NIAGARA ESCARPMENT BIOSPHERE NETWORK BLOG

01/10/2024

Walks in the Escarpment Woods: A Necessary Recharge During Busy Times

01/10/2024

The Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Network was very busy this Spring and Summer. As board members we were very inspired in March to be with another five of our fellow Network board members along with several hundred others who met at the Gathering Place at Six Nations of the Grand River to participate and learn about Two-Eyed Seeing and Ethical Space in addressing Climate Change Action, and building effective relationships. This learning is essential to helping us enact our co-governance guiding principles at the Network.

Many other conservation organizations such as the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy, Nature Conservancy of Canada, and the Bruce Trail Conservancy had senior staff and board members present,not to mention our sister World Biosphere in eastern Ontario, the Frontenac Arch. This is very encouraging both for the strengthening of our Network and the openness among conservation leaders to this way forward.

The conference was bookended with Indigenous elder’s voices from across Turtle Island with Indigenous youth sharing their compelling stories of positive action in the face of fear for the future of their communities and planet. It was a powerful experience. This event was made possible thanks to our partner, Plenty Canada, who organized the conference on our behalf with Mohawk College and supported by Environment and Climate Change Canada funding.

Shortly thereafter, we organized a four-day tour for the reviewers appointed by the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, which was the next step in the 10-Year Periodic Review of the Biosphere designation after our organization submitted the Self-Study Report at the end of January.

https://nebnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/NEBN_PERIODIC_REVIEW_REV_MAY29-compressed.pdf

The tour began on Anishinaabe territory at Neyaashiinigmiing (Cape Croker) where Charlene is a Hereditary Elder and we could be in the beauty of the Escarpment as well as illustrate the context of our co-governance model. After that we have made arrangements for the reviewers to meet numerous organizations at various stops as we wound our way south.

We had set it up so the reviewers could speak with leaders from local governments, conservation agencies, non-profit organizations, post-secondary researchers, and of course the Niagara Escarpment Commission about the many initiatives and efforts being made to conserve biodiversity, respond to climate change, and foster sustainable development.

The Network we drew upon to inform the external reviewers was rich with initiative demonstrating local and regional leadership. Although we didn’t have nearly enough time to visit all the important and worthwhile projects going on, we hope the itinerary showed the broad, enduring commitment of many to the values underlying the Biosphere designation. This is not to say there aren’t challenges and very real concerns about the impacts of various forms of developments — data shows the continuing loss of biodiversity for example — but that the efforts to live more in harmony with nature are many and real. We see this as a key role of the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Network, to share and showcase examples of impactful initiatives for the Biosphere.

Individually the daily walks we take in nature on the Escarpment near to us are both an antidote to the busy, sometimes tiresome duties of day to day organizing that leading a non-profit entails and a reminder of why we sit through Zoom meetings, send emails, and prepare draft agendas. Today in the woods, as we write, the colours are advancing the nuts and berries are being stored and eaten and the monarchs are completing their cycle. The geese are mustering and squawking. It renews the spirit to witness the passage of the seasons in the forest. We owe it to those who come next to pass along and conserve the vitality and spiritual renewal that remains in the Niagara Escarpment woods.