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Summer 2017

Newsletter Archive

 

Community Conserve: Building Environment and Conservation Capacity for Alberta Municipalities

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A new way now exists for Alberta municipalities to pool their resources to address common environment and conservation issues.

This scenario plays out too often in Alberta: a municipality is challenged with an environment or conservation issue, but they are not sure where to get support for a solution, and even if they did money is tight, but they know other municipalities are probably facing the same issue.

This scenario prompted Miistakis and the Environmental Law Centre, with the support of AUMA and AAMDC, to create the Community Conserve platform (www.communityconserve.ca). This free online tool lets municipal personnel post and vote on environment and conservation issues, then 'crowd-fund' (pool their money) the projects that address the most common issues/ideas.

Community Conserve itself is both a web site and a research team.

There are three parts to Community Conserve - First, municipal staff, managers, and councilors post their environment and conservation issues or ideas on the site. Next, they vote on the priority issues/ideas as a community. Finally, municipalities can then 'crowd-fund' efforts to address the most common ones. Crowd-funding just means pooling resources so everyone gets the full benefit, but only pays a portion of the costs.

Behind the scenes, the Community Conserve team creates and proposes Project Plans for addressing the top issues/ideas, and facilitates the process of municipalities 'crowd-funding' those projects. All project results and products are posted back on the Community Conserve site, and are available to everyone.

Already five projects are underway:

  • Conservation Easement Guide for Municipalities
  • Environmental Assessment Guide for Municipalities
  • Clarity on Using Environmental Reserves for Conservation
  • Frequently Asked Questions: Municipal Jurisdiction and Environmental Law
  • ALSA's Conservation Tools for Municipalities - A Webinar Series

Are you with a municipality? Go to Community Conserve to participate: www.communityconserve.ca.

You can also subscribe on the Community Conserve site to receive regular updates on posted issues, new activity, and completed projects.