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Pathways to Resilient Communities

Engaging communities to plan for future shocks.
Te Papa, Telstra-Clear Suite, 7th and 8th March 2009

Our World... and Wellington are facing a broad range of serious and growing threats: increasing oil prices and peak oil, climate change and erratic weather patterns, rising food prices, energy shortages, transportation strikes and economic downfalls.

Representatives from Wellington organisations with a strong interest in supporting the development of sustainability are holding a “conversation event” to explore issues related to the development of a Resilient Community Plan for the Wellington Region. The symposium offers councillors and council offices the opportunity to enter into a conversation with a range of active community groups and NGOs including the growing "transition town" movement, and business owners and commentators,
Once we have identified our community’s most important vulnerabilities, then we can move onto possible responses. This may include developing mechanisms to ensure that building community resilience is built into strategic planning processes, including reviewing community outcomes and Long Term Community Plans (LTCPs).

Resilience is the ability of a system, from communities to whole economies, to hold together and maintain their ability to function in the face of forced change and shocks from outside. The symposium will look at the importance of both planning for outside shocks; and building, or rebuilding, resilience communities to withstand those shocks, alongside current efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change. The event will include a limited amount of visionary resilient communities concept information including international examples. The event will be held in the Te Papa, Telstra-Clear Suite, 7th and 8th March 2009.