The Centre for Local Prosperity is working with several communities across Atlantic Canada in an engagement process designed for future proofing against economic shocks and climate change related destabilization. The Centre also provides speaking engagements to councils, chambers and citizen groups on subjects related to localizing their economies and climate change readiness.
For example, during a recent presentation and discussion with the Town of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, the idea came up about ‘what is your 25 mile footprint.’ Several community leaders began to focus on this idea as a way to build local support among businesses and residents alike.
Future Proofing Lockeport
The Centre for Local Prosperity began providing assistance to the Town of Lockeport, Nova Scotia beginning in February 2019 through a town hall meeting attended by 30 community residents. Since that time, a community group formed and has created a non-profit society and has been holding regular meetings about taking agency for the issues related to the future health of the community. Lockeport provides an inspirational example of cooperation between local business, community groups, residents and the Town’s municipal officials who all deeply care about the future of their community.
The Centre and the Town of Lockeport have recently partnered with the Green Resilience Project (GRP) to undertake a series of in depth conversations about the future of the town. The project has the following goals:
| * Explore and document the links between community resilience, income security and the shift to a low-carbon economy; Get community perspectives on the ways in which income security policies (like a basic income) can help build resilience and encourage local action on all the aspects of the climate crisis—from the response to local climate impacts to the transition out of fossil fuel employment; * Build conversation and understanding across the climate and energy, income security and labour communities, and with those who are too often left out of policy discussions and decisions; Deepen the levels of engagement in active planning for the community’s future. |
In late November and early December 2021, the Centre conducted a combination of virtual and in-person conversations with 35 adult Town residents and 31 students of Lockeport Regional High School. Participants identified a wide range of environmental and economic challenges facing their community, from coastal flooding and wells drying to the projected collapse of the fishery due to lobster migration. Discussion also highlighted concerns regarding losing the town’s causeway connection to the mainland due to sea-level rise. The Green Resilience Project bringing national attention to this important effort as a way to inspire other communities to engage with their core future issues. The full reports from Lockeport and the national GRP project are presented below.
The Future Proofing Lockeport community meetings are continuing.
One Resilient Earth helps individuals best prepare for the impacts of climate change and respond to the environmental crisis. Its mission is to build resilience by shifting mindsets, and fostering the regeneration of communities and ecosystems. In practice, it designs and supports transdisciplinary projects that bring together art, science, ancient wisdom and new technologies. It shares inspiring ideas via its Tero magazine, offers transformational training and workshops, supports innovative scientific projects, and facilitates bold dialogues within local communities around the globe. One Resilient Earth operates as an international non-profit organization from Bonn (Germany) and New York (USA).
In 2019, the Centre for Local Prosperity began a collaboration with One Resilient Earth to explore the opportunities of bringing greater global networking and resources into our local region over a long period of time (5-10 years). There may be an opportunity to create a viable pilot for the transformation of human beings’ relationship to one another and to the natural world, which can inspire many other communities around the world.
