This page is for community groups and community agency networks (CANs) interested in developing a bioregional approach, or simply interested in finding out more about bioregionalism.
Principles for Community-Centred Climate Adaptation, Bridie Kennerley, bioregion.org.uk (Apr 23, 2024)
Video[edit | edit source]
Helping bioregions emerge and evolve[edit | edit source]
- The Bioregional Conversations. Action-learning initiative of seven cutting-edge conversations, May - July 2024, to explore the different ways in which bioregioning is taking shape around the world. This small circle of leading bioregional practitioners intends to deepen the learning culture developing around bioregions internationally.
Near you[edit | edit source]
Latin America[edit | edit source]
- Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative, added 16:46, 22 March 2022 (UTC)
- Regenerative Colombia, "People, bioregions and organizations co-creating conditions to regenerate life"
- Regenerative Costa Rica, bringing together a community with multiple capacities to reflect, plan and activate projects that facilitate the transition towards a regenerative paradigm. Blog: costaricaregenerativa.org, added 10:02, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
Europe[edit | edit source]
- Bioregional Weaving Labs, Ashoka, ashoka.org, Currently 8 BWLs established: in Ireland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, France, Austria, Romania and Spain. added 20:53, 13 May 2024 (UTC)
- Burrenbeo Trust, landscape charity founded in 2008, dedicated to connecting all of us to our places and our role in caring for them. News: burrenbeo.com, added 08:34, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
- Resilience Earth, Reviving the Re·Generation of the earth, (Catalonia), "non-profit change management cooperative, committed to community resilience, regenerative design and the social and solidarity economy as fundamental tools for social, ecological and economic transformation." Video: Resilience Earth on youtube.com
- Atelier LUMA, Arles, France
UK[edit | edit source]
- Bioregional Learning Centre UK, Community Interest Company (CIC) founded in 2017 to serve the people and place of South Devon. Blog: bioregion.org.uk, UK Bioregional Community of Practice, bioregion.org.uk
- Bioregioning Tayside, Map, Bioregioning in Tayside, bioregioningtayside.scot, added 17:07, 24 November 2023 (UTC)
- Findhorn Watershed Initiative, "multi-generational vision to restore a mosaic of nature rich habitats, grow a local culture of nature connection and enable a thriving nature-based economy for the people and places of the Findhorn watershed, from the Monadhliath Mountains to the Moray Firth.", added 08:20, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
Oceania[edit | edit source]
- Enlivened Cooperative, worker-owned, not-for-profit, eco-social learning organization. (Hawaii). added 15:28, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
North America[edit | edit source]
- Bay Delta Trust, "a convening and weaving initiative seeking to improve bioregional coordination in the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta." added 14:52, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
- Regenerate Cascadia, 501(c)3 social movement organization developing a long-term bioregional vision and process that works with on-the-ground communities to design and implement new frameworks of governance, ecology, and economy for the regeneration and health of the Cascadia bioregion along the northeast Pacific rim of North America and beyond.
- Salish Sea Restoration, Salish Sea Wiki
The concept of Cascadian bioregionalism is closely identified with the environmental movement. In the early 1970s, the contemporary vision of bioregionalism began to be formed through collaboration between natural scientists, social and environmental activists, artists and writers, community leaders, and back-to-the-landers who worked directly with natural resources. A bioregion is defined in terms of the unique overall pattern of natural characteristics that are found in a specific place. The main features are generally obvious throughout a continuous geographic terrain and include a particular climate, local aspects of seasons, landforms, watersheds, soils, and native plants and animals. People are also counted as an integral aspect of a locale's life, as can be seen in the ecologically adaptive cultures of early inhabitants, and in the activities of present-day reinhabitants who attempt to harmonize in a sustainable way with the place where they live.
The Cascadia bioregion contains 75 distinct ecoregions, and extends for more than 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the Copper River in Southern Alaska, to Cape Mendocino, approximately 200 miles north of San Francisco, and east as far as the Yellowstone Caldera and continental divide. Cascadian bioregionalism deals with the connected ecological, environmental, economic, and cultural ties that are prevalent throughout the U.S. Pacific Northwest and distance the area from their eastern counterparts. The argument is that those in Washington and Oregon in the United States have much more in common with those in British Columbia, Canada, than those in Washington D.C.
The Cascadia Bioregion encompasses all of the state of Washington, all but the southeastern corner of Idaho, and portions of Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, Yukon, and British Columbia. Bioregions are geographically based areas defined by land or soil composition, watershed, climate, flora, and fauna. The Cascadia Bioregion claims the entire watershed of the Columbia River (as far as the Continental Divide), as well as the Cascade Range from Northern California well into Canada. It's also considered to include the associated ocean and seas and their ecosystems out to the continental slope. The delineation of a bioregion has environmental stewardship as its primary goal, with the belief that political boundaries should match ecological and cultural boundaries.
The area from Vancouver, B.C. down to Portland, Oregon has been termed a megaregion by the U.S. and Canadian governments, especially along the 'Cascadian Corridor'. Megaregions are defined as areas where "boundaries begin to blur, creating a new scale of geography now known as the megaregion. These areas have interlocking economic systems, shared natural resources, and ecosystems, and common transportation systems link these population centers together. This area contains 17% of Cascadian land mass, but more than 80% of the Cascadian population. The Canada–US border is diminishing in the face of further economic, political and cultural integration with such programs as the enhanced drivers license program – which can be used to get across the Canada–US border between Washington and British Columbia.
