Bioregionalism Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Ecological write rs and thinkers Allen Van Newkirk, Peter Berg, Jim Dodge, Raymond Dasmann, and Gary Snyder developed the concept of bioregionalism in the mid-1970s. It is a framework for the organization of society, based on the idea of an ecological area or “bioregion” defined by a local pattern of ecological and social characteristics, rather than static political boundaries. In the words of Peter Berg, bioregionalism is both a geographic terrain or place, and a terrain of consciousness, a way of thinking about how local communities can produce a sustainable future. Bioregionalism research looks specifically at the experiences of local social and ecological organization based on an understanding of community and shared identity as embedded in local ecology, geography, history, and social and cultural context.

A bioregion is defined according to the main ecological features found in a continuous geographical terrain, such as climate, soils, watersheds, and distribution of native species, including humans. For example, the Cascadia Bioregion in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada includes the Alaskan panhandle, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, northern California and western Montana. Geographically, it includes the Columbia River Watershed and the area around the Cascade Mountain Range. The region is historically defined as the “land of the Chinook Jargon speakers,” a trade language used for communication at the end of the 18th century between Native American tribes and white traders

The primary objectives of bioregionalist thinkers and activists are to restore and maintain natural ecosystems, practice sustainable livelihoods by establishing local systems of trade and food provisioning to satisfy basic human needs, and support the work of re-habitation. Re-habitation refers to the restoration of degraded areas and the subsequent development of a relationship between people and nature that involves a sustainable way of life. For example, residents of the Cascadia bioregion work to restore salmon runs and develop ways to use plant-based fuels as a renewable energy source.

Proponents and Critics

While bioregionalists are mainly concerned with the relationship between local communities, environmental habitats, and local forms of democratic governance, recent works by bioregionalist thinkers also consider the relationship between local bioregions and global environmental and economic contexts. Bioregionalists critique the state governance system by arguing that artificial political boundaries are unable to effectively address ecological problems. Instead, they envision a confederation of local and bioregional communities that acknowledge the connections between diverse ecological communities and bioregions, and work together to preserve local cultures and diversities that comprise the larger global whole. Bioregionalists recognize the relationship between local communities and global environmental problems; for example, they view global warming as the consequence of local activities and practices that are linked in a global political economy.

Critics of bioregionalism point out that the approach “naturalizes” human life in a way that recalls environmental determinism, that regions are not actual or given but historically and culturally constructed, that all earth processes (including human social and economic practice for millennia) are multi-scaled and never isolated in convenient regions, and that “blood and soil” discourses like bioregionalism recall the grim ideologies of fascism. Nevertheless, recent scholarly interest in the concept of place within a variety of disciplines including sociology, anthropology, geography, and philosophy includes a discussion of bioregionalist thinkers as pioneers in the development of new conceptions of place. In this sense, bioregionalists prioritize the construction and analysis of place from the ground up, with the development of new social systems by local residents based on the material limitations of local ecological places and regions.

Bibliography:

Daniel Berthold-Bond, “The Ethics of ‘Place’: Reflections on Bioregionalism,” Environmental Ethics (v.22, 2000);
Mike Carr, Bioregionalism and Civil Society: Democratic Challenges to Corporate Clobalism (UBC Press, 2004);
D. Meredith, “The Bioregion as a Communitarian Micro-region (and its Limitations),” Ethics Place and Environment (8(1): 83-94. 2005);
“The Bioregion as a Communitarian Micro-region (and Its Limitations),” Ethics Place and Environment (8(1): 83-94);
Michael McGinnis, , Bioregionalism (Routledge, 1999);
Robert Thayer, LifePlace: Bioregional Thought and Practice (University of California Press, 2003).