Celebrating the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw Generational Plan (GenPlan) — Honoured with Three Prestigious National Awards September 25, 2025 | A project of the Squamish Nation, has been recognized with three Core Values Awards from the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Canada. These national awards celebrate the highest standards in public participation and community engagement. The […]

EcoPlan Builds Bridges Between Mindfulness, Decision Science and Economic Development in Bhutan June 1–16, 2025 | Thimphu, Bhutan —EcoPlan International recently completed an eventful two-week engagement in the Kingdom of Bhutan, bridging ancient wisdom with modern science. From June 1st to 16th, EcoPlan participated in the Science, Mindfulness, and Meditation Conference and delivered a tailored […]

The City of Vancouver and EcoPlan recognized with the 2023 IAP2 International Project of the Year Core Values Award for  “Sea2City Design Challenge”! The judging panel for the 2023 International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Core Values Awards noted: Your submission impressed the international jury, where one jury member thought the project was amazing. “Indigenous […]

NADF and EcoPlan NADF PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION TOOLKIT: BUILDING BIMADIZOWIM: As a follow-up to Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund’s (NADF) Comprehensive Community Planning Toolkit, the Project Implementation Toolkit is a practical guide, grounded in the context of First Nations in Northern Ontario. The Toolkit provides guidance, tools, examples and best practices, in a format that breaks down the […]

The Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation continue to implement their award winning CCP Sep. 7, 2022 KHFN make the news again with another big step in implementing their Comprehensive Community Plan, which was supported by EcoPlan. This time it is new camping facilities at Buddy Bay, near the village of Gwa’yas’dums. Click here for North Island Gazette […]

APA Feature: The Power of Planning in a Remote and Rural Context EcoPlan International and the City of St. George Alaska win two major planning awards: Canadian Institute of Planners – National Planning Award for Planning Excellence (July 2021) American Planning Association – Western Planners Award (August 2021) Here is what the judges had to […]

EcoPlan International provided technical economic development analysis and planning support to the participating community representatives at the Economic Development Collaborative table which resulted in the successful Regional Economic Development Strategy  for Pemberton area. The Strategy’s plan focuses on 36 regional priorities for boosting the economy. EcoPlan worked closely with Clear Course Consulting Ltd. who provided project […]

February 2, 2021 The Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’ First Nation (KCFN) is one step closer to joining the Strathcona Regional District, as the two bodies met last week to look into details around the process and what to look forward to after KCFN becomes a full member on April 1, 2021. This project builds on a lot of […]

January 8, 2021 In January 2020, EcoPlan International helped St. George with the development of their Economic Development Strategy: Rebuilding Our Future – Kayutuuxtxin Tanagnangin Igayuusalix angagiimchin agnaxtxichin ( https://www.stgeorgealaska.org/). A key component of this was the development of a new harbour. In December 2020, the US Federal Government passed the Water Resources Development Act […]

In the fall of 2019, the Coastal Stewardship Network (CSN), a program of Coastal First Nations – Great Bear Initiative (CFN), retained EcoPlan International to support an evaluation of their Stewardship Technician Training Program (STTP). The evaluation  informed on-going program design and delivery of STTP; shared the STTP story with stewardship departments, participating communities, and […]

EPI, contracted with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and working with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) as the two executing agencies, is supporting the development of a global project document as well as providing technical analysis and planning support of Covid 19 recovery efforts in in Accra (Ghana), Yaoundé […]

Surrey Coastal Flood Adaptation Strategy wins Award of Planning Excellence (Merit) for Climate Change Planning: The Coastal Flood Adaptation Strategy (CFAS) is a multi-year undertaking that identified the current and potential impacts of climate change on Surrey’s large coastal floodplain area—a  long-term strategy to reduce climate change-driven coastal flooding risks. Launched in 2016, and one of […]

William Trousdale (President EcoPlan International) with David A. Hanson (Principal HansonRM) give seminar and paper on: THE USE OF STRUCTURED DECISION SUPPORT FOR VALUING LOST CULTURAL BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH ENVIRONMENTAL INJURIES As part of the 5th International Conference on Environmental and Economic Impact on Sustainable Development, Trousdale and Hanson present a method for scaling the value of […]

William Trousdale (President EcoPlan International) with David A. Hanson (Principal HansonRM) gave  a seminar on Consultation on Environmental Issues: Impacts to Cultural Services. The seminar presented a framework, applications and case studies for using multicriteria attribute theory and structured decision support to avoid impacts, mitigate for, or restore cultural services. Trousdale and Hanson discussed how […]

Older residents still make about a sizeable portion of Village population If Cumberland has young families moving in, there are still many seniors in the community. At the same meeting as a presentation on local child care demand and resources, council was presented with a report on how to make Cumberland more “age-friendly.” “Age-friendly planning […]

The City of Surrey was honoured with the inaugural Climate Adaption award from the Community Energy Association at this year’s Union of BC Municipalities Convention. EcoPlan is a key member of the project consulting team led by Northwest Hydraulics. With a recent $76 million grant from the Federal Government through their Disaster Mitigation Adaptation Fund, […]

In a joint session with Emigdio Ballon and Gailey Morgan of Pueblo of Tesuque, William presented on the integration of western scientific knowledge and Indigenous knowledge in the context of climate change. Further he provided a case study on how Swinomish Tribal Community integrated methods derived from decision science and behavioral research with local protocols […]

In June, William Trousdale was invited to Jena University in Germany to give a seminar on Structured Decision Support and Negotiation to graduate students of the Applied Ethics and Conflict Resolution program. The introductory seminar explored how ethics, which gives “big picture” support to a decision based “Value Approach” can advance “pragmatic ethics” principles.

