Municipal initiatives to achieve Greenbelt goals

NRU
May 6, 2015

The Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation recently released the report, Local Leadership Matters: Ontario Municipalities Taking Action to Strengthen the Greenbelt, identifying how communities are directly and indirectly helping to achieve the objectives of the Greenbelt Plan. Authored by Sean Hertel and Julia Markovich, the report is based on interviews with 42 staff from 30 municipalities across the Greenbelt and describes what initiatives are being advanced to achieve the goals of the Greenbelt beyond land use policy conformity.

The report finds that municipal initiatives fall into seven main areas: support for agriculture and value added activities; support for land stewardship and land securement; tourism promotion; management and expansion of multi-purpose trail networks; economic development; sustainability programs; and education and awareness campaigns.