Bioregions mentioned in Appropedia articles:
- Ozark Area Community Congress, "The forested, stream-dissected hills of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas form a distinct bioregion known as the Ozarks." link checked 10:20, 13 July 2023 (UTC)
- Mid-Michigan bioregion, Michigan community action
Maps[edit | edit source]
- Bioregions on One Earth, oneearth.org. The Bioregions 2023 framework utilizes 14 realm divisions – further divided into 52 subrealms, 185 bioregions, and 844 ecoregions – as a framework to better understand the natural world that surrounds us. Navigator, One Earth, oneearth.org, added 20:36, 13 May 2024 (UTC)
- Bioregional cookbooks map
Community action projects[edit | edit source]
Bioregional mapping[edit | edit source]
Bioregional mapping is a powerful tool to increase understanding, change the story and influence policy. A good bioregional map shows layers of geology, flora, fauna, and inhabitation over time. All the interdisciplinary content that is integrated in this kind of map makes it a great communication tool to illustrate an ecological approach. One of the best examples of a richly communicative bioregional map is David McClosky's new map of Cascadia. W
Bioregional cookbook[edit | edit source]
This is the How-To guide for Locally Delicious. Please contact us the authors/editors of Locally Delicious: Recipes and Resources for Eating on the North Coast at info@locally-delicious.org for a more thorough discussion of our process, struggles, and recommendations for putting together this type of collaborative community project.
see also: Bioregional cookbook, Locally Delicious - The book
News and comment[edit | edit source]
2023
- On a conference visit to Shanghai, John Thackara brings back a rich harvest of eco-civilisational practice, The Daily Alternative (Nov 27, 2023)
- “If we design well, we design for shared aliveness”. Speaking from China, John Thackara lays out an economy defined by care, The Daily Alternative (Jul 28, 2023)
- Fighting climate change by reconnecting to ecosystems in our own backyards, nationalobserver.com (Jun 20, 2023)
- Bioregions: ChatGPT edition, Tom Watson, twicefire.com (Jan 08, 2023) — Asking ChatGPT about bioregions
2022
- A bioregional mapping scheme, Tom Watson, twicefire.com (Dec 11, 2022) — My pitch for how we ought to tackle the challenge of mapping bioregions
- The challenges of mapping bioregions, Tom Watson, twicefire.com (Nov 12, 2022)
- Preaching the good word of Bioregionalism, Tom Watson, twicefire.com (May 11, 2022) — What are some of the challenges of promoting Bioregionalism
- Bioregionalism on the Internet, Tom Watson, twicefire.com (May 09, 2022) — What is bioregionalism? What would one find with an internet search?
- Nature surpassing nation: the Amazon Sacred Headwaters shows how a bioregion can transcend borders, The Daily Alternative (Mar 14, 2022)
Bioregional perspective[edit | edit source]
The bioregionalist perspective opposes a homogeneous economy and consumer culture with its lack of stewardship towards the environment. This perspective seeks to:
- Ensure that political boundaries match ecological boundaries.
- Highlight the unique ecology of the bioregion.
- Encourage consumption of local foods where possible.
- Encourage the use of local materials where possible.
- Encourage the cultivation of native plants of the region.
- Encourage sustainability in harmony with the bioregion. W
Bioregionalism is proactive[edit | edit source]
According to Peter Berg, bioregionalism is proactive, and is based on forming a harmony between human culture and the natural environment, rather than being protest-based like the original environmental movement. Also, while classical environmentalists saw human industry as the enemy of nature and nature as a victim needing to be saved; bioregionalists see humanity and its culture as a part of nature, focusing on building a positive, sustainable relationship with both the sociological and ecological environments, rather than a focus on preserving and segregating the wilderness from the world of humanity. W
About Bioregionalism[edit | edit source]
Bioregionalism is a philosophy that suggests that political, cultural, and economic systems are more sustainable and just if they are organized around naturally defined areas called bioregions, similar to ecoregions. Bioregions are defined through physical and environmental features, including watershed boundaries and soil and terrain characteristics. Bioregionalism stresses that the determination of a bioregion is also a cultural phenomenon, and emphasizes local populations, knowledge, and solutions.
Bioregionalism is a concept that goes beyond national boundaries—an example is the concept of Cascadia, a region that is sometimes considered to consist of most of Oregon and Washington, the Alaska Panhandle, the far north of California and the West Coast of Canada, sometimes also including some or all of Idaho and western Montana. Another example of a bioregion, which does not cross national boundaries, but does overlap state lines, is the Ozarks, a bioregion also referred to as the Ozarks Plateau, which consists of southern Missouri, northwest Arkansas, the northeast corner of Oklahoma, southeast corner of Kansas.
Bioregions are not synonymous with ecoregions as defined by bodies such as the World Wildlife Fund or the Commission for Environmental Cooperation; the latter are scientifically based and focused on wildlife and vegetation. Bioregions, by contrast are human regions, informed by nature but with a social and political element. In this way bioregionalism is simply political localism with an ecological foundation.
See also[edit | edit source]
- Localism
- Arts and culture
- Communities online
- Community currencies, sustainable community action
- Community involvement
- Ethical consumerism
- Food activism, including Local food
- Food Sovereignty
- Free stuff
- Getting to know your locality, Getting to know your region
- Reduce, reuse, repair and recycle
- Resilient communities
- Sharing
- Community energy
- Towards sustainable economies
- Transition Towns
- Urban sustainability
- World 5.0
- Community land trust
- Place mapping
- Types of resources
local information can be found, or shared, via our many location pages
External links
- Cascadia, Geography of Bioregion, Name, Flag, Images and Maps
- Bioregions: Notes On A Design Agenda, John Thackara, April 23rd, 2015, thackara.com
