Elk State Forest
Source: Kristen Locy
While watching the third installment of Movement Generation’s “Course Correction” series, I learned about the idea of thinking of places in terms of “bioregions” instead of the political boundaries we use today to govern, like counties or states.
I highly recommend the whole series, but the ideas in the series got me thinking about our own area and what a more localized place-based type of governance would look like.
A bioregion is defined by Movement Generation as “a land and water territory whose limits are defined not by political boundaries, but by the geographical limits of human communities & ecological systems.”
While this idea may seem a bit strange at first, it actually aligns with our organizing here at CCJ and a lot of traditional indigenous forms of governance – the fact that small groups of people in an area know their issues and solutions better than anyone else.
This is true for people’s connections to the land. I know the streams and forests in my area like the back of my hand. I know the family of turkeys that pass by my house every day, the streams that ebb and flow with the seasons, the way the herons migrate overhead to their feeding grounds, and which Ash trees in the forest by my house have succumbed to Emerald Ash Borer.
My neighbors!
Source: Kristen Locy
This knowledge was built throughout my life but also passed on to me through my generations of family living here. This intimate knowledge of an environment, to be used alongside scientific research, is essential to be a true steward of an area.
As described by Carlita del Sol in the article Where do you draw the boundaries of home? Understanding bioregions might give you an idea.:
“It is curious that the concept of a bioregion is so unknown to the mainstream population, when every human culture on the planet was conceived in a bioregion, a geographic area defined by natural ecological boundaries (such as rivers & mountain ranges) as well as the social-cultural boundaries of the human groups within that place.”
Del Sol goes on to explain some of the benefits of bioregions which include:
– Facing one’s own accumulated waste will inevitably lead to a waste management system that looks like Zero Waste;
– When the primary sources of food and products come from one’s own bioregion, food systems that enhance or synergize with local ecological regeneration are supported and ensure an ongoing supply of sufficient and healthy food;
– The local ecological system of checks-and-balances would keep threatening viruses like COVID-19 from becoming a human epidemic; and
– We would aim to heal people whose trauma or personal conditions lead them to cause harm to their bioregional “family”, rather than punish them.
To me, this sure seems like treating one’s neighbors and environment as you would a loved one, with respect and care. We can all agree on that!
To further explain the concept, here is an example of “Bioregional Governance” being implemented in Puerto Rico:
In this clip they talk about Puerto Rico building their own “energy independence” by utilizing solar and wind energy instead of shipping in coal or natural gas.
However – our region does produce coal and natural gas. Does that mean we are energy independent? Yes, our Pennsylvania coal and gas have reduced our reliance on foreign oil and gas, but I do not believe it has brought control of the energy system, or the wealth provided by it, back to our communities. While we may extract the resources here with our own hands, wealthy elites are still making decisions for us and making the largest share of profits off of this extraction. Therefore, while our region does have a wealth of fossil fuels, we must re-imagine our energy situation and shift to community-owned renewable energy systems in order to create true energy independence.
Bioregional Governance graphic
Source: Movement Generation
These maps highlight various ecological/traditional indigenous regions in Pennsylvania:
Questions to think about:
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What are different ways in which our region could be divided into “bioregions”?
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How do you draw the boundaries of “home”?
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What are ways you can imagine community-based of governance, ecological protection and a sustainable & vibrant economy?
Maybe you don’t feel a strong connection to the ecosystem of this area or you are new to the area. Now is the perfect time to nurture that relationship. Try learning the local tree species (there are lots of great apps for this), go bird watching, explore local parks (to come in a future blog!), get to know the indigenous history of the land here.
MG’s Course Correction Session #3 – Closing by Angela Aguilar:
Angela Aguilar beautifully explains in the Course Correction webinar the relationships between our connection to our environment, our neighbors, and ourselves:
Our movement ancestors and elders, in reflection, have told us that we also need to transform our intra – within us – and interpersonal relationships. So just imagine what kind of ancestral knowledge and generational healing will activate as we remember our self ecology together for the purposes of collective governance through care.
As we get back into the right relationship with the living world we are a part of, through building our ecological literacy, through knowing our body/mind/spirits deeply, with trust and simultaneously cultivating that knowing within our bioregional relationships within the collective. This also grows regenerative economies. It rebuilds community wealth based on sharing and caring and moves us even closer to rematriation or restoring the sacred and reparations – repairing relations. It has to be part of our strategy.
Mapping deliberately disrupted our knowledge of home, or ecology, our management of home, economies, by disconnecting our relationships to home – our ecosystems. This has for the most part endured through continued indoctrination through this globalized logic of control, for the purposes of stealing and building wealth, over the course of over five centuries – 500+ years.
This imposed cultural shift of disconnection had to happen at the scale of the human mind, so this means we were also mapped. Mapping imposes names, creates identities, it creates this hierarchical imaginary world, that is necessary to maintain white supremacy, heteosexism, ableism, gender binarism, all of which uphold the global extractive economy through racial capitalism.
Maybe the way our world has been “mapped” and “framed” isn’t just the way it is.
Next time you look at a map, think about who drew those lines on the map, and maybe how they could look different.
For more reading and information:
