A Time for Recollection: Exploring the Temporality of Victoria’s Sea-To-Sea Green Blue Belt Campaign
Date
2024
Authors
Lefort, Audrey
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Abstract
The rapid growth of our Earth's population has increased the demand for development and urban sprawl, consequently endangering the protection of the natural world. To ensure the future of functioning ecosystems, recreational spaces, and agricultural land, many have turned to green belts as planning strategies. Specific to Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, the collaboration between different organizations, community members, and levels of government successfully protected the lands connecting Tod Inlet, Sooke Basin and Sooke River. This Sea-to-Sea Green Blue Belt is the subject of this research, and semi-structured interviews, modified photovoice activities, and secondary data were used to understand the timeline and temporal experiences of nine participants who were actively involved from 1988 to the early 2000s. The article explains that the campaign was catalyzed by an algae bloom in the drinking water which led to a court case against the Greater Victoria Water District’s (GVWD) illegal logging activities in 1994, and the eventual creation of the Sooke Hills Wilderness Regional Park in 1997. This was followed by a 2000 Regional Park Acquisition Fund used to secure private lands for the green belt, which has resulted in the acquisition of over 4,900 hectares of parkland as of 2024. In addition, the anthropological theoretical frameworks of future orientation and social ecology revealed that participants’ identity influenced how their expectations, anticipation, and hope propelled the Sea-to-Sea Green Blue Belt campaign towards success, but that they now rely on speculation to envision the future of global environmental protection. This research contributes to current green belt academic literature by providing a deeper look into the human experience of advocating for this green infrastructure.
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Keywords
Green Belt, temporality, future orientation, social ecology, qualitative research