Conservation Land Trusts in Alberta

This co-written research paper on Alberta's conservation land trusts was a long time coming, but should be of interest to Albertan's, or those interested in the role of private land conservation, conservation land trusts, and the idea of landscape level thinking in protecting ecosystems.

Published in Human Ecology. November 2013. Reproduced with permission as post publication bookshelf copy. Many thanks to Lori and Sean for all the hard work.

Link to paper

Scaling Innovations In Sustainability - Athabasca Symposium October 5-8th 2013

I am honored and pleased to announce that some 25 research colleagues from across Canada, U.S. and UK will be in Athabasca this weekend, attending a four-day SSHRC funded Partnership Development Workshop to advance our discussions on Scaling Innovations in Sustainability.

We held a series of excellent Webinars on the topic of scaling innovations in sustainability over the last few months. Check the BC Alberta Social Economy SIS website for those ( on diffusion, on local capital, on carbon reduction, and local food) and much more.

Contact me if you would like to keep in touch. If you are a AU student, email to get involved in this research.

BC Alberta Social Economy Partnership Development: Scaling Innovation for Sustainability

This is a Partnership Development Grant  we received funding for last fall and I took up the co-lead role for Scaling Innovation for Sustainability with Mike Lewis, Noel Keough and Ana Maria Peredo. BALTA is the British Columbia Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance for the Social Economy.

I am the Academic lead for the Micro, Meso, Macro Research Cluster. To start discussions, I put together a reflection paper drawing from BALTA's research into the green social economy combined with the literature on multiple level perspectives, social innovation theory, and transition studies.

Here is the MMM discussion paper.

Feel free to post comments on the blog about this broad set of topics.


Research Cluster 1 - Micro, Meso, Macro

Academic lead:           Mike Gismondi, Athabasca University

Practitioner lead:        John Restakis of the BC Cooperative Society

Canadian members:   Debra Davidson University of Alberta

                                    Josh Evans Athabasca University

Julie MacArthur Simon Fraser University
Byron Miller University of Calgary

Mike Toye CCEDNET Canadian Community Development Network

Seth Leon  Alberta Community and Cooperative AssociationCCA
Laure Waridel Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland

UK members:              Pat Conaty The New Economics Foundation (macro-modelling nef piece only)

Angela Espinosa Hull University

Tim Jenkins New Economics Foundation (macro-modelling nef piece only)

Ed Mayo Co-operatives UK

Robin Murray LSE and Co-operatives UK

Jon Walker