Faculty of Law professor Eran Kaplinsky, the research director of the Alberta Land Institute, and David Poulton, the institute's director, have been awarded a prestigious SSHRC Connection grant for the institute's spring conference.
Land Use 2020: A Place for Biodiversity Offsets takes place May 26-29, 2020, at the Banff Centre. Featured speakers are nationally and internationally recognized experts from the United Kingdom, France, Australia, the United States, and Canada.
SSHRC Connection grants provide funding for exceptional outreach events that promote exchanging knowledge. Land Use 2020 will connect policymakers, industry professionals, scholars, students and stakeholders to discuss best practices. The institute expects 200 participants.
The conference will focus on how, as a policy tool, biodiversity offsetting can help compensate for negative environmental impacts of development. While biodiversity offsetting is not new to Canadian environmental management, this conservation tool has been underutilized and understudied, said Poulton and Kaplinsky. Land Use 2020 addresses this gap.
The first session of the conference, led by Poulton, will provide an accessible overview of biodiversity offsets and is designed to engage the public on the importance of this concept. Land Use 2020 will then lead participants through the more complex issues at stake in specialized sessions.
In addition to the SSHRC Connection grant, the conference is sponsored by Alberta Innovates, as well as ConocoPhillips and Teck. The event is the fourth biennial conference on land use hosted by the institute.