Protecting Farmland: A Policy Perspective

About this presentation

Protecting agricultural land is a long-standing concern of policy in British Columbia, since the “uncontrolled residential development” in the Lower Mainland of the 1950s to the recent planting trees for carbon credits in the central interior. In this presentation, David looks at the current state of farmland protection through a policy lens. He will discuss his efforts to evaluate the quality of land use planning as a tool to protect agricultural land from local, provincial, and national perspectives. This discussion will highlight the importance of farmland protection as a matter of public interest while illustrating the challenge of saying “no” to non-farm development.

About David Connell (PHD, RPP, MCIP)

Dr. David Connell is an Associate Professor in Ecosystem Science and Management at the University of Northern British Columbia. David is leading a national research program to assess the state of agricultural land use planning for farmland protection in Canada (aglup.org). Central to this work is a method for evaluating the strength of legislative frameworks. He has published in the areas of plan evaluation (plan quality), planning theory, and farmland protection.

ACCESS: Current BVRC members will receive a Zoom invite; non-members can email info@bvcentre.ca for the link.