Bioregionalism

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Bioregionalism is a term used to describe an approach to political, cultural, and environmental issues based on naturally-defined regional areas, consistent with the concept of bioregions, or ecoregions. These areas are usually based on a combination of 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 — with phrases such as "the politics of place" and "terrain of consciousness" appearing in bioregionalist writings — and places emphasis on local populations, knowledge and solutions.[1]

Contents

[edit] Overview

The term appears to have originated in work by Peter Berg and Raymond Dasmann in the early 1970s.[2]

The bioregionalist perspective opposes a homogeneous economy and consumer culture because that culture ignores a dependency on the natural world.

Those taking a bioregionalist perspective seek to:

  • Ensure that the boundaries which demarcate political regions match those which demarcate ecological, or bio-regions.[3]
  • Become familiar with the unique ecology of the bioregion.
  • Eat local food where possible.
  • Use local materials where possible.
  • Cultivate native plants of the region.
  • Live sustainably in a way that is specifically tailored to the bioregion. [4]

[edit] In politics

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North American Bioregional Assemblies, known first as NABC; North American bioregional congress, through NABC iv, then changed to 'turtle island bioregional gathering' (NABC/TIBG V, hill country, Texas, 1992) then to continental bioregional congress (CBC on the prairie, flint hills, Kansas, 2002) have been conducted amongst adherents of the bioregional movement throughout Anglo-America since 1984.

"This is one of the constituencies from which Green Parties drew their members in the 1980s." immediately following the first NABC congress, the "committee of correspondence" met in minneapolis, commencing the green party in North America; seven of the fourteen who met had attended NABC 1.

chronology of continental congresses:
NABC 1: Excelsior Springs, Missouri, USA, 1984
NABC 2: Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan, USA, 1986
NABC 3: Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada 1988
NABC 4: Lake Cobbosseecontee, Maine, USA, 1990
TIBG 5: Guadalupe River, hill country, Texas, USA, 1992
TIBG 6: Ohio River, Kentucky, USA, 1994
TIBG 7: Meztitla, Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico, 1996
TIBG 8 was planned for Puerto Ángel, Oaxaca, Mexico, in 1998; a hurricane swept through that spring and destroyed the planned site. The congress process went into hibernation until October 2000 when a listserv was created for the purpose of discussing reviving the process. In turn an organising meeting was convened in April 2000, in the hills south of lawrence, Kansas. Forty representatives of the movement proposed and consented to a 2002 gathering there in Kansas.
cbc 8: Chase County, Kansas, USA, 2002
cbc 9: Earthaven ecovillage, Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina, USA, 2005
cbc 10: planned for a site in Indiana (Grailville, 2008) which has not worked out, there is current deliberation as to an alternate location and hosting group.

Whatever is said below, bioregionalism intersects with green politics but is in no way subsumed by it. In addition to birthing the North American green party, bioregionalism can also take major credit for the birth of the current sustainable movement. It is curious to note that except in certain progressive regions, mainly the west coast, both the greens and sustainabilists operate largely unaware of this heritage.

Bioregionalism's deployment in Green electoral politics has been frequent since these parties' creation in North America. Factions backing bioregionalism tend to oppose the creation of local party organizations whose boundaries conform to existing electoral districts, often resulting in candidate nominations decisions proceeding with the participation of members living outside the district but within its bioregion (e.g Vancouver (1985-91), Victoria (1988-95)) or disenfranchising individuals outside the bioregion but within the district (e.g. Yale-Lillooet (1985-89)). Bioregionalism has also been deployed by Green Party organizations wishing to opt out of policy decisions by provincial and federal Green Parties. The most notable example of this has traditionally been the Okanagan Greens which originally organized themselves on the basis of electoral districts, to avoid the authority of the BC Green Party which only recognized bioregional organizations that promptly switched to a bioregional organization as soon as the BC Greens recognized electoral districts in 1994. To this day, the Okanagan Greens continue to entitle voting members from Brewster and other locations in Washington state that fall within the Okanagan Valley. Bioregionalism has also been deployed in Green politics by those seeking to magnify the voting power of highly concentrated groups of Greens living in remote areas. While 50% of British Columbia's population might live in the Fraser Valley bioregion, perhaps 2-3% reside within the Middle Fraser bioregion.

[edit] Index of Bioregions

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Bioregionalism: The Need For a Firmer Theoretical Foundation", Don Alexander, Trumpeter v13.3, 1996.
  2. ^ "Reinhabiting California", Peter Berg and Raymond Dasmann, The Ecologist 7, no. 10 (1977)
  3. ^ Davidson, S. (2007) 'The Troubled Marriage of Deep Ecology and Bioregionalism', Environmental Values, vol. 16(3): 313-332
  4. ^ Bastedo, 1994. See Bibliography.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Reinhabiting A Separate Country: A Bioregional Anthology of Northern California, edited by Peter Berg, San Francisco, Planet Drum, 1978. ISBN 0-937102-00-8.
  • Bioregionalism, edited by Michael McGinnis, Routledge, 1998. ISBN 0-415-15445-6.
  • Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision, Kirkpatrick Sale, Random House, 1985. ISBN 0-8203-2205-9 (University of Georgia Press, 2000).
  • A Place in Space: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Watersheds, Gary Snyder, Counterpoint, 1995. ISBN 1-887178-27-9
  • LifePlace: Bioregional Thought and Practice, Robert Thayer, University of California Press, 2003. ISBN 0-520-23628-9
  • Shield Country: The Life and Times of the Oldest Piece of the Planet, Jamie Bastedo, Red Deer Press, 1994. ISBN 0-88995-191-8
  • Bioregionalimo. La visione locale di un mondo globale, Emanuele Guerrieri Ciaceri, Argo Edizioni, Italia 2006. ISBN 9788888659190

[edit] External links