Do you know how to trace the path your water takes before it comes out of your tap?

Can you name five edible native plants from your region?

Are you familiar with the lunar cycles and the growing seasons of your local plants?

In reality, what knowledge do you have of your territory, what connection do you have with the soil you walk on, with the living beings with whom you share your life?

Understanding bioregionalism

BY LEA DUMAS

Etudiante en architecture

It is because these questions, taken from a 1981 questionnaire, remain unanswered for most citizens today that it is important to learn about the ideologies that challenge our understanding of territory. One of these is bioregionalism. But what exactly do we mean by that?

Bioregionalism is a North American environmental movement that has begun to spread internationally in recent years but is still absent from the French dictionary. Yet, behind this concept lie real solutions for reconnecting humanity with nature and respecting territories that have been mistreated for too long. But what does a bioregion really mean, and what are the impacts of this concept?

Bioregion: Definition

Originating in the United States in the 1970s, the definition of a bioregion contrasts with the French approach, which divides territory according to administrative and political boundaries. Indeed, it refers to a portion of land whose borders are defined by natural elements and processes, such as topography, hydrology, and climate. It encompasses specific and unique ecosystems, particular soil types, and ways of living specific to the territory, and thus a vernacular architecture. For the American essayist Kirkpatrick Sale, who has made the bioregion one of his key themes, it is "a place defined not by human dictates but by life forms, topography, and the biotope; a region governed not by legislation but by nature."

Bioregion One of the most obvious scales is the catchment area, that is to say the entire land surface receiving waters which naturally flow towards the same watercourse, or towards the same groundwater aquifer.

However, it is important to understand that the boundaries of a bioregion are not clearly defined; they remain blurred, and this is not a problem—quite the contrary. It is a concept that is understood within an interplay of scales and whose definition encompasses multiple criteria, including cultural ones. Indeed, a bioregion can also be identified by the lasting and healthy relationships that all living beings have forged with a particular place.

History of Bioregionalism

To better understand this concept, let's now adopt an approach that would delight bioregionalists and go back to its origins. At the root of this activist theory is a group of visionary nugae, the Planet Drum Foundation. Created in 1973 in the San Francisco Bay Area, this four-person association was born from the initiative of Peter Berg and Judy Goldhaft, life partners. After crisscrossing America and meeting numerous environmental activists, they returned to their hometown with an intuition for bioregionalism, and it was in 1977, with biogeographer Raymond Dasmann, that Peter Berg first used the term "bioregion."

However, it wasn't until a decade later, with the publication of Kirkpatrick Sale's *Dwellers in the Land*, that this concept was theorized. It was also put into practice, notably with the utopian creation of Cascadia, a bioregion encompassing British Columbia and the American states of Oregon and Washington (its boundaries are fluid, and other parts of the United States are sometimes considered part of Cascadia).

In Europe, the concept only began to spread in the early 2010s, thanks to the Italian architect and urban planner Alberto Magnaghi, who published several texts that became a manifesto of the "territorialist school," a modernized, diluted, and open to criticism form of bioregionalism. In France, it was this latter form of the concept that first appeared, and in 2018, the architect and researcher Mathias Rollot published its first manifesto, *Les territoires du vivant* (The Territories of the Living). The texts of the movement's founder were subsequently translated and published in French. It is therefore a very recent concept***, which, for the moment, has found a relatively limited resonance in the media and environmental spheres.

Contributions of Bioregionalism

Let us now consider the contributions that bioregionalism can make in light of current social and environmental issues.

First, it is important to understand that this concept implies a total ontological transformation, moving closer to deep ecology and distancing itself from the Western anthropocentric paradigm. It is therefore necessary to re-examine the place of human beings in the ecosystem, and the relationships that all living things maintain with each other, from an anti-speciesist perspective.

Bioregionalism thus proposes a deconstruction of current political ecological solutions, such as "green capitalism," which is considered ineffective and even dangerous. Therefore, there is no single, universal answer to the ecological crisis we are experiencing, but rather solutions specific to each territory, each ecosystem, and each climate.

