Bioregionalism is a call to become knowledgeable guardians of
the places where we live. Although we are seldom aware of it,
we live in naturally unique physical, ecological, historical and
cultural areas whose boundaries are more often ridgetops than
county lines and state borders.
Bioregionalism is a call to get to know our local land and water;
our local weather and sky; our local plants and animals; our local
neighbors and communities. It is a call to join our hearts, hands
and minds with what has been, what is, and what could be, in this
place.
A statement of principles formulated by the first North American
Bioregional Congress in 1984 suggests that
"People can join with neighbours to discuss ways we can work together to: 1) learn what our special local resources are, 2) plan how to best protect and use those natural and cultural resources, 3) exhange our time and energy to best meet our daily and long-term needs, and 4) enrich our children's local and global knowledge. Security begins by acting responsibly at home. Welcome home!"
You might find bioregionalists wandering together in the hills around their town, creating a map of important features, a map unlike any published one, a map that ties them, quite personally, to the land. You might find them lobbying their city to free a major creek from its underground pipelines so it can once again bubble free, a servant to the beauty and health of its local ecosystem. You might find them corresponding with people in a comparable bioregion four thousand miles away to share innovative ways to use a local bush in housing construction. You might find them passing around copies of "The BioRegional Quiz" to their neighbors, with questions like:
When you turn on your faucet, where does the water come from?
(Can you trace it back to local storm systems?) ...
When you flush the toilet, to what body of water does that effluent go?...
From where you are sitting, point north. ...
How many days until the moon is full? ...
What plant or animal is the "barometer" of environmental health for your bioregion? How is it doing?
One way to summarize both co-intelligence and bioregionalism might
be "the capacity to be a knowledgeable partner in co-creating
healthy contexts that supports your individual and communal joy
and health."
Two excellent resources for bioregionalism are permaculture
and asset-based community development.