Nature-First Cities: Restoring Relationships with Ecosystems and with Each Other

Cam Brewer is a lawyer and an adjunct professor with the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. He was executive director of Smart Growth BC, ran eco-certification programs at the Canada Green Building Council and the Silva Forest Foundation, and founded a co-op that manufactured and distributed sustainable wood products. He has also served as controller for Greenpeace Canada, co-chair of the VanCity Community Foundation, and principal of an urban sustainability consulting firm.

Herb Hammond is a forest ecologist and nature-directed stewardship planner. He is a co-founder of the Silva Forest Foundation, a charitable society dedicated to research and education in ecosystem-based conservation planning. Hammond is the project lead for more than 25 ecosystem-based conservation plans across Canada and elsewhere in the world. He is also the author of the award-winning Seeing the Forest among the Trees: The Case for Wholistic Forest Use and Maintaining Whole Systems on Earth’s Crown: Ecosystem-based Conservation Planning for the Boreal Forest. Hammond was the recipient of the 2003 Gold Award for Sustainable Living at the Canadian Environmental Awards.

Sean Markey is a certified planner and professor with the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. His research addresses issues of sustainable planning and infrastructure, nature-based solutions, local and regional economic development, and rural and small-town planning. He has published widely in academic journals and has co-authored/edited several books. He works with municipalities, non-profit organizations, Indigenous communities, and the business community to promote and develop sustainable forms of community and regional development.