Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) is investing $5 million to support the scale-up of ALUS, a unique program that promotes on-farm, nature-based solutions to create resilience across Canada in the face of climate change.

Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) brings farmers, municipalities and stakeholders together to propose projects that will help restore wetlands, improve soil health and enhance biodiversity. The six new communities haven’t been identified yet. They are to be determined based on greatest need, as new ALUS communities emerge in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec, Prince Edward Island, and possibly other provinces. That said, all 35 existing ALUS communities will benefit from this investment, continuing to establish new projects and welcome new participants. 

With this additional funding, ALUS will work towards building out their ecosystem services quantification models with world-leading experts and researchers.

This work has the potential to benefit the broader dialogue around sustainability impact measurement and is expected to lead to a network of demonstration sites where innovative technologies in regenerative agriculture and nature-based solutions can be tested.

“ALUS’ success to date is impressive and it serves to validate our principles-based model as an effective tool to tackle climate change and other pressing environmental issues such as biodiversity loss and water quality,” says ALUS CEO Bryan Gilvesy. “For ALUS to meet the growing need for nature-based solutions, we must increase production capacity by further developing our ecosystem of customers, funders, producers, scientific advisors, technological partners and communication experts—this is what this funding from SDTC will help us to do. Looking forward, New Acre Project has the potential to harness new revenue streams to support nature-based solutions by providing value to corporations looking to enhance their Environmental Social and Governance ratings and reduce climate risk.”

 Source:  ALUS May 10, 2022 news release