Poverty and the environment

Leader: Janelle Zwier. Janelle is the project officer of World Vision Canada's Food Aid and Security Team responsible for the administration and programming of the Seeds and Tools Agricultural Recovery strategy. She has completed a CIDA internship with World Vision Canada in environmental assessment and sustainability and lived in Africa for nearly two years. Janelle is a graduate of The Kings University College Environmental Studies Program.

Using examples from the World Vision Canada Agricultural Recovery Program this session will focus upon the interplay of peace and conflict, poverty and food security, cultural adaptation, natural disasters, and environmental degradation. As these factors play out in specific project examples, the session aims to discuss and debate the linkages between poverty and the environment:

• How does poverty affect vulnerability to environmental degradation?
• How does poverty and food insecurity contribute to environmental degradation?
• How can poverty alleviation, development and improved food security contribute towards improved environmental sustainability?

Project case studies may include:

• Africa's Nile River Basin Watershed
• Flood cycle in Mozambique
• Dzud in Mongolia
• Conflict in Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of Congo
• Deforestation in Rwanda and Burundi
• Micro-Enterprise Development in Eastern Europe

Through the exploration of these examples, we hope to delve into a discussion regarding the deeper issues of the cyclical relationship between poverty and the environment - what is the problem, and what should we do? What is the ethical and Christian response to poverty and environmental degradation in an international context?

Creation-sensitive Development: A Case Study from the Campus of Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI

Leader: Randy Van Dragt. Randy is Professor of Biology and Chair of the Biology Department at Calvin College. He is also director of the 90-acre Calvin College Ecosystem Preserve. Through work with a regional land conservancy, he has been active in land preservation and restoration for the past 15 years. Since 1991 Randy has taught restoration ecology at Au Sable Institute where his students have participated in a variety of restoration projects. He served on the 1997-99 Calvin College Master Plan Committee and is a member of the team presently directing development proposed by the 1999 master plan.

Between 1997 and 1999 Calvin College developed a new campus master plan which proposed expansion of the campus into previously undeveloped and wild portions of College property. These areas contribute significantly to two local watersheds and provide wildlife habitat and corridor nodes in a landscape that is rapidly becoming urbanized. The largest area to be affected was the College nature preserve which, when the master plan was built out, would be reduced in size and would experience significant changes in the quality of water flow from adjacent campus areas. Mitigating the impacts of land use changes for these wild areas was a significant consideration in shaping the new master plan. This workshop will consider the stewardship ideas that shaped the 1999 College master plan and now are guiding execution of that plan. Workshop participants will also explore the practical issues involved in executing a stewardship plan.

Is something wrong with environmental assessment?

Leaders: Wendy Botkin & Bill Van Geest.
Wendy Botkin is the Senior Programme Officer, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), Prairie Region in Winnipeg, working primarily to the successful implementation of federal environmental assessment legislation and co-operative work with the province. Wendy joined the CEAA office in January 1999, after several years experience with Environment Canada in the prairies. Wendy began work with the federal Department of Environment in Regina and Winnipeg in the area of water quality, toxics and pollution prevention, until coming to a position of co-ordinating the department's specialist involvement in environmental assessments in Manitoba. Wendy studied at the University of Winnipeg, graduating with a B.Sc (Chemistry) in 1983, and at Canadian Theological Seminary in Regina, graduating with a Master of Christian Studies in 1985.

Bill Van Geest is a principal of Touchstone Consulting, a public affairs and communications consulting practice which specializes in environmental issues, agriculture and community development. After many years of working with clients at the federal, provincial and municipal levels, Bill's current focus is on national and community-based non-profit organizations. He has worked with World Vision Canada to develop its environmental assessment training program for international staff. He has participated in both the federal and Ontario provincial governments review of environmental assessment legislation. Bill is the author of God's Earthkeepers, a study and action guide which helps build a relationship between Christian faith and action to care for the creation.

Environmental Assessment is now enshrined in legislation provincially, federally, and in all territorial land settlement claims. Despite that, projects still raise controversy and development occurs with unresolved tensions in communities and from non- economic stakeholders. Are these isolated instances where processes were applied poorly, or is there something wrong with EA itself? What should EA address? How should it relate to overall land use planning?

