For nearly 30 years bioregionalists have been gathering in congresses to envision and develop a realistic, restorative way of life in the bioregions of the Americas. We set our own agendas, operate by consensus and build a common commitment. Grand times and good friendships are only the first fruits. At bioregional congresses, we live in community, concern ourselves with the things that matter, and return home informed and inspired.

Many things have changed since the early days, but the people look much the same

From 1980 on, the movement has had a number of regional congresses and councils. Since NABC I in '84, the Continental Congress has convened on an average of every 2 years, in

• The Great Lakes Bioregion (Michigan, 1986)
• Cascadian (British Columbia, 1988)
• Gulf of Maine (Maine, 1990)
• Edwards Plateau (Texas, 1992)
• Ohio River Valley (Kentucky, 1994)
• Cuahunahuac (Mexico, 1996; this was also a hemispheric gathering)
• The Prairie (Kansas/Kansas Area Watershed/KAW, 2002)
  A radio program was created around this event entitled:
  A Continental Bioregional Congress on the Prairie: An Audio Documentary of an Eco-Revolution
  produced by Jacqueline Froelich, hosted by Pete Hartman. Fayetteville, AR.: KUAF National Public Radio, 2002. A 29 minute NPR report of the bioregional congress featuring Judy Goldhaft, David Haenke, Stephanie Mills, Gene Marshall, Alberto Ruz, Anna Diaz, and many others. Listen to an mp3 audio from this event. (26.4MB)
• Katuah (Southern Appalachians, at Earthaven Ecovillage, 2005.
  See pictures from this event.
  See Proceedings from this event.)

 

Each one of these convenings has been put on by a bioregional group from the host region. In a sense, from its beginning in 1984, there has been just one congress, going in and out of session on that average of every 2 years, for nearly 20 years, maintaining its continuity between assemblies through secretariats and coordinating councils.

Through these nearly 20 years, each convening of the Continental Congress has been a landmark event, widened our vision, and deepened our commitment to bioregionalism.

We earnestly invite the participation of all, especially those actively employing ecological precepts in the many movements and endeavors necessary for the human species to reinhabit the bioregions of the Americas and of the whole Earth.

The survival of humanity, and of the planet’s bioregions, depends on the advancement of ecologically designed economics and auditing, technology, agriculture and forestry; planning and industry; education, culture and art; philosophy, psychology, and metaphysics; law and justice; health and environmental defense; politics and land tenure. Any and all activists and practitioners in these fields are strongly urged to attend, to share their passions, lore, successes and learning experiences; to find new cohorts while participating in plenary discussions and spontaneous conversations.

If we are to avoid total ecological and social collapse followed by a brutal global monoculture, we need to begin to live by life, to listen to the planet, to learn our places. Home is the ground for honest hope. Only in our life-places can we begin anew, in the timeless way of Earth’s ecologies.

The Congress has served as an invaluable ceremonial village that links each to each across the artificial boundaries of state, province, and nation, sharing stories of place, helping us learn more from one another about how to live for the good of the earth and in the contours of our particular place on the earth.

Participants find vital and enduring transformations that ripple out from their lives into their communities. And the bioