Dr. Margot Parkes recently attended the One Health Ecohealth 2016 conference in Melbourne, Australia from Dec 3-7, 2016. To view highlights from the conference check out the #oheh and #ohehstudents2016 twitter accounts. Be sure to check out the  Aspiration Statement for the Next Generation, prepared by Emerging Scholars and Practitioners on behalf on the multiple communities of inquiry and practice working at the converging intersection of human, animal, environmental and planetary health.

This blog post from Kate Auty, Commissioner for Sustainability and Environment, Australian Capital Territory provides an excellent summary of the conference.

Several members of EKTARG were involved in a panel presentation at Under Western Skies, hosted at Mount Royal University in Calgary, AB. Chris Buse presented on ecohealth’s contribution to the cumulative impacts assessment process. Maya Gislason and Shayna Dolan shared their experience of designing and facilitating ecohealth workshops for public health practitioners. The conference program can be viewed here.

CoPEH Canada is currently updating their website to provide more information and engagement opportunities for the EcoHealth community. One feature of the new site will be the ability to access the new modules being added to the CoPEH Canada Teaching Manual. You can access the current version of the teaching manual here.

On October 21st the Integrated Watershed Research Group (IWRG) at UNBC along with partners hosted an open house to commemorate the official launch of the Nechako Watershed Roundtable (NWR). Information on the event can be found here. For more information on the NWR you can visit the Fraser Basic Council page here.

The EcoHealth Gallery of Actions on Climate Change is now open for viewing on EcoHealth-Live!

Endorsed in August of 2014 by the International Association for Ecology & Health, The Ecohealth 2014 Conference Statement was a call to the ecohealth community to take practical, hopeful action on climate change. One of the pathways for action included in the Statement is the Gallery of Actions on Climate Change. You can enter and view the gallery by clicking here.

Information on contributing to the Gallery of Actions can be found here.

For more information please contact Shayna Dolan at dolans@unbc.ca

You can view the event agenda here.

The Western Node of CoPEH-Canada is thrilled to be involved in some exciting upcoming events:

• CoPEH-Symposium
  June 6-7, Montréal, QC
  An opportunity to share and explore the joys, complexities and challenges of ecohealth in practice! Click here for more information. Click here for a flyer detailing the event.

• Convergence: A celebration of ecohealth and climate change actions
  May 26, 17:30-19:30, Vancouver, BC
  Timed with the 2015 CPHA Conference, we invite those in the area to join us to celebrate a multitude of converging ecohealth and climate change initiatives. Click here for a pdf flyer with more information.

• “Beyond the Rhetoric of Climate Change: seeking emergent actions” webalogue
  May 20, 12:30-14:00 PST, online
  Join us for the tenth installment of the EcoHealth in Action Webalogue Series. Click here for more information and to register.

December, 2014

The EcoHealth2014 Call to Action on Climate Change was published in the December 2014 edition of EcoHealth. You can access the article here.

The EcoHealth 2014 Call to Action on Climate Change was endorsed by over 500 delegates from 65 countries on August 14th at the Biennial General Meeting of the International Association for Ecology & Health. This is the first time the International Association for Ecology and Health has made a coordinated and widespread call to all members of the association, their partners and collaborators to share how their work explicitly addresses issues of climate change or health or offers frameworks, data and capacity to strengthen current or future responses to climate change. The international Working Group and Reference Group responsible for developing the conference statement were convened by Dr. Margot Parkes, Dr. Robert Woollard and Dr. Maya Gislason.

Initiatives launched by the Call to Action can be found at EcoHealth-Live.

On January 28-29, 2015 we visited Wet’suwet’en Territory, where we hosted a two-day gathering, “Telling Stories about Storytelling”, to critically engage with the increasingly popular use of storytelling and narrative for health and well-being in urban, rural, remote, and Indigenous communities in northern British Columbia.

The action packed Gathering brought together over 30 participants including health care workers, researchers, policy makers, community members and storytellers. The night of the 28th we were treated to an evening of sharing stories. The night began with Betsy Trumpener delivering a moving keynote address, which was followed by the presentation of a local digital story – “Yin Kak Honzu – The Earth is Beautiful” before ending with an open mic session that included a lively spoken word performance.

We were also delighted to have a group of local school children join us on the second day for a series of workshops on tools for storytelling.

On reflecting on their experience at the workshop, one participant explained, “I knew the connection between storytelling and health intuitively, ‘personally’, but now have resources to back it up!”

December 3, 2014- Richmond, BC

The Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health, Western Node, is pleased to announce a pre-conference workshop being held as part of the 2014 Public Health Association of British Columbia Conference. The workshop is one of a series being conducted by CoPEH-Canada as part of a project called “Linking public health, ecosystems and equity through ecohealth training and capacity building”, and funded by the Public Health Workforce Training and Capacity Building Initiative.

Click here for a pdf flyer advertising the workshop

This full-day workshop will be facilitated by Maya Gislason (SFU), Margot Parkes (UNBC) and Robert Woollard (UBC). Focused at the interface of public health, natural resource development and climate change, the workshop will explore how core public health competencies can be enhanced through integrative approaches such as ecosystem approaches to health and intersectoral dialogue that spans concerns around public health, equity, and ecologically sustainable development. The workshop will be experiential and interactive, starting and finishing at the conference venue, but also involving walking, facilitated discussions and site-visits in locations off-site throughout the course of the day.

For more information or to register send an email to: copeh-can@unbc.ca, with the subject heading: PHABC PCW

Fore more information about the 2014 PHABC Conference ,“Shared Prosperity for Health and Well-Being: A Collaborative Dialogue between Business and Public Health”, click here.

Check back regularly for updates