This workshop will look at the limitations of project EA, and consider what biblical and theological principles apply to the practice of EA. Case studies will examine an environmental assessment of a private sector project in Canada and the challenges faced by Christian relief agencies in incorporating environmental assessment into a community development project overseas.

Watershed management - a holistic approach

Leader: Ben Vanderbrug. Ben Vanderbrug lives in Ancaster, Ontario. He was born in the Netherlands, where he attended the Tropical Agricultural College. He continued his studies at MacDonald College of McGill University, and graduated with a B.Sc. in agricultural engineering. Ben has worked in the environmental field since graduation in 1960, with specialization in natural renewal resource management on a watershed basis. He is currently managing one of the 38 watershed units in the Province of Ontario. The Hamilton Conservation Authority employs 70 full time employees, and has an annual budget of over $10,000,000. During the past ten years, Ben has undertaken many volunteer environmental projects in countries such as Malaysia, Estonia, the Slovak Republic, the Philippines, Panama and the Czech Republic. Ben has received several awards in recognition of his contributions to the community.

With the amalgamation of six municipalities into one, the "new" City of Hamilton is on the threshold of a new beginning. The Conservation Authority believes that the long term economic prosperity of the City will - to a large degree - depend on how Hamilton values and protects its natural resources. Accordingly, the Hamilton Conservation Authority, which covers a large portion of the City, has developed a 5-year action plan which it feels will contribute significantly to an environmentally healthy city. The workshop session will serve as an interesting case study of how a conservation authority can be a significant player in the development of an environmentally healthy city, which inevitably will result in social and economic benefits. The Hamilton Conservation Authority is a watershed-based organization. Environmental management on a watershed basis is considered the world's most innovative, accountable and cost effective approach to protecting our water and other natural resources.

Bioremediation - Doing it Nature's Way

Leader: Derk Z. Maat M Eng., P Eng. Mr. Maat has over 25 years of professional experience in the environmental field where he has been involved in consulting, design, construction engineering, technology development, and marketing. He has developed a broad base of executive management experience in the areas of technical, administrative, marketing, and operational groups with major leading Canadian and American environmental-technology- based consulting, engineering, and construction companies. Currently Mr. Maat is a co-owner and principal of HMM Environmental Technologies Inc., a business that specializes in providing turnkey bioremediation solutions for the restoration of contaminated sites. He lives in Oakville Ontario with his wife and youngest son. He attends Meadowvale Community Christian Reformed Church where he recently completed a term serving as an elder.

The case study scenario is taken from an actual situation that currently exists in a northern town of 35,000 people. The site is a large piece of land in the downtown core that has been an eyesore for years; it is unoccupied and fenced off and is hampering the economic growth of the town. A company that used wood preserving chemicals to treat telephone poles and railway ties previously occupied the site and over decades of operation, released cancer-causing chemicals in large volumes through spills, disposal and spraying for weed control on the property. Recently, a plan for much needed development has been brought forward for the land, but this plan is contingent upon implementation of a program to clean up the site that will satisfy all parties involved. The involved parties include the developer that has purchased the land from the original company, the original company who still retains a portion of the liability, the Provincial Department of the Environment, the citizens of the town and the owners of adjacent businesses. Limitations including cost and practicality make it impossible to simply dig up and remove all of the contamination by conventional methods. Bioremediation and recycling of contaminated materials are methods that have been identified as having potential to deal with portions of the contamination on the site. Decisions must be made regarding whether parts of the contamination can be left on site due to high economic cost to remove limited human and environmental risk. As a Christian site remediation contractor, the challenge is to provide a solution that serves your business economically while at the same time reflects your ideals and reconciles the mutually conflicting interests of the parties involved.

Points of discussion will include:

• What are the human and environmental risks of the contamination?
• Is it necessary to clean up groundwater if it is not being used for drinking water?
• Clean-up options including bioremediation recycling of contaminated material.
• Who must pay? The former owner? The developer? The government?
• Who benefits from cleaning up the land?
• Does it make sense to develop the land?

