{"id":183206,"date":"2023-09-28T11:13:51","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T15:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=183206"},"modified":"2023-09-28T11:13:51","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T15:13:51","slug":"developing-the-idea-of-eco-citizenship-in-the-face-of-a-global-climate-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/developing-the-idea-of-eco-citizenship-in-the-face-of-a-global-climate-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing the idea of ‘eco-citizenship’ in the face of a global climate crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conservation organizations and environmental experts are working on developing the concept of \u2018eco-citizenship\u2019 and putting the environment at the forefront of educational initiatives here in the Eastern Townships in the face of a global climate crisis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Isabelle Gr\u00e9goire, head of educational programs, operations coordination, and environmental sciences and eco-citizenship for the Mount Pinnacle Land Trust, has been coordinating, creating, and teaching environmental science programs for primary schools, secondary schools, and collegial institutions for the past 25 years. More recently, she has also been working with other environmental groups, conservation organizations, MRCs, and municipalities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think, right now, the situation is so obvious. There are so many people that are anxious as to what is happening. The climate issues are obvious now, there\u2019s no way to say that it\u2019s not happening,\u201d said Gr\u00e9goire. \u201cBut I think now it\u2019s not just a question of educating future biologists or geographers. It\u2019s a question of educating everyone, the citizens. People want to know and they want to do their little part. It\u2019s the time, now, to talk about eco-citizenship and not just citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Gr\u00e9goire, citizenship means \u201cthe respect of people, the respect of communities, cultures, and history,\u201d but what\u2019s missing is \u201cthe respect of nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about the respect of nature? Everything we have comes from trees, clean water, land, and fertile soils, all we have comes from nature. It sounds obvious, but it\u2019s about time to realize it on our own, everyone in our territory. It\u2019s not just the responsibility of \u2018tree lovers,\u2019 it\u2019s the responsibility of everyone,\u201d she emphasized. \u201cThis is an urgent need for everyone to look at the nature around us and the concerned forests, lands, and landscapes.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Working to develop the concept of eco-citizenship, Gr\u00e9goire said that her teachings focus on introducing people to the history of the territory rather than trying to change their behaviours, which she says will come naturally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing to know is, before being used by humans, what was my land? Where do we live? What are the mountains? How does it exist? Has the soil always been there? What kind of trees? How was the forest 100 years ago? We got to have more interest for history, but the real history, not just our colonialist background,\u201d she explained. \u201c(\u2026) This is what I\u2019m teaching for the general public or for students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Providing some examples of the types of programs she organizes, Gr\u00e9goire highlighted that she has been working in collaboration with \u00c9cole-o-village<\/span><\/a> for 15 years to conduct scientific activities outdoors next to St. Francis of Assisi primary school in Frelighsburg where an arboretum has been created.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a unique collection of trees, an arboretum, with 50 different varieties of indigenous trees representing the bio-region from the south to northern Quebec, from the temperate forest to the boreal forest. I think I will also mention programs that I do with the Pinnacle Land Trust for sensitive plants. So at the Pinnacle Land Trust we have an educational site, it\u2019s almost four kilometres of trails in a wild, amazing, magical forest protected by this group for 25 years now,\u201d she mentioned. \u201cWe bring about 500 students from Massey-Vanier, Sutton, Cowansville, from the whole area, and we are studying. We\u2019re monitoring the general health of the forest, the evolution, and we are looking to take data if there are any invasive species coming in.\"<\/p>\n

Echoing the statements of other conservation groups like Appalachian Corridor, Gr\u00e9goire noted that the Eastern Townships is a \u201cspecial place\u201d that is lucky to still have \u201cpristine lands protected in perpetuity,\u201d making it that much more important to provide students and the general public with educational opportunities that prioritize preserving and protecting nature and that can encourage them to play their part.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a responsibility to protect what\u2019s left. We have a responsibility not just for wildlife, not just for us, but the general climate quality. I\u2019m lucky, 20 years ago, to have met people from the Pinnacle Land Trust, the Ruiter Valley Land Trust, my collaborators like \u00c9cole-o-village<\/span><\/a>, all groups that have education in their mission. They want to go in schools and teach kids, [have students in action]. (\u2026) Now, I think we have more than 15,000 acres of protected natural areas on private land, which is the second biggest, I would stay, ecological corridor protected in perpetuity in Canada. The first would be in the west, the Rockies, and the second would be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those looking to have more information on eco-citizenship and the types of educational programs that are running in the area, Gr\u00e9goire will be presenting a conference at the fourth edition of this year\u2019s Festi\u2019Bois<\/a> event in Frelighsburg. Gr\u00e9goire hopes that by having the chance to speak to the public that she will be able to provide tools or ideas as to how people can become engaged in their communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople just need guidelines to do something because they are willing to do something and they are ready as well. So I\u2019m hoping to give tools, reflection, courage, dreams, and vision. The ecological transition is happening, we just need to alight it more and more. From my glasses, the change is happening. I\u2019m working in the transition, we\u2019re going there, we\u2019re almost there,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the full interview with Gr\u00e9goire below:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conservation organizations and environmental experts are working on developing the concept of \u2018eco-citizenship\u2019 and putting the environment at the forefront of educational initiatives here in the Eastern Townships in the face of a global climate crisis.\u00a0 Isabelle Gr\u00e9goire, head of educational programs, operations coordination, and environmental sciences and eco-citizenship for the Mount Pinnacle Land Trust,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":183225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,222],"tags":[5514,30859,30857,698,30858],"radio":[246],"origine":[274,259,260],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183206"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183444,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183206\/revisions\/183444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183206"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=183206"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=183206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}