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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] Image File history File links Acap. ... An ecoregion, sometimes called a bioregion, is a relatively large area of land or water that contains a geographically distinct assemblage of natural communities. ... A drainage basin is the area within the drainage basin divide (blue outline), and drains the surface runoff and river discharge (green lines) of a contiguous area. ... Loess field in Germany Surface-water-gley developed in glacial till, Northern Ireland For the American hard rock band, see SOiL. For the System of a Down song, see Soil (song). ... For other uses, see Culture (disambiguation). ...

Overview

The term appears to have originated in work by Peter Berg and Raymond Dasmann in the early 1970s.^[2] The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, also called The Seventies. ...

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]

For the journal, see Ecology (journal). ... It has been suggested that Local food network be merged into this article or section. ... Rainforest on Fatu-Hiva, Marquesas Islands Natural resources are naturally occurring substances that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified (natural) form. ... In the field of ecology, an indigenous species is an organism which is native to a region or ecosystem. ... The Earth Day flag includes a NASA photo. ...

In politics

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. This section has been tagged since February 2008.

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. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ...

"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. A Green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of Green politics. ...

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. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Guadalupe River is the name of several rivers in the world. ... For other uses, see Texas (disambiguation). ... The Tepozteco mountain dominates views from Tepoztlán Tepoztlán view Tepoztlán is a town in the Mexican state of Morelos. ... Morelos is one of the constituent states of Mexico. ... Catedral de Santo Domingo The Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca or simply Oaxaca   is one of the 31 states of Mexico, located in the southern part of Mexico, west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. ... Chase County (standard abbreviation: CS) is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. ... Blue Ridge Mountains, Shining Rock Wilderness Area Appalachian Mountain system The Blue Ridge is a mountain chain in the eastern United States, part of the Appalachian Mountains, forming their eastern front from Georgia to Pennsylvania. ... Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Largest metro area Charlotte metro area Area  Ranked 28th  - Total 53,865 sq mi (139,509 km²)  - Width 150 miles (240 km)  - Length 560[1] miles (900 km)  - % water 9. ...

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. For other uses, see Vancouver (disambiguation). ... This article is about the city of Victoria. ... Yale-Lillooet is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. ... A view overlooking Skaha Lake in the Okanagan Valley The regional districts that comprise the Okanagan are shown in red. ...

Index of Bioregions

• Caledonian conifer forests
• Cascadia (bioregion)
• Eastern Piedmont bioregion
• English Lowlands beech forests
• Southern Appalachian or Katuah bioregion

Scots Pine at Mar Lodge, Deeside. ... The Pacific Northwest from space This page is about the region that includes parts of Canada and the US. For the US only region, see Northwestern United States The Pacific Northwest (abbreviated PNW, or PacNW) or Cascadia is a region in the northwest of North America. ... Beech forest The term English Lowlands beech forests refers to a terrestrial ecoregion, as defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the European Environment Agency (EEA). ...

See also

• Eco-Communalism
• Ecological footprint
• Grassroots democracy
• List of ecoregions
• Social ecology

There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Grassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing political processes where as much decision-making authority as practical is shifted to the organizations lowest geographic level of organization. ... This is a list of ecoregions as compiled by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). ... Social ecology is, in the words of its leading exponents, a coherent radical critique of current social, political, and anti-ecological trends as well as a reconstructive, ecological, communitarian, and ethical approach to society. Social Ecology is a radical view of ecology and of social/political systems. ...

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.

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.

Young Gary Snyder, on one of his early book covers Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet (originally, often associated with the Beat Generation), essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. ...

External links

• Planet Drum Foundation website.
• North American Bioregional Congress website
• Putah-Cache Bioregion Project - interdisciplinary research and educational project at UC Davis.
• Encyclopedia of Earth: Ecoregion