UNBC Announces new Study of Ecohealth in Northern BC

The University of Northern British Columbia is announcing this week a new project aimed at gaining a better understanding of the intersection between environmental practices, health, and society in Northern BC. The project, “Linking public health, ecosystems and equity through ecohealth training and capacity building,” will bring together the professionals who set the policies and make the decisions affecting health and ecology in the region, and across Canada.

Media Download: UNBC Health Sciences Associate Professor Margot Parkes on the banks of the Fraser River near Prince George.

“The purpose of this project is to teach public health professionals, graduate students and other practitioners about how changes to the ecosystem can affect public health,” says UNBC Health Sciences Associate Professor Margot Parkes, the project’s principal investigator. Dr. Parkes has worked with groups such as the Vanderhoof-based Murray Creek Rehabilitation Project and City of Dawson Creek in helping to bring people together to find solutions to key issues facing the region, especially relating to land and water management.

The project seeks to build and demonstrate Canadian leadership at the interface of public health, ecosystems, and equity, by developing an innovative, sustainable, capacity-building program, and will support a pan-Canadian partnership including universities across five provinces. Funding of $250,000 over three years for the project will come from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to support the work of the Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health (CoPEH-Canada). The project is supported by PHAC, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), UNBC, Northern Health, and the Canada Research Chair program.

“UNBC is a great place to host this pan-Canadian project as it offers a pioneering, research-intensive environment with explicit commitment to innovation in public health scholarship and capacity building,” says Dr. Parkes, who is a Canada Research Chair in Health, Ecosystems, and Society. “We have invaluable direct links with the National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health hosted at the University, and a strong partnership with the local health authority through the UNBC-Northern Health research agreement.”

The project, to be launched Thursday, June 20, at the Two Rivers Art Gallery (6pm to 8pm) will be hosted by UNBC and CoPEH-Canada.

Later this month, the 2013 EcoHealth Summer School will also be hosted by UNBC June 20 - 30, 2013. This year’s school is linked with a new UNBC ‘Field School in Human Ecology,’ and will focus on the theme of “Ecohealth and Watersheds.”