Finding success stories in Amentiy Based Rural Development

I am currently working with a team of researchers on a contract for the Canadian Rural Secretariat to profile three rural regions of Canada where natural and cultural amenities have been used to drive development in a collaborative way. Our team has been out in the field conducting research in the case regions we have selected including Kings County, Nova Scotia, the Charlevoix region of Quebec and the Columbia Basin region in BC. We hope to be able to understand what some of the keys to success have been in these regions so that ABRD, as an approach for rural Canada, can be advanced with evidence based decision making.

ABRD is new language and I have found myself having to explain it to folks a bit while in the field. So, thought I would take a chance to give the ABRD 101 version on the blog.

Amenity based rural development is an approach to rural development. Essentially, natural and cultural amenities are viewed as potential drivers of development. But instead of being viewed as resources for extraction, they are seen as things that make regions attractive – to visitors, residents and investors. The attractive value is used to draw people, ideas and investment INTO rural areas, vs. exporting resources out. It differs from traditional views of economic development in that it prioritizes bringing people into an area before jobs – people, especially creative and entrepreneurial people (creative new economy) will then choose to live in rural areas because of their attractive value and in doing so, they will create new economies. These new economies can be linked to amenities (so industries like tourism, recreation, arts and culture) but they can also be unrelated – for example, someone could choose to run their oil company in Calgary while living in an amenity rich rural area. The key to success for this type of approach is balance – natural and cultural amenities need to be promoted and developed so that people in urban areas know about them and maybe attracted to visit or relocate. But they also need to be protected over the long term so that their value remains constant or better yet, appreciates. I order to do this, areas need to collaborate with multiple stakeholders – and they need to engage in long term planning.

Planning and collaboration are often lacking in rural areas. By and large, most rural areas do no have a planner on staff and if they do, they are often hired at the community vs. regional level. Rural communities are not always engaged in collaboration with regional stakeholders either – by and large, they function at a local level – community by community. Why is this problematic for ABRD? There are thousands of rural communities across Canada – and most have very limited financial and human resources to pursue ABRD on their own. Besides, most natural amenities are not located in communities – they are in peripheral regions and transcend municipal boundaries. The proper promotion and protection of these amenities must be done by multiple stakeholders – local and regional governments, not profit associations and the business community. Each of these stakeholders plays an important role in ARBR – governments in service provision, economic development and planning, not for profits in protection and promotion activities and the business community has to be able to create economy from the amenities.

In many ways ABRD is a new paradigm for rural development. It creates an umbrella, and a unified approach to enhance the quality of life in rural areas by utilizing the amenities available. As a tool, it can bring rural audiences together, support grassroots efforts, and align resources to address issues of depopulation, loss of service provision and economic well being.

If you are interested in learning more about ABRD – there are two events coming up on the calendar that you may want to note – first is a webinar on ABRD hosted by the BC Rural and Community Development Ministry on March 31, 10 - 11:30 am. For more information on how to register keep posted here as I will add that as soon as it is ready. The next is a gathering of minds in one of BC’s amenity rich destinations – 108 Mile House in the Cariboo – at the Hills Health Ranch on April 19-21st. The conference is the Rural Tourism Conference co hosted by TRU, VIU and UNBC (collaboration!). Registration is open and for more information go to www.ruraltourismconference.com