The 2021 CSLA Congress will be held Thursday, May 27th to Saturday, May 29th, 2021, at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa.
NEW! Martha Schwartz confirmed as keynote speaker for CSLA's 2021 Congress
Call for Volunteers
The CSLA is calling for 5-8 volunteers to work alongside the CSLA staff to form the Congress Tours and Field Trips Committee with the objective of programming an interesting series of visits for the Congress delegates.
How much time is involved?
Starting in the summer of 2020, with monthly 1 hour long conference calls until April 2021.
What is the job description?
- Propose interesting theme-relevant tours or field trips for the delegates
- Write tour descriptions and source photos to promote the tours
- Lead the tours, or identify appropriate guides during the event
- Identify transportation requirements
How do I apply?
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Contact Michelle Legault, CSLA Executive Director, to let her know of your interest at executive-director@csla-aapc.ca by May 30th, 2020
Theme
Nature-Based Solutions in a Changing World
Scientists estimate we have less than ten years in which to reduce concentrations of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere if we are to keep global temperature change below 2⁰C. Warming in excess of this threshold will result in increasingly more chaotic and more frequent impacts to weather, climate and ecological systems. Continuing and escalating changes in weather and climate are already having immediate, long-term and tickle down effects on both human society and the ecosystems that shelter and sustain us.
Landscape architects, who have long been the architects for nature, recognize that there is much that they can do to protect, enhance and sustain ecosystems and the role they play in ensuring that human society is better able to meet the coming challenges. Under the leadership of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA), our profession has already embarked on an ambitious plan that challenges members to reduce their contributions to greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation), while creating landscapes capable of flourishing under environmental change.
Landscape architects understand that our greatest contributions to ensuring a prosperous future are vested in the creation of human societies characterized by an enhanced capacity for resilience, a willingness to transform to a better state, and a commitment to ensuring the long-term sustainability of environments, cultures and well-being. We believe that with insightful and sustainable planning and design, society can protect our existing wild areas, enhance ecosystems damaged by human stresses, and ensure the sustainability of species and habitats.
The CSLA 2021 Congress will highlight new policies and concrete action towards the implementation of low carbon resilience approaches to planning and design and the integration of nature-based solutions as a multi-beneficial approach to managing and sustaining our lands and waters. Themes for the Congress will include:
- Valuing nature
- Reducing emissions and increasing carbon sequestration
- Conserving, enhancing and protecting natural systems as an integral component of community planning and development
- Rainwater and snow water management
- Aforestation and urban canopy enhancement
- Coasts and shoreline planning and design
Nature-based solutions, defined by the IUCN1 as ‘actions to protect, sustainably manage and restore natural or modified ecosystems, that address societal challenges (e.g. climate change, food and water security or natural disasters) effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits’, offer us the opportunity to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, sequester carbon and shelter populations.
Schedule At A Glance
Tuesday, May 25th - Wednesday, May 26th, 2021
9-5 CSLA Board Meeting
Thursday, May 27th, 2021
Component President's Roundtable
Committee Meetings
Welcome Reception
Friday, May 28th, 2021
Educational Sessions
CSLA Annual General Meeting
Keynote Speakers
Saturday, May 29th, 2021
Trade Show
Educational Sessions
Keynote Speakers
CSLA Awards Gala
The Congress and Environmental Sustainability
Conference organizers are working hard to ensure the Congress is a success from an environmental sustainability perspective. Our objective is to run a carbon-neutral conference, reduce and/or mitigate our overall environmental footprint, and to have a positive “handprint” on equity and sustainability in the local area.
We welcome attendees’ active involvement in supporting these sustainability values!
The Planning Committee
Colleen Mercer Clarke, Chair
Jane Welsh, Chair of the Scientific Committee
Hope Parnham
Scientific Committee:
- Miriam Mutton
- James Thomas
- Jeff Frank
- Nicolette Theroux
- Ryan Hennessey
-Bev Windjack