Climate-Biodiversity-Health Nexus

The Climate-Biodiversity-Health (CBH) Nexus project aims to advance integrated community planning by developing an experimental framework consisting of three strategic areas critical to sustainable development: 1) climate action, 2) biodiversity conservation, and 3) community health, the climate-biodiversity-health (CBH) nexus. Applying the CBH nexus framework to different community planning areas could elucidate how strategies, policies, and actions align or conflict with imperatives for the sustainable development of local food systems.

This community-based participatory research approach engages stakeholders and local governments in the Comox Valley region, British Columbia, to build an understanding of how communities can better engage in integrated food systems and sustainable community development planning. The research contributes practical outcomes by developing frameworks and tools for practitioners to use for their planning needs, as well as a produces findings and recommendations for integrated food systems planning and policy.


Source: Photograph provided by Marla Temoin.


Research Phases
  • Phase 1. Development of a CBH framework using comparative case study methodology to examine climate action, biodiversity conservation, and community health strategies occurring in the case study communities.
  • Phase 2. Develop systems models that capture relationships between strategies, benefits, trade-offs, and challenges within the CBH nexus through a series of online community workshops, examining how different local food systems strategies potentially align or conflict with climate, biodiversity, and health objectives.
  • Phase 3. Gather researchers, collaborators, and participants to discuss research findings and explore challenges and opportunities for integrated food systems planning and policy.

 

Download Phase 1 Report

 


Project Collaborators

FAI logo_white

University of Victoria logo_white Vancouver Island Health Authority

This project is supported by funding provided through Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grants program.