2024Completion Year
$81,363Project Cost
$80,000MCCAC Funding
Overview
The Town of Bruderheim received $80,000 to support the Resilient Rurals collaborative partnership.
The project focuses on building climate resilience in the context of food sovereignty through a holistic and cross-cultural lens.
This project was funded in part by the Government of Alberta, through the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre’s Climate Resilience Capacity Building Program.
Approach
The Town of Bruderheim leads the Resilient Rurals collaborative partnership. Resilient Rurals began as a partnership between the Towns of Bruderheim, Lamont, and Gibbons for a regional climate adaptation project in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland Region.
Over the last few years, dedicated staff with the Town of Bruderheim have worked to advance adaptation, emergency management, and resilience programs and projects in Bruderheim and across Alberta.
This project was completed due to the predicted risks to the food system as climate change progresses.
Extreme weather events, unpredictable water levels, changes in precipitation, ecosystems shifts and changes to the availability of traditional foods and medicines have the potential to significantly impact food systems and food security in both rural and Indigenous communities.
Resilient Rurals partnered with SevenGen Consulting Inc. to foster a network of engagement in the food sovereignty space, including contributors from rural and Indigenous communities.
After meeting with several different contributors, the Town hosted a workshop that sought to connect engagement partners with each other and with the innovative work being done in the field. Connections continued to develop through a public webinar series, which explored topics such as Indigenous farming and community agricultural innovations.
The project team also developed an online food sovereignty training program which offers education on what food sovereignty is, how it factors into rural and Indigenous food systems, and how it can be cultivated.
Results
The project team learned that our food system, especially in rural and Indigenous communities, is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
For example, the expected drought in the summer of 2024 will result in agricultural difficulties and impact the availability of traditional foods for harvest.
To understand how to manage these risks to the food system, the project team met with other communities and organizations who are already building resilience into their own food system activities.
Benefits
The awareness-building materials and networking activities from this project benefit the community within Bruderheim and Resilient Rurals’ wider network.
Through this project, the Town has increased awareness of the need to consider food system vulnerabilities in climate adaptation, and fostered hope through building connections with others who care about resilient food systems.
By offering high-level educational materials, the team aims to inspire the community and others to pursue food sovereignty activities themselves, which will be essential to building resilience into local, rural, and Indigenous food systems.
This program has built awareness for folks in the region about what the climate change impacts might be. We are looking forward to seeing more progress in moving forward on food sovereignty issues.
Karl Hauch, Mayor of the Town of Bruderheim
