More on Bioregionalism in the Great Lakes ~ Joe Brewer Feb 10th, 11th, 12th
More on Joe Brewer’s visit to Rochester, and the context of this work:
Joe Brewer and his partner Penny Heiple from the Bioregional Activators Network are coming to the Great Lakes Bioregion, including visits to Toronto, Cleveland, Binghamton, Ithaca, and Rochester. This is an international collaborative effort, drawing on decades of scientific research, to bring together a planetary network of bioregions. The Great Lakes Bioregion can both lead and learn from regions around the world for cultural regeneration (generations in the community) and ecological regeneration (community in the bioregion).
Joe is a transdisciplinary scholar with a background in both earth sciences and cognitive sciences. He’s an inspiring speaker and leading-edge systems complexity thinker. He’s currently doing on-the-ground regeneration work in a 500,000-ha (1 million acres) bioregion around Barichara, Colombia, and helping to create a global bioregional network. He is the founder of the Design School for Regenerating Earth and the author of The Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth.
- Toronto (Jan 30 – Feb 4): legacyproject.org/7gen/events.html
- Binghamton (Feb 6): thersa.org/events/2023/01/a-new-economic-paradigm-for-people-and-planet
- Ithaca (Feb 7): TBD
- Cleveland (Feb 8-10): https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/regenerating-bioregions-co-designing-our-future-together-tickets-523171218197
- Rochester (Feb 10-12): See below for details
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Our goal is to strengthen ties amongst those who identify with the bioregion or have specific regenerative projects that we can help to bring together. Here is some of the background:
This is a deep systems approach of cultural and ecological regeneration, from the ground up and fractally scale-linked. Said another way, we’re helping multiply meaningful impact across silos – from health and education to climate and economy – through the right relationships with each other, especially across generations, and the land.
Every bioregion is unique in its context, with bioregions designing locally while learning globally.
In a powerful North/South collaboration, a Great Lakes Bioregional Learning Center will prototype real-world action together with Brewer’s Living Laboratory in the 500,000-hectare bioregion (corresponding to the regional climate system) of Barichara, Colombia.
Nestled high in the mountains of Colombia, Barichara is home to a population of 7,000. It’s registered as a national monument, with beautiful vistas and classic local architecture.
Located in the heart of Indigenous Guane territory, it’s the only “High Andes” tropical dry forest on Earth. There is a network of small landowner farms providing food to the town, which depends on tourism. Many of the river systems have dried up. More than 90% of the native forest was destroyed to make room for monoculture crops like tobacco, beans, and squash.
There is a rich Indigenous culture in Barichara and a number of regenerative projects. The Barichara work, connected to other bioregions around the planet, includes the development of bioregional investment platforms, an approach to integrated landscape and project infrastructure and management, and cultural learning and regeneration. Find out more in this video:
Possible Planet is the fiscal sponsor for Earth Regenerators, Barichara Ecoversity, and Bioregional Activators. It is our hope to continue the work of bioregional collaboration after Joe’s visit next week. Just as it makes sense for the funders to get together, it also makes sense for the projects and organizations that currently are competing for resources. Our model, based on that of the Commonland Foundation, brings together all stakeholders in a vision of a long-term holistic approach with four major returns — inspirational, social, natural, and financial.