What the heck is bioregioning? And how it can change your view

The term has come into vogue in the last four to five years, but like “regenerative agriculture” it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. I cannot pronounce “regenerative” without pausing everything. It has six consonants and just too many “e”s. Maybe, being urban-based, I’m too used to talk of “regen” and “regeneration” which is another thing entirely.

Both bio-regioning and regenerative agriculture sound like words made up by an ecologist having a bad day who chewed on a dictionary, choked, and spat out a few random splats of paper.

However, after a recent chat by phone with one Sarah Prosser from Dunhill Ecopark, Co. Waterford, I grew to at least like the concepts. And I now understand both.

Let’s get “regenerative agriculture” out of the way first. It is basically anything farming related that is about giving back, adding to nature, rather than extracting.

I might have understood bio-regioning quickly too if we had begun by looking at maps. We went the long way around.
I thought it best to be frank with Scottish-born Sarah who is the CEO of Bioregioning South East Ireland, the first group of its kind on this island.

I said: “When I hear of “bio” I think of yogurt and sci-fi movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. And “regioning” isn’t a word. It’s a noun mangled into being a verb.”

Well, “bio” in this instance means life and nature, she explained. Fair enough. So what is bio-regioning, you might wonder?
“Bioregioning is defined as a holistic, place-based approach to living sustainably within natural boundaries,” said Sarah effortlessly. I liked it. Not too wordy.

However, being a fervent believer, Sarah later sent me a full definition that should really only be used by operators of torture chambers. Here’s a flavour of it: “The unifying thread (of bio-regioning) is a commitment to relocalizing knowledge, governance, and economies based on the unique characteristics of each bioregion.”

You have to forgive Sarah and others for their enthusiasm. They are promoting a new way of seeing the landscape and seascape – that runs contra to consumerism, extractive capitalism and the financialisation of everything on earth.

Really, it was only when Sarah pointed to two maps of Ireland – one a county map, the other a map not just of Ireland’s rivers, but of their tributaries and catchment areas, that the penny dropped. Ah, life-regioning.

We’re obsessed with counties in this country, she said.

“Counties are great, they are super for making connections, but you should not rely solely on counties for your view,” she said.
Rivers – at the heart of many bio-regions – often serve, ironically, as county borders.

Broadening its reach, Bioregioning South East Ireland, with philanthropic funding, is seeking to connect with and stir interest in other bio-regions across the island.

And for the record, bio-regioning was first named as a concept in the 1970s by a US ecologist called Peter Burg. It is timely for it to make a comeback. With pollution rising, especially in eastern and south-eastern bio-regions, we need to see ourselves as part of an ecosystem and as part of the solution.

So, next time you see a map of Ireland, ask yourself: Is that the actual landscape I live in or something else entirely?

Look up https://bioregion.ie/ to find out more.