Preaching care for creation

Leader: Stephen Scharper. Stephen Bede Scharper is Assistant Professor of religious ethics with the Department and Centre for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto, where he also serves as Associate of the Institute for Environmental Studies and Visiting Fellow of St. Michael's College. Formerly President of the Religious Education Association of the U.S. and Canada, he is author of Redeeming the Time: A Political Theology of the Environment (Continuum 1997) and co-author with his wife Hilary Cunningham of The Green Bible (Orbis 1993) reissued by Lantern Books in Fall 2001. His research and teaching is in the area of religion and film, Catholic social ethics, the ethics of violence and nonviolence, environmental ethics, and religious ethics and ecology, which he teaches at both the graduate and undergraduate levels at the University of Toronto. He has also taught at McGill University, Prescott College, the University of Waterloo, and the University of Notre Dame, where he held the John A. O'Brien Chair in Ethics as a visiting professor.

This workshop will explore ideas and resources for integrating ecological ideas and concerns within Christian ministry. In addition to highlighting some contemporary themes and issues in Christian ecological ministry, such as stewardship, the workshop will also strive to provide some practical resource suggestions and a sharing of techniques and ideas used form a variety of Christian ministries.

Restoring native habitat in urban areas

Leader: Richard Ubbens. Richard Ubbens is a Registered Professional Forester having more than 15 years experience in the municipal forestry sector. He has a Bachelors of Science in Forestry degree from the University of Toronto. Richard is the City Forester for the City of Toronto and is responsible for forestry policy, planning, programming, practices, systems development, forest management in ravines and natural areas and integrated forest health care. He is responsible for the overall co-ordination of the City of Torontos Urban Forestry Program.

This worshop will give a brief overview of Toronto's Urban Forestry Program and then focusing on two specific programs of restoring native habitat in urban areas: 1) rejuvenating remnant forested areas in ravines and natural areas and 2) restoring rare black oak savannah. Practicing as a forester in the urban environment leads to many opportunities to demonstrate to the public the complexity of natural systems and the influence people have on them. Looking after the environment in the city presents many challenges in caring for creation.

Cheap Food and Creation Care - a Contradiction?

Leader: Elbert van Donkersgoed. Elbert van Donkersgoed was born in the Netherlands. His parents with eight children came to Canada in 1951 and settled in the farm belt of southwestern Ontario. All of his brothers and sisters are or have been family farmers. Elbert left the farm for Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, graduating with a degree in philosophy. On his return to Canada, he taught in an independent Christian school for four years, served for two years as Secretary of the Ontario Christian School Teachers' Association and on a part-time basis studied economics at the University of Waterloo. Since 1971, Elbert has worked for the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario. Elbert is now their Strategic Policy Advisor and is the Editor/Publisher of Earthkeeping Ontario, a quarterly published for the supporters and friends of CFFO.

The Canadian 2001 Census of Agriculture reports that Canadian farm operating expenses climbed faster than gross receipts, 24.5 percent compared to 18.8 percent during the last census period. Farmers are accepting a thinner and thinner slice of the consumer food dollar while farm-gate prices increase by about one-half of the rate of inflation. For more analysis visit: http://www.christianfarmers.org/commentary/cpost/2002/cp-05-17-02.htm.

Farms are fewer and bigger and are using land, water and other resources more intensively. In the shadow of the Walkerton tragedy, questions are being raised about the impact of intensive farm practices on our environment.

An area of prime farmland nearly twice the size of the city of Toronto will be gobbled up by development within 30 years unless something is done about urban sprawl according to a recent Neptis Foundation study.

This workshop will explore the possibilities of a better future for food production and the countryside than the continuation of these patterns. This winter the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario held 18 workshops with family farmers across Ontario on the theme: "Gearing Up for a Better Future: and Emerging Vision for Farmers and Farming in Ontario." Some of the findings from the series will set the stage for the discussion.

Water, water everywhere, but do we dare to drink?

Leader: John van der Woerd. John obtained his Bachelor of Engineering and Management degree in 1978 from McMaster University, followed by additional degrees in business administration and marketing. He worked with Union Gas from 1978 to 1996 after which he established Alpha Services Group Inc. of which he was Owner and Principal. Since 2001 he joined Trojan Technologies Inc. as Vice President, North American Municipal Sales. John has also been active in his community, serving, among others, as Trustee of the Canadian Christian School Pension and Trust Fund, as Chair of the Board of Administration, Calvary Church in Chatham and as Former President of the Chatham Chamber of Commerce.