Are economic development and environmental conservation at odds? From a conceptual viewpoint, perhaps, but according to Dr. Leah Jones-Crank in the Faculty of Environment they don't have to be.
Using stakeholder engagement, Dr. Jones-Crank's approach to research brings community knowledge holders together with academics on issues related to water-food-energy resources and governance to understand the complexity, challenges, and values inherent in those complex systems.
"By working directly with stakeholders at every stage of a project, I am able to uncover unique, local-level values, strategies, and obstacles critical to understanding how local food-water-energy systems work," says Dr. Jones-Crank. "With this more nuanced understanding, we can co-create solutions that respond to multiple needs."
Long Point Biosphere Conservation Region, the location of Dr. Jones-Crank's current project, is a perfect example of a community where potentially competing environmental and economic interests - conservation and farming - are thriving through cooperation.
Long Point was designated a biosphere by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1986 due to its unique ecosystems and high levels of biodiversity. Economic activity in and around the ecologically sensitive biosphere includes tourism and farming.
Dr. Jones-Crank recently toured farms in Norfolk County, home to the biosphere, learning how farmers have made their operations both more profitable and ecologically sustainable.
"The work of Alternative Land-use Services (ALuS) Norfolk demonstrates these synergies, as they financially support farmers to use marginal land that is unsuitable for farming for ecosystem service projects, such as buffer zones and restored wetlands," she explains.
"You can't just study a policy document and think you understand how governance works," she notes. "If we don't talk to the people actually making these systems function, we won't understand what really needs to change.
This deeply collaborative approach carries into the classroom. In her translational ecology course, students co-design research projects with non-academic stakeholders from the start shaping their questions around the needs and insights of the community.
"It's not about doing the research and then translating it later," she explains. "It's about building a project together so that translation isn't needed."
Merging local approaches and global experiences
This spring, Dr. Jones-Crank is co-teaching a field course on urban sustainability in Singapore. Open to students across the Faculty of Environment, the course offers hands-on opportunities to engage with community members and experts alike on topics of conservation, urban heat, and food and water sustainability.
"In Singapore, we will be going on tours of vertical farms, meeting with scholars at Singapore Management University and the National University of Singapore to explore urban heat research and learning about the unique history of water management at the Singapore Sustainable Gallery."
A mobile weather station developed by Singapore Management University to measure urban heat.
An indoor, vertical farm producing leafy greens demonstrates sustainable urban practices.
When asked why international experiences are so essential to a student's learning journey Dr. Jones-Crank explains that "environmental problems are not defined by geopolitical and cultural boundaries, so we cannot solve them in siloes. By helping our students build intercultural skills, we are setting them up for successful collaborations in their future careers."
By fostering deep, community-based learning at both local and global levels, Dr. Jones-Crank's work embodies the values at the heart of the Faculty's Environment 2035 strategic vision, and feeds into the University's aspirations outlined in Waterloo at 100. By teaching our students how to communicate and collaborate with diverse groups, connect their work to real world challenges, and make positive contributions to the local and global communities in which they live, work and study, we will realize this strategic vision.
