"The future will be bioregional."  

- Joe Brewer [Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth]

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The Center for an Ecology-Based Economy (CEBE) was founded in 2013 on ecological principles, indigenous insights from permaculture, and the transformative power of communities central to the Just Transition Movement. As CEBE expands its reach through the Community Resilience Partnership and other collaborative projects, we are broadening our understanding of our community as well. Our work is embedded in the biological and cultural community of our bioregion.

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A bioregion is a geographic territory whose limits are defined not by political boundaries, but by the needs and lifeways of its human and other-than-human inhabitants, as well as the life-supporting capacity of its ecological systems. A bioregion must be large enough to sustain its biological communities but small enough to feel like home.* A well-functioning bioregion meets the needs of its human residents—such as clean air and water, healthy food, safe shelter, good education and health services—in ways that are regenerative, life-affirming, holistic and community-strengthening.​​​​

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“Bioregioning is something that humans and early pre-humans, hominins, have done really since the beginning of time. It means living in a place, understanding that you’re part of the natural systems of that place, and, in a sense, working with those natural systems.” 

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— Isabel Carlisle, Bioregioning and Our Felt Sense of Place

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Fully realizing the vision of a thriving, regenerative culture at the bioregional scale is not work that CEBE can, or ever will, carry on its own. Thankfully, both the Forests of the Northeast bioregion and our more-immediate Western Maine Foothills subregion, are rich in regenerative practices and practitioners. Land trusts, conservation groups, educators, farmers, activists, builders, artists, cultural knowledge-bearers (and frankly anyone who is interested in participating) all play a role in this work. When everything needs to change, everyone is a potential change maker, and every voice counts.​ Historically marginalized people in our inherited economic and political system may very well be those who are in the best position now to offer the cultural wisdom and the reality-based, front-line insights that are most needed.   

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CEBE has been on this change-making journey here in the Western Maine Foothills since our inception. Now we are expanding upon what we have learned and accomplished over the years to help spark and strengthen collaborative connections across the Forests of the Northeast bioregion and beyond; cultivating new opportunities for knowledge-exchange and collective, coordinated regenerative action. In the process, we believe we will be doing our part in the co-creation of a brighter future across this vast beautiful bioregion we all call home. 

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“I would go as far as saying bioregioning is our species’ evolutionary survival pattern. None of us would be here if we hadn’t [for most of human evolution] been regenerative expressions of place—or, scientifically speaking, a keystone species that co-created the ecosystems in which we dwelt.”

—Daniel Christian Wahl, Bioregioning and Our Felt Sense of Place

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If any of this resonates with you or even just piques your curiosity, we invite you to join us on this journey!  Here are two ways to connect with our work:

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• Join CEBE’s Bioregional Working Group – We warmly welcome your gifts, insights, curiosity, and engagement.  Please subscribe to CEBE’s email newsletter to stay in the loop.  

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• Become a member of the Design School for Regenerating Earth (for $5/month) and then join the Forests of the Northeast Bioregional Group hub!

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*Adapted from Lawrence F. London, Jr., What is a Bioregion?, 10 May 2000