EcoPlan was honoured with an Award of Planning Excellence (Gold) in the Research & New Directions in Planning category from the Planning Institute of BC. Working with Northwest Hydraulic Consultants, Connect Landscape Architecture and the City of Vancouver, the Coastal Adaptation Plan – Fraser River Foreshore is one component of a larger, multi-year undertaking to […]

The City of Vancouver’s Coastal Adaptation Plan (CAP) – Fraser River Foreshore is a path-breaking approach to values-based coastal adaption planning. With EcoPlan’s support, the project used a participatory, values-based approach to engage residents, interested and other partners, including Musqueam Indian Band. The felt that “the plan addressed the urgency for action regarding climate adaptation, […]

Congratulations Abbotsford! Abbotsford has been named a Global Top7 Intelligent Community, 2019 We hope our support with your Economic Development Strategy and Innovation Forums contributed to this impressive honor: https://www.intelligentcommunity.org/the_intelligent_community_forum_names_the_global_top7_intelligent_communities_of_2019  

EcoPlan’s work with the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD) has recently been recognized by UBCM’s Excellence in Governance awards. Receiving an honourable mention in the governance category, the Cowichan 2050 Regional Collaboration Framework is a leading-edge statutory policy tool and collaborative approach to regional planning and decision-making. Emphasizing regional collaboration, communication, and coordination, its purpose […]

Last week, the Canadian Institute of Planners announced its 2018 award winners and EcoPlan’s work with the Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund (NADF) and the CCP Advisory Committee on the Comprehensive Community Planning Toolkit: Finding Bimadizowin has won an award! The CCP Toolkit, which is a guide and kit of resources to support better planning in […]

EcoPlan provided support for a historic agreement between the District of Lillooet, P’egp’íg’lha Council (T’ít’q’et) and the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, signed on May 24, 2018. Over the past year, EcoPlan worked with the Intergovernmental Relations Working Group, a group composed of elected officials and staff from the District of Lillooet, Lillooet Tribal Council, P’egp’íg’lha Council, […]

William Trousdale’s work on sustainable tourism in the popular island of Boracay, Philippines is still proving relevant, as referenced on Filipino news site Inquirer.net. The article, which quotes William’s 1998 landmark study titled “Governance in Context: Boracay Island, Philippines”, discusses how Boracay has shifted from an agricultural community to a tourist destination, and the impacts […]

William Trousdale has been asked to speak at the upcoming Tribal Natural Resource Damages Assessments seminar, December 4, in Seattle. The title of the talk is: Structured Decision Support: Restoration Scaling of Lost Native American Cultural Services under NRDAR. If you are interested in attending, the event is sponsored by Law Seminars International, the program features […]

Here are EcoPlan, getting to work on fun, challenging projects is what keeps us excited to get to work in the morning. But we’ve often commented that the ‘icing’ on the cake is the ongoing relationships with past clients, and seeing plans come to life through actions. And then every now and then we get some […]

Last month, William Trousdale gave a talk at the Museum of Vancouver as part of their “Built City” Series. The talk explored the challenge of translating sacred stories, cultural stories, and everyday stories into frameworks that can be analyzed and understood across cultures. The talk explored the “endless” process of translation as we all try […]

This recent article in Plan Canada magazine describes some interesting work we did with the Regional District of North Okanagan (RDNO). Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) often ‘falls off the rails’ when a plan is being implemented, perhaps because it is too complex, people are too busy, or other factors. But M&E is critical for knowing […]

This week, the Vancouver Sun has a five-part series of First Nations economic development. The series profiles five BC First Nations and the various ways that they are gaining economic independence. From run of river power, to gas stations, logging companies, campgrounds plans for large resorts, the Nations are proving that there is no ‘one […]

The Planning Institute of British Columbia (PIBC) just announced their 2015 Awards for Excellence in Planning Practice, and EcoPlan has been recognized for an silver award in the category of Research and New Directions in Planning for Planning for Climate Change: A Values-based, Strategic Approach for Urban Planners. The guide was developed with and for the […]

This is pretty exciting. While working on an economic development plan with Malcolm Island in 2014, we did a visioning activity in which we asked community members the following question: “Malcolm Island’s Economic Turnaround Wins National Planning Award. How did they do it?” Just six months later, the project actually DID win a national planning […]

