Fourteenth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

In collaboration with the Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) government in British Columbia, this research employs integrated planning and systems perspectives to reflect upon the challenges and vulnerabilities that the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed about local and regional food systems, and explore ways of increasing local/regional resilience to future exogenous shocks. The research uses a community-based participatory approach to engage researchers, local and regional government, stakeholders, and community members in the Fraser Valley to examine food systems vulnerabilities and ways of building long-term resilience. We report on the outcomes of a year-long participatory action research project in the FVRD identifying food system vulnerabilities via an exploration of experienced pandemic impacts and perceived impacts arising from climate change shocks. Participants explored food system vulnerability to likely exogenous shocks including wildfires, flooding, diminished air/water quality, increased ambient CO2 levels, and climate-related migration and economic disturbances. We worked with FVRD citizens to elucidate linkages between long-term resiliency planning and relationships between food system vulnerabilities, local capacities and assets, and gaps. Findings suggest that supporting integrated resiliency planning efforts, and systems thinking, requires broader participation across the food system and specific processes to connect food system components with their broader social, economic, and environmental drivers. This study contributes to understanding of how food system resiliency planning can be conducted in contexts of local and global climate change impacts.