This specificity of solutions is also reflected in the desire to adopt decentralized governance. Indeed, the movement allows us to combat excessive globalization by focusing on the resources of our territory, our bioregion. This breaks away from capitalist, liberal, and globalized economic models by proposing decentralized governance. Decision-making is then shifted back to the local level, allowing residents to invest in the place they inhabit and adapt solutions accordingly. 

Furthermore, this approach is also applied to the desire for self-sufficiency present in the ideology of bioregionalism. Indeed, bioregionalism advocates adapting to the resources available in one's territory and producing and consuming as locally as possible, thereby limiting the impact of transporting goods and their embodied energy.

In terms of construction and architecture, bioregionalism again promotes total adaptation to the local environment and a paradigm shift that prioritizes sustainable innovations and moves beyond the competitive climate inherent in architectural practice today.

In short, bioregionalism is an anti-capitalist and anti-speciesist movement that aims to rethink our lives, our habits, and our territories to include living things in all their forms, in order to finally respect them.

Limitations of Bioregionalism

However, this movement obviously has limitations that are important to clarify.

First, it is essential to understand that bioregionalism is multifaceted and not prescriptive. We must not attempt to impose on bioregions the criteria we currently use for territorial divisions, with precise and straight borders. It is a fluid, subjective, and sensitive concept. Furthermore, it is a little-known movement, and therefore one that has been theorized, studied, and challenged very little.

Moreover, we must be wary of the appropriation of this ideology and understand that it is entirely different from the "localism" presented by some political parties. Far from being a retreat into isolationism or a form of nationalist sovereignty, we must keep in mind the criteria given by Mathias Rollot to fully define the bioregionalist movement: it is anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-speciesist, anti-determinist, and anti-nationalist.

Finally, some may criticize this movement for its radicalism, but it is up to each individual to judge the necessity of such radicalism in a context of collapse and climate emergency.

https://www.ghara.fr/comprendre-le-bioregionalisme/

TRANSLATION BY JULES LETAMBOUR

***BIOREGIONALISM IS NOT NEW... IT WAS UNDERSTOOD, THOUGH NOT DEFINED WITH SUCH A WORD, BY FARMERS AND LOCAL ADMINISTRATIONS — SINCE THE ROMAN EMPIRE, THROUGHOUT THE EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES — UNTIL THE VARIOUS REGIONS WERE REDEFINED BY POLITICAL BOUNDARIES. IN FRANCE, ENGLAND AND GERMANY FOR EXAMPLE, MANY REGIONS ARE STILL UNOFFICIALLY DEFINED BY LANDSCAPE FEATURES, ROCKS, FLORA AND FAUNA, RIVERS AND SEASONS, AS WELL AS TRADITIONS.

YET IT IS ESSENTIAL TO UNDERSTAND THESE LOCAL CHARACTERISTICS IN ORDER TO EXTRACT FOOD AND APPRECIATION OF NATURE RATHER THAN BULLDOZE PLACES AND SPRAY THEM WITH FERTILIZERS/HERBICIDES FOR MONO CULTURE — OR DIG BIG HOLES TO GET "RESOURCES"....

THIS HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MANY PROBLEMS IN AFRICA WHERE THE BIG NATIONALS SHOW HOW TO CULTIVATE PLANTS WITH METHODS THAT DO NOT HAVE A HOPE OF LASTING MORE THAN A COUPLE OF CROPS, BUT THAT HAVE DEVASTATED THE LOCAL PRODUCTION. I KNOW, I WAS THERE....

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

THE CONTRIBUTION BY INDIGENOUS POPULATION TO UNDERSTANDING LOCAL CONDITIONS HAS BEEN INVALUABLE IN AUSTRALIA....

SEE ALSO: https://www.currentconservation.org/indigenous-knowledge-and-climate-change-in-australia-2/

SEE ALSO: https://www.ghara.fr/blogs/