Landscape Entrepreneurship: Lessons From the Mont Saint Hilaire Nature Centre

Abstract

This working paper focuses on a little documented aspect of the entrepreneurial process, namely landscape entrepreneurship. Based on the experience of the Nature Centre in Mont Saint Hilaire, Québec, we define landscape entrepreneurship as a set of innovative activities conducted by an actor aimed at sustaining and developing ecological and social processes in a specific region or landscape so as to improve the ecosystem for human wellbeing. This paper comprises four sections. In the first, we distinguish between "classical" and "social" entrepreneurship and situate the notion of landscape entrepreneurship. In the second, we describe the experience of the Mont Saint Hilaire Nature Centre, a biosphere reserve located 40 km SouthEast of Montreal. In the third section, we propose four perspectives on landscape entrepreneurship based on the experience of the Nature Centre, namely (1) landscape entrepreneurship as social entrepreneurship and organizing; (2) landscape entrepreneurship and the potential and challenges of stakeholder engagement processes; (3) landscape entrepreneurship and the construction of resilience in social/ ecological systems; and (4) landscape entrepreneurship as seen from the experience and lessons learned in the development and implementation of a framework for conservation. In the fourth section, we identify lessons and insights potentially relevant to our understanding of the role and forms of entrepreneurship in addressing social and environmental concerns. We conclude by pointing out tensions that arise in the complex process of landscape entrepreneurship, and suggest that landscape entrepreneurship could be at the tipping point of an emerging field of study with significant implications for related disciplines and fields of study.