[2] In 2017, Locke was appointed chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Beyond the Aichi Targets Task Force, with the goal of ensuring the new global conservation targets set at the next Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2020 are meaningful for achieving the conservation of nature and halting of biodiversity loss.

[4] In 2013, he received the J.B. Harkin Medal for Conservation[5] and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal[6] and in 2014 he was awarded the Fred M. Packard Award for outstanding service to protected areas by the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas at the World Parks Congress in Sydney, Australia.

He was a lawyer and partner at MacKimmie Matthews law firm in downtown Calgary for 14 years and served as volunteer president of both Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) and the Alberta Liberal Party.

In 1999, Harvey became a full-time conservationist dedicated to national parks, wilderness, large landscape and connectivity conservation and climate change.

[17] During the opening ceremony of the Ninth World Wilderness Congress (WILD9) in Mérida, Mexico on November 6, 2009, Locke addressed Mexican President Felipe Calderon on behalf of the delegates.

[18] At WILD9, the first series of stamps on wilderness was initiated by the Mexican Postal Service and cancelled by the President Calderon to celebrate Tierras Sylvestres.

He spoke at the Czech EC Presidency Conference on Wilderness in Prague, Czech Republic in 2009,[21] gave a keynote speech on Europe's National Parks in a global context for Europarc Federation in Abruzzo, Italy in October 2010,[22] spoke at the Belgian EC Presidency Conference on Wilderness Restoration in Brussels in November 2010,[23] and at the launch of the Rewilding Europe initiative in Brussels, November 2010.

In 2013, Locke spoke in Ootacamund and in Mumbai, India about large landscape conservation and Nature Needs Half and wrote a feature story on those ideas for Sanctuary Asia.

[43] In the Summer of 2012 Locke announced he would seek the Liberal Party of Canada nomination in the riding of Calgary Centre, which had been left vacant after the resignation of Conservative Lee Richardson.