
BIOREGIONAL

Rooted in Regeneration, guided by Bioregion.
Join the Bioregional Working Group!
Interested in Bioregional work? Our working groups offer opportunity to learn and contribute to projects alongside other community members. Visit our Events Page for upcoming meetings and feel free to attend one!
"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 regenerative, life-supporting capacity of its ecological systems."
The Center for an Ecology-Based Economy (CEBE) was founded in 2013 upon two foundational structures: the ecological principles and indigenous insights found in permaculture, and the understanding of the transformative capabilities of communities that lie at the heart of the Transition Movement. As CEBE expands its energy and expertise out to a broader geographic area through our work as a Community Resilience Partnership service provider and through our growing networks and collaborative projects, we are broadening our understanding of our community as well. The wider biological and cultural community in which our work is inextricably imbedded is our bioregion.
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 regenerative, life-supporting capacity of its ecological systems. A bioregion must be large enough to maintain the integrity of the region's biological communities, habitats, and ecosystems, but also small enough for local residents to consider it home.1 A well-functioning bioregion meets the needs of its human residents—such as clean air, clean water, healthy food, safe shelter, good education and health services—in ways that are regenerative, life-affirming, holistic and community-strengthening.
Fully realizing the vision of a thriving, regenerative culture at the bioregional scale is clearly 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 organizations, researchers, educators, students, farmers, permaculture practitioners, foresters, activists, builders, designers, organizers, technicians, cultural knowledge-bearers, faith-community members, healers, caregivers, community organizers, innovators, artists, creatives (and frankly anyone who is interested in participating) all have an important role to play in this work. When everything needs to change, everyone is a potential change maker, and every voice counts. People who have been historically marginalized 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.
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.
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 sign-on to CEBE’s mailing list (here at the table) or send us an email at info@ecologybasedeconomy.org.
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Become a member of the Design School for Regenerating Earth - https://design-school-for-regenerating-earth.mn.co/ (for $5/month) and then join the Forests of the Northeast Bioregional Group hub!
Footnotes:
1 Lawrence F. London, Jr; 2000