Climate Change Adaptation Planning: Help shape the future of agricultural resilience in the Okanagan by joining the BC Agriculture and Climate Action Initiative for this two-part workshop series.
It’s been quite the year! With a low snowpack, an early start to the growing season, spring hail storms, a summer of record breaking temperatures, drought, water restrictions and smoky skies; the impacts of climate change were hard to miss in the Okanagan in 2015. Individual farms bear the brunt of these impacts, but it can be difficult for producers to address the challenges associated with climate change at the farm level. Adaptation often requires tools, resources and decision-making processes that are beyond the individual farm.
This December, we will bring local governments and agricultural producers together to undertake climate change adaptation planning for the Okanagan’s agriculture sector. The process will identify and prioritize climate change impacts for Okanagan agriculture and develop locally suitable strategies and actions for addressing these impacts.
The completed plan – or Okanagan Adaptation Strategies – will feature:
- Climate change projections for the Okanagan region;
- Impacts and opportunities (associated with climate change) for the Okanagan agriculture sector;
- Specific strategies and actions for the Okanagan agricultural sector including near-term priorities for implementation;
- A commitment of $300,000 in Growing Forward 2 funds to implement priority projects between 2016-2018.
Curious about the types of projects that have been implemented in other regions? Click on the links below (scroll down to ‘Regional Projects’) to see the innovative pilot projects and capacity building initiatives taking place in Delta, the Peace River region, the Cariboo region and Cowichan Valley region as identified in their Regional Adaptation Strategies.
Participate in the discussion and help us to address these key questions: How can the agricultural sector and partners in the Okanagan work together to build resilience to climate change? What are the risks, vulnerabilities and opportunities facing various production systems? What are the critical information gaps or areas where knowledge needs to be improved? How can we develop and/or fine tune adaptation tools and resources to assist producers with decisions at the farm-level?
Workshop Dates and Locations: choose one location (lunch provided!)
Penticton
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2015, 9am to 2pm
at the Penticton Lake Resort, 21 Lakeshore Drive West, Penticton, BC
Vernon
Thursday, December 3rd, 2015, 9am to 2pm
at the Vernon Golf & Country Club, 800 Kalamalka Lake Road, Vernon, BC
Click here to RSVP (via webform) for this free workshop.
You can also RSVP or contact us with any questions, at Okanagan@BCAgClimateAction.ca or call 778-676-7657.
A second workshop, which will build off the content of the first workshop, will be held in early February. Details will be provided in December.
The Okanagan Regional Adaptation Strategies are part of the Regional Adaptation Enhancement Program, which is being delivered by the BC Agriculture & Food Climate Action Initiative (CAI). Funding for this program is managed by the Investment Agriculture Foundation (IAF) and the B.C. Agricultural Research & Development Corporation (ArdCorp), and has been provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the BC Ministry of Agriculture through Growing Forward 2, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative.