I don't really think the government is going to buy something to protect it. The return on investment is so long it won't fit the myopic lens of the political cycle. What the government can do is provide incentives like tax breaks for those who choose a conservation burial reserve vs standard for profit cemetery. How this is communicated could be part of the "donate your body to science" people can sign off on when they get their driver's license; through funeral homes; every protected areas entity public or not. The idea is not to get buried in a park. Its to fund new protected areas in order to be interred there. Don't think of it as a piece of land that looks like a cemetery you drive by. Think of it as a wall and defense line even politicians cannot break through. Ever try to move a cemetery? Not going to happen. The choice is personal and will touch everyone eventually. Its a change in behavior that doesn't rely on anyone else than yourself. The idea is that collectively a difference can be made. So the study begins thanks to Kai Chan and Dana Johnson among others. Once the concept can be grounded and communicated clearly to all potential stakeholders, we move forward. This represents billions of dollars/yr changing channels. It should be driven from the ground up instead of relying on witch way the political winds blow. Communicate. Ask questions. Start talking about it. Get the journalists writing about it; get the news to pick it up and follow the progress. It won't happen overnight that's for sure. But it can happen.

If interment were moved from the domain of profit margins and into the realm of conservation via Conservation Burial Reserve, we would have a more nature positive and people positive outcome.

Agreed. My sense of purpose is to move the interment industry away from profit driven big business and into the domain of conservation. Death care can be turned into health care. This should be the challenge for conservancies and land trusts. A Conservation Burial Reserve would offer greater protection (from politicians) and be more nature and people positive.

Death care is big business and is profit driven and in some cases with shareholders etc. Now if death care could be transformed into health care by moving it from the domain of profit margins and into the domain of conservation, a Conservation Burial Reserve would then become nature positive and people positive instead of what options people defer to during a time of duress.

Consider how death care could be transformed into health care if it were the extension of conservation. A Conservation Burial Reserve would remove death care from the domain of profit margins and be more pro-nature and pro-climate.

Consider natural burial as an extension of the work conservancies do. A Conservation Burial Reserve could re-wild and protect more effectively (from politicians). Instead of interment being in the domain of profit margins it could be the conduit for transforming death care into health care.

While I agree there are better alternative business cases for disposal. I wonder how necessary is having another expense when interment could actually have a positive affect on the environment by choosing natural burial in a Conservation Burial Reserve that would expand conservation and be nature and climate positive for all concerned instead of putting money in someone else's pocket. Turn death care into health care.

I'd be interested in your thoughts around Conservation Burial Reserves as a nature and climate positive alternative to traditional interment. Transforming death care into positive health care.

I'd be interested in your thoughts around having Conservation Burial Reserves as an alternative that is nature and climate positive.

I'd be interested in your thoughts around Conservation Burial Reserves as a means of transforming death care into positive nature and climate action.

I spoke to an elderly friend of mine several years ago about my idea and it just so happened that he had purchased 3 plots in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto for $75,000. So what's that....6-7 square metres of land? Meanwhile, a 40ha lot adjacent to the park I manage sold for $17,000 just a few years before. This was a critical insight that for me.

I've been researching this idea for over a decade to formulate and refine it. Right now my plan is to get people to talk about it and reach as many as possible. Just getting the term into the lexicon is a big step. Ideally, this would take form on social media and be expressed through webinars with panels of stakeholders to debate its merits. That being said, I am only one neurodivergent person with a vision. I'm no expert in what the next step might look like. I feel it needs to be assessed from a behavior point of view. To change a habit, ritual or tradition is a big task. Implementing a value proposition across the emotional, public and financial landscape is not my area of expertise. I think the funeral industry would be a valued partner with conservationists. The insurance industry is another. Somehow they all need to be in the same room. I am no great orator or presenter. So I ask, What would you suggest?

A small trend I keep seeing from time to time are those people putting up mini libraries/book exchanges on a post at the end of their driveway with about 15-20 books in them. I've also gotten into the habit of signing a book in the back with a date and giving it directly to someone else and only asking that hey do the same. Just give them away when you're done reading. This helps with me not storing tons of books....because after 40 years of collecting, they take up a lot of space. So its time to give them away.

Thank you Kai, for inviting me to share this space. I hope to inspire people to look at an idea from different angles and to consider how today's values and concerns towards the environment are complimented by this strategy.

I wrote a few organizations and here are their responses.