Enviromental Activism

Livingston has a distinguished career as an environmental activist and filmmaker on issues related to energy, forestry practices - against clearcutting and forest spraying, wilderness preservation, against near shore oil and gas development, and for a green energy future.

He is the vice-chair of the Margaree Environmental Association which has fought successfully to preserve wilderness areas on Cape Breton. Livingston is the former chair of the National Conservation Committee of the Sierra Club of Canada. He played one of the key roles in the famous 1993-5 battle to re-protect the Jim Campbell's Barren wilderness.

Livingston assisted in bringing this political scandal to national front page media attention. early in his career from his adopted home province he has received a Nova Scotia Energy Award (1989) and the first Creative Arts/Cultural Nova Scotia Environmental Award (1993).

In May 2008 the Margaree Environmental Association (MEA) released "Conserving Biodiversity in the Mabou Highlands: Land-use planning as an approach to conservation" by Chris Miller, Ph.D.

This report proposes a method for conserving biodiversity on a landscape level. With the Mabou Highlands as a case study, the MEA report proposes a conservation model using zoning to protect ecologically significant areas on Crown and private lands. This model is similar to the successful 1973 Niagara Escarpment Model.

This report by The Margaree Environmental Association (MEA) provides a timely solution to the problem of how Nova Scotia can create new protected areas. Protection of old-growth forest landscapes is an immediate need, and the study recommends provincial zoning regulations can help accomplish this.

Link to the Report