At a time when “Environment” seems to have dropped off the list of priorities for most voters, the Climate and Biodiversity Crises notwithstanding, it’s encouraging to see such a high caliber candidate and champion of Nature AND People amongst our choices.
Karen Beazley sees a close linkage between Healing Nature & Healing People. View this presentation as an example of her clear thinking about complex ecological issues.
I learned recently that Karen Beazley, well known for her pioneering research on landscape-level processes affecting wildlife in Nova Scotia and more broadly, is running for the Green Party as a candidate for the Halifax Citadel-Sable Island riding in the current Nova Scotia election.
Born in Nova Scotia, Karen Beazley has had a career that spanned the Real World and the Ivory Tower, first as a professional Landscape Architect in Ontario, followed by 25 years as a Professor (and at times Director) for Dalhousie University’s School for Resource and Environmental Studies.
Now in retirement and living in her home town of Windsor, N.S., she’s looking at the political realm as a venue to continue her efforts to help “Heal Nature & People”.
Over the course of her career, Karen has been engaged in professional, community, and volunteer organizations and activities at provincial, national and international levels. E.g., for 15 years she chaired Nova Scotia’s Land Legacy Trust, which has provided game-changing matching funds support land trusts to protect private lands of ecological significance.
She has served on Recovery Planning Teams for Species-at-Risk in Nova Scotia and has helped organize international conferences and provided guidance to Parks Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada, most recently for Canada’s National Ecological Corridors Program.
“The biological diversity that makes up ecological systems comprises our life-support system” says Karen. “My work has explored and advocated for ways to live in co-existence, for the benefit of all, both people and nature.”
At a time when “Environment” seems to have dropped off the list of priorities for most voters, the Climate and Biodiversity Crises notwithstanding, it’s encouraging to see such a high caliber candidate and champion of Nature AND People amongst our choices.
– David P
Related
– Karen Beazley, Green Party NS candidate, Halifax Citadel – Sable Island (PDF)
Interview notes prepared by Karen Beazley in response to questions posed by Mark Pero, The Signal, University of King’s College, November 14, 2024
– Karen Beazley Professor Emerita
Page on Dalhousie University website. “Professor Beazley’s (she/her) research interests include biodiversity conservation system planning, Indigenous protected and conserved areas and co-production of knowledge, regional habitat connectivity planning, and environmental and research ethics. Her work is interdisciplinary, collaborative, and geared both to contributing to the academic literature and to affecting change in landscape conservation planning and policy at transnational and provincial levels.”
EXAMPLES OF SCIENTIFIC PAPERS BY KAREN BEAZLEY OF PARTICULAR NOTE FOR READERS OF NS FOREST MATTERS
– An urgent call for circular economy advocates to acknowledge its limitations in conserving biodiversity.
J.Buchmann-Duck and K.F. Beazley, 2020. In Science of the Total Environment
– Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), Aichi Target 11, and Canada’s Pathway to Target 1: Focusing conservation on reconciliation
By Melanie Zurba, Karen Beazley et al., 2019. In Land
– Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) in Nova Scotia, Canada
Daniel W O’Neill, Peter H Tyedmers, Karen F Beazley, 2007. In Regional Environmental Change
– A systematic approach for selecting focal species in forests of Nova Scotia and Maine
K Beazley and N. Cardinal. 2004. In Environmental Conservation
– Road density and the potential impact on wildlife species such as American Moose in mainland Nova Scotia
KF Beazley et al., 2004. In Proceedings of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science