BIOREGIONALISM

Submitted by
Nafisa
A bioregion

Bioregionalism is a political, cultural, and ecological system or set of

views based on naturally defined areas called bioregions.

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 found throughout a continuous geographic terrain and include a
particular climate, local aspects of seasons, landforms, watersheds, soils, and
native plants and animals.

A bioregion can be determined initially by use of climatology, physiography,

animal and plant geography, natural history and other descriptive natural
sciences. The final boundaries of a bioregion, however, are best described by the
people who have lived within it, through human recognition of the realities of
living-in-place.

The term was coined by Allen Van Newkirk, founder of the Institute for
Bioregional Research, in 1975
Cascadia is a bioregion and possible proposed country located within the
western region of North America. Potential boundaries differ, with some drawn
along existing political state and provincial lines, and others drawn along larger
ecological, cultural, and economic boundaries.
Terms used in bioregionalism
Bioregion (ecoregion)
Watershed
Natural communities
Place
Identification
Re-inhabitation
Aspects of bioregions Scale
BIOGEOGRAPHIC: geology, Bioregional/watershed consciousness
geography, biology
RESOURCE USE: agriculture, Bioregionalism is not a new idea but can be
resource management, technology traced to the aboriginal, primal and native
SOCIAL: culture, social system, inhabitants of the landscape.
politics, economics
PHILOSOPHICAL: conceptions
of nature, spiritual awareness,
The development of the contemporary bioregional movement includes a
number of major historical events. The story of a richly diverse social and
ecological movement emerged from a variety of voices which exist in a number
of diverse contexts and locales.

The complexity of events and ideas that emanate from a bioregional

commitment to fundamental social change are difficult for a newcomer. The
usefulness of the following broad survey is that major events in the
bioregional story will be clearly revealed,
The concept of bioregionalism was greatly clarified in 1977 when Berg and the
renowned ecologist and California cultural historian Raymond Dasmann joined
to write Reinhabiting California, the first classic bioregional polemic. The
article was originally written and published by Berg under the title Strategies for
Reinhabiting the Northern California Bioregion (Berg 1977)

Living-in-place means following the necessities and pleasures of life as

they are uniquely presented by a particular site, and evolving ways to
ensure long-term occupancy of that site.

A society which practices living-in-place keeps a balance with its region of

support through links between human lives, other living things, and the
processes of the planetseasons, weather, water cyclesas revealed by the
place itself.

Bioregion refers both to a geographical terrain and a terrain of

consciousness to a place and the ideas that have developed about how to
live in that place. Within a bioregion the conditions that influence life are
similar and these in turn have influenced human occupancy.
 Machine-based civilization has abandoned the Greek mythological concept
that the earth, Gaia, is a single sentient organism.
As a result, multiple social and ecological crises exist that threaten the survival
of human civilization.
Bioregionalism offers an alternative paradigm based upon principles
including:
Division of the earth into nested scales of natural regions
Development of localized and self-sufficient economies
Adoption of a decentralized structure of governance that promotes autonomy,
subsidiarity and diversity
Integration of urban, rural and wild environments
Bioregionalism is connected to anarchist, utopian socialist and regional
planning traditions.
Use of bioregional patterns
is emerging as a meaningful geographic framework for understanding
place and designing long-term sustainable communities.
Thayer (2003) uses the term life-place
synonymously with bioregion.
The study of life-place connects natural place, sacred place,
identity, local arts, practices, food and wisdom into a holistic
knowledge set.

Bioregionally-based planning can actually narrow the problem and

solution, or help participants to acknowledge the limitations of a place and
its resources. Accepting the vulnerabilities a region might have to natural
disturbance or cultural change, or to limited resources

identifying biocultural regional patterns provides solutions for where to

build and where not to build.

It is a synthesis of multiple ways of knowing about a place, rather

than an analysis of multiple layers of data.
geographic information system (GIS) consisting of biophysical, social,
economic, and cultural databases Moreover, Eco-trust developed an
example of a conceptual Pattern Map through their Conservation Economy
project