A growing number of people are recognizing that in order to secure the clean air, water and food that we need to healthfully survive, we have to become guardians of the places where we live. People sense the loss in not knowing our neighbors and natural surroundings, and are discovering that the best way to take care of our selves, and to get to know our neighbors, is to protect and restore our region.
Bioregionalism recognizes, nutures, sustains and celebrate our local connections with:
Land
Plants and Animals
Springs, Rivers, Lakes, Groundwater and Ocenas
Air
Families, Friends, Neighbors
Community
Native Traditions
Indigenous Systems of Production and Trade
It is taking the time to learn the possibilities of place. It is a mindfulness of local environment, history, and community aspirations that leads to a sustainable future. It relies on safe and renewable sources of food and energy. It ensures employment by supplying a rich diversity of services within the community, by recycling our resources, and by exchanging prudent surpluses with other regions. Bioregionalism is working to satisfy basic needs lo9cally, such as education, health care and self-government.
The bioregional perspective recreates a widely-shared sense of regional identity founded upon a renewed critical awareness of and respect for the integrity of our ecological communities.
People are joining with neighbors to discuss ways we can work together to:
- Learn what our special local resources are;
- Plan how to best protect and use those natural and cultural resources;
- Exchange our time and energy to best meet or daily and long-term needs;
- Enrich our children's local and planetary knowledge.
Security begins by acting responsibly at home.
Welcome Home!
This statement was adopted by the first North American Bioregional Congress in 1984 and reaffirmed at NABC II and II.
- The North American Bioregional Congress, 1985
NABC, P.O. Box 129, Drury, MO, 65638.
Please enclose $1 to help cover postage.
[Reprinted from the Heartland Bioregion Communicator, produced by the Three Rivers
Project. The Heartland Bioregion, the upper watershed of the Susqahanna river, borders Tompkins County and includes Binghampton, Otsego County, Madison County and Cortland County. Write to Three Rivers Project, PO Box 252, South New Berlin, NY 13843 or call 607-336-4205.]
