Bioregion

A bioregion is a term and concept that has developed especially over the last 30 years within, but not limited to, the fields of geography, environmental politics, and environmental philosophy, as well as within environmental activist circles. This article examines the historical development of the term, what it signifies, how it has shaped bioregional philosophy, its criticisms, and how the concept relates to green cities.

The term bioregion is derived from bios (life) and regia/regere (region/territory) and refers to the bio-, geo-, and chemical-physical processes and components that constitute a specific geographical territory. Although the term itself did not enter into popular and academic discourse until the late 1970s/early 1980s, when it was popularized by the bioregional movement, intimations of its meaning were present decades prior. Aldo Leopold's “Land Ethic” is one such early progenitor, as is the work of the geographer Carl Sauer. Equally, the development and trajectory of the concepts of holism and ecology can be said to have affected the understanding of a bioregion.

Early and continued use of the term refers to watersheds, so that a bioregion is defined by the streams, rivers, and bodies of water that exist within a given geographical—and thus bioregional—locality. Bioregions may also be identified by bounded geographic and region-specific types of soils, grasslands, forest and tree cover (or lack thereof), plant and animal species, seasonal weather patterns, and regional varieties of rocks. However, the most common bioregional identifier still remains watersheds; the other components listed above tend to be associated with existing within a given, defining watershed. In essence, watersheds and the biologic, geographic, and chemical components that are contained therein are seen as a collective and distinct place that has its own natural and physical characteristics and processes that can be identified by various scientific measuring tools. Some are comfortable with expanding the size of a bioregion to include mountain ranges (e.g., the Rockies bioregion), types of soils (e.g., the midwest prairie), weather patterns (e.g., the Arctic, with its continual snow cover), or connected watersheds (e.g., the bioregion of the Mississippi River and its many tributaries).

Various philosophies and political movements have developed around the concept of a bioregion. Some conservationist biologists have developed a concept of “rewilding,” based in part on linking bioregions by corridors so that megafauna can continue their historical migratory routes, which are being threatened by habitat loss. These biologists and wildlife advocates attempt to pass legislation that recognizes and protects ecosystem processes that occur on micro- and macro-bioregional scales.

The concept of a bioregion has directly influenced the bioregional movement, also called “bioregionalism.” This movement advocates place-based cultural and linguistic diversity that depends on living within the defined limits of bioregions. Bioregionalists advocate “reinhabitation” within bioregions, and they thus attempt to create bioregionally based lifestyle practices, politics, and appropriate technologies and economies of scale that live within, respect, and depend on the limits of a bioregion. Bioregionalists tend to also be active in local bioregional restoration and protection projects. Theirs can also be said to be a philosophical movement, drawing on the works of ecophilosophers, conservation biologists, and practices of indigenous cultures. Bioregionalism is also a political movement, based especially on various renderings of anarchism and green political ideologies that stress decentralization and community autonomy. Bioregionalists tend to [Page 38]advocate a bioregionally based politics in which the lifestyle and political goals adhere to living in harmony within local bioregional processes and limits.

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