Conservation Burial Reserves

Project Description

This project focuses on exploring environmentally friendly ways to protect biodiversity through conservation burial reserves and other green death care practices. It examines people’s choices for end-of-life decisions and how they can be made more eco-friendly while coupling this with protected biodiversity areas. The project also addresses the memorialization of individuals and nature within these spaces.


Research Team: Prof David Hardisty, Prof Kai Chan, Dr. Don Carruthers Den Hoed, Dana Johnson (PhD student), Joanne Fitzgibbons (PhD student), Olin Becker (UBC BCom)

Land Acknowledgment: We acknowledge that the land on which we are based is the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Stó:lō Nations. This land, now known as University of British Columbia’s Point Grey Vancouver Campus, has always been a place of learning for these nations, who for millennia have passed on their culture, history, and traditions from one generation to the next on this site.

Academic Partners: Sonya Jakubec (Mount Royal University)

Funding Partners: UBC STAIR Grant, SSHRC Insights Grant

Government and Community Partners: John Leadston, Ontario Parks


IBioS Members

Associate Professor

Sauder School of Business

Don Carruthers Den Hoed

IBioS Research Associate

Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability

Kai Chan

Professor

Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, Biodiversity Research Centre