PhD student Lana Lowe named Land Champion

Lana Lowe, a UVic Law PhD student and member of the Fort Nelson First Nation has been named the 2018 Land Champion by the Real Estate Foundation of BC. The award was presented to Lana at a Gala event on October 11, 2018.

In 2016, the award was given to Deborah Curran, the Executive Director of the Environmental Law Centre at UVic, who in turn nominated Lana for the award this year.

The Real Estate Foundation of BC issued a press release with details:

"The Real Estate Foundation of BC (REFBC) will present the 2018 Land Champion Award to Lana Lowe, a Dene from Fort Nelson First Nation who has made enormous contributions to manage and protect water, land, and wildlife habitat in northeast British Columbia.

As Director of Lands at Fort Nelson First Nation, Lana has led work to manage the impacts of oil and gas development in the Nation's territory. Working with the community, Lana laid the groundwork for a framework for land and water management that is based in both Dene knowledge and values and scientific approaches to ecosystem management and responsible, informed land use in the territory.

In developing the framework, Lana established community-led research and water monitoring programs, collaborated with governments, industry, NGOs and academia, and created a community databank that is used in impacts assessment, regulatory and policy review, land use planning, and legal actions that have resulted in the prevention of over-extraction of water for fracking and the protection of threatened caribou in the territory.

"Lana is a strong community champion and a tireless protector of our shared land and water," says Jack Wong, REFBC CEO. "Her work encourages long-term thinking about the impacts of resource development in Indigenous communities and their territories.""

You can watch the Land Champion award ceremony here.