Last Chance to Register for

Greenbelts: Local Solutions for Global Challenges
March 22nd – March 24th

Don’t miss your chance to attend the first ever Global Greenbelts Conference from March 22nd to March 24th, 2011 at the Radisson Admiral Hotel in Toronto, Canada. Greenbelts: Local Solutions for Global Challenges brings together policymakers, practitioners, and advocates from around the world, while mixing panel discussions and site visits to Ontario’s Greenbelt to highlight the potential of Greenbelts to help manage urban growth, sustain farming and the vibrancy of surrounding communities, and protect valuable ecosystems.

Keynote speakers include world renowned author Margaret Atwood. Ms. Atwood, whose work has been published in over thirty-five countries, is the author of more than forty books of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and critical essays. She has strong views on environmental issues, evidenced in her latest novel, The Year of the Flood, and is a Joint Honourary President of the Rare Bird Club within BirdLife International.

The Conference will also hear from over forty-five speakers from nine countries across the globe, including about:

• The San Francisco Bay Area’s comprehensive vision for smart growth, combined with initiatives to protect open spaces and important ecosystems;

• The Mazovia Region around Warsaw, where work is underway to establish a greenbelt to protect its unique species and their habitat, and farmland;

• The European Green Belt forming the backbone of an ecological network potentially connecting 24 countries in Europe from North to South the European Greenbelt would run from the Barents Sea to Black Sea, and is a symbol for trans-boundary cooperation in nature conservation;

• The Green Wedges, forming a broad arc around metropolitan Melbourne, that work in tandem with the urban growth boundary to manage growth;

• The German ‘Iron Curtain’ Green Belt, spanning more than 1, 393 kilometres, protecting more than 1200 endangered animal and plant species, and passing through 17 distinct physiographic regions;

• The Frankfurt Green Belt evolving from early protected green spaces where the medieval city walls once stood, to the 1991 ‘GrunGurtel’ wrapping around the city; and,

• The Sao Paulo City Green Belt Biosphere Reserve with its world leading eco-training and entrepreneurship programs for disadvantaged youth;

Conference entertainment includes a laughter filled lunch with Second City, one of the world’s leading sketch-based comedy ensembles, and a special performance by Juno award winning and three time 2011 Juno nominee, Sarah Harmer.

To register for the Conference to learn more about the exciting initiatives occurring in these areas visit www.globalgreenbeltsconference.ca