Bryan Gilvesy
Ashoka Fellow since 2023   |   Canada

Bryan Gilvesy

ALUS
By reimagining farming as land stewardship and connecting it to a larger ecosystem committed to climate action, Bryan cultivates pride amongst farmers and catalyzes them to build social capital that…
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This description of Bryan Gilvesy's work was prepared when Bryan Gilvesy was elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 2023.

Introduction

By reimagining farming as land stewardship and connecting it to a larger ecosystem committed to climate action, Bryan cultivates pride amongst farmers and catalyzes them to build social capital that bridges the rural-urban divide.

The New Idea

Bryan is shifting the conservationist paradigm away from protection and preservation of nature and toward productivity and growth. He catalyzes farmers and ranchers not just to maintain existing ecologically valuable parts of their land but alsoRead more

The Problem

Much of Canada’s ecologically valuable land is privately held due to a long history of colonization and allocation of land for agricultural, industrial, and urban use. Efforts at conservation therefore rely largely on private landowners.Read more

The Strategy

The original ALUS model motivated agricultural producers to produce natural capital on their land. Bryan’s leadership shifted it from a small funder-incubated organization, incentivizing farmers to produce ecosystem services, to one that givesRead more

The Person

Bryan’s affinity for farming and solving shared problems was seeded early on. Both his grandparents and parents farmed for a living, so he grew up seeing how entrepreneurial farmers must be when faced with perennial challenges such asRead more

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