Recently, William appeared in the community events section of the Sun.Star Bacolod, a local newspaper from the Negro Occidentale region of the Philippines. He had just finished facilitating a two-day workshop on Local Economic Development (LED) in Silay City, a project funded by UN-Habitat. Here he is in action. But this is not an isolated […]

EcoPlan recently worked with UN-Habitat and Compass Resource Management to produce the planning guide “Planning for Climate Change: A strategic, values-based approach for urban planners”.  It’s a book and a series of tools that planners in cities of all stripes and sizes can use to assess the climate change risk in their cities and make […]

“The early work the Canadian Urban Institute did with you on economic development in the Philippines, including the manual testing, made an early contribution to the country’s local economic development framework that has emerged over the past few years and is now promoting an explosion of collaboration between local governments and their private sector. I still […]

We were approached by the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (Cando) to write a quarterly article on the strategic planning process for their newsletter – ‘N-Side’.  Cando is a great organization that provides support and capacity building for Economic Development Officers in First Nations communities. Cando has now published 4 of the […]

Back in 2007, EcoPlan had the honour of working with Kwicksutaineuk Haxwa`mis First Nation (KHFN) on their first Comprehensive Community Plan (CCP). The plan focused on the redevelopment Gwa-yas-dums, their homeland village located on Gilford Island on BC’s midcoast. A major element of this redevelopment was the restoration of their Big House to its original state. […]

EcoPlan’s Will Trousdale recently spoke on the CBC about ‘non-market valuation’.  Non-market valuation is a method to appraise the monetary value of goods and services that have utility and value, but not necessarily a market price. An important application of non-market valuation methods includes the appraisal of cultural values and historical artifacts, such as the […]

A recent article caught our attention. It outlines some of the reasons economic development plans fail to get traction. The first one is a poor understanding of local context, assets and how to use them  – basically that local government officials “fail to define and sell their unique sizzle” – the things that make their community great and […]

We were approached by the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (Cando) to write a quarterly article on the strategic planning process for their newsletter – ‘N-Side’.  Cando is a great organization that provides support and capacity building for Economic Development Officers in First Nations communities. Cando has now published 4 of the […]

We were approached by the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (Cando) to write a quarterly article on the strategic planning process for their newsletter – ‘N-Side’.  Cando is a great organization that provides support and capacity building for Economic Development Officers in First Nations communities. Cando has now published 4 of the […]

We were approached by the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (Cando) to write a quarterly article on the strategic planning process for their newsletter – ‘N-Side’.  Cando is a great organization that provides support and capacity building for Economic Development Officers in First Nations communities. Cando has now published 4 of the […]

The Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation (MARR) joined us last Monday at the Canadian Institute of Planners conference to accept the Award for Planning Excellence in Planning Publications.  The guidebook, developed last year by BC, Huu-ay-aht First Nations, Yuulu?l?at? (Ucluelet First Nation) and the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District (ACRD) with assistance from EcoPlan, was distributed across […]

EcoPlan worked with Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan Anishinaabek (AZA) First Nation on developing their Comprehensive Community Plan and Land Use Plan for their reserve at Partridge Lake. The formerly landless First Nation received Partridge Lake only in 2008. Just one year after completing the two plans (both of which were recognized with a Canadian Institute of Planners Award […]

EcoPlan International has been selected as the winner of two (out of eight!) Awards for Planning Excellence from the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP).  EcoPlan won Awards for Planning Excellence for Planning Publications and Aboriginal Community Planning and Development. We would like to give a huge “Thank You” to our project partners, with whom we share […]

Back in 2007, EcoPlan had the honour of working with Kwicksutaineuk Haxwa`mis First Nation (KHFN) on their first Comprehensive Community Plan (CCP). The plan focused on the redevelopment Gwa-yas-dums, their homeland village located on Gilford Island on BC’s midcoast. A major elements of the CCP was to develop an ecotourism industry to replace the resource jobs […]

Congratulations Musqueam! Their Comprehensive Sustainable Community Development Plan has been recognized internationally by UN-HABITAT as a best practice project. The plan, called  “We Are of One Heart and Mind”,  tells the story of the community’s past, its present, and its future path. The culmination of years of collaboration, innovation and learning, this Comprehensive Community Plan (CCP) sets […]

Online public engagement tools have a lot of promise, but its also confusing to figure out which ones work best, in which situations. The Winter edition of “Plan Canada” magazine features an article by EcoPlan’s Robyn Spencer that provides a ’round-up’ of common technologies and a framework for choosing which online engagement tool will work […]

We were approached by the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (cando) to write a quarterly article on the strategic planning process for their newsletter – ‘N-Side’.  cando is a great organization that provides support and capacity building for Economic Development Officers in First Nations communities. We thought we’d republish the articles here […]

Working in partnership with Diamond Head Consulting, we recently launched a project to help develop a Biodiversity Conservation Strategy for the City of Surrey. EcoPlan will be managing the public consultation aspect of this exciting project, involving a series of stakeholder group meetings and a public open house to get Surrey residents engaged in thinking […]