Voices event (March 20-23, 2018; www.gatheringourvoices.ca) and progressing Local Environmental Ob- server (LEO) Network activities. In collaboration with team members of the regional case, Jordan Brubacher is con- tinuing work on integrating multiple spatial datasets into a single and easy to read map describing the total physicalhuman impact on the environment. The team is calling this cumulative impact “anthropogenic disturbance”. Such amap is helpful when trying to combine the large amount of spatial data describing human activities that has become available in recent years such as roads, forest cut blocks, mines and oil wells.
Ecological disturbance is associated with many ecosystem services that rural and remote communities are dispropor- tionately dependent upon. The regional case has also begun exploring ways to describe and visualize associations be- tween social determinants of health and anthropogenic disturbance. The final map will be made available for public use in the coming weeks via the UNBC Stewardship Portal.
The two SFU Co-leads of the regional case, Maya Gislason (PI) and Tim Takaro, are currently pursuing funding op- portunities to bring together key researchers, decision makers and partners affiliated with the ECHO Network and the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE) to further conversations regarding how to meaningfully apply an integrative health equity lens to complex social and environmental health issues, a key aspect of ECHO Network research.
Battle River Watershed Regional Case
Climate change, energy options, riparian restoration, and commu- nity engagement have been central themes of the Battle River Wa-tershed Alliance’s work as 2018 begins.
Photos from the BRWA's "Finding Common Ground" documentary premiere. Filmmaker Alison Bortolon pictured in centre photo
In February, we hosted the world premiere of our “Finding Com- mon Ground” documentary at the Daysland Palace Theatre. Thedocumentary tells the story and key learnings of our fall 2017 bike tour, which explored the complex dynamics between energy op- tions, climate change, and community resilience in the Battle Riv- er region of Alberta. The event was well attended and sparked great conversations. These conversations will continue, as we plan to host a number of other community and youth engagement events on the subject over the coming months.
In celebration of World Water Day, and as a wrap-up for our Ponoka Riparian Restoration Program, the BRWA is hosting an event on March 22 that will include information about native and invasive aquatic species, riparian health assessments, and on-the-ground stewardship actions that are supporting the health of land and water in the Ponoka region. We’re also looking forward to hosting two MunicipalWatershed Forums in April to meet with municipal staff and councillors from across the watershed and share infor- mation and ideas on our collective work of watershed education, stewardship, and management.
ECHO Network research assistant Dar Amsalu is currently developing a report that investigates common approaches to assessing the potential health impacts of drinking water contamination, particularly as it pertains to human cancer. This information will support future work with Alberta Health Services
New Brunswick Environmental Network Regional Case
In January 2018, Annika Chiasson stepped in as the new Children’s Environmental Health Collaborative Coordinator and region- al coordinator for the New Brunswick case. Annika is also responsible for the NBEN’s Watershed and Environmental RightsCaucuses.
Session participants at the CEHC Annual Conference, Nov 28th
In late December, the Government of New Brunswick released a Water Strategy for New Brunswick, along with recommendations for enhanced watershed management in New Brunswick, which was been developed by the Working Group on Watershed Management over the course of 9 months to provide the Minister of Environment with recommendations about preferred approaches for the management and protection of surface water quality. The Strategy was based on input from stakeholders, the public and First Nations and focuses on protecting drinking water, preserving and enhancing aquatic ecosystems, understanding and sharing knowledge about water, working co-operatively and reporting progress publicly.
Lastly, the NBEN is in the process of developing a Risks and Benefits interac- tive tool that will allow users to assess current or planned development projects based on risks and benefits associated with the project as well as who carries the risks and who benefits from the project. This will provide a platform for critical thinking and in-depth discussion of the impacts of resource development pro- jects. It should be completed by summer.
Over the last three months, research assistant Wanzor Beaubrun has been progressing work on a literature review of narrative tools and on the planning of next steps and activities to apply one or two of these tools in the New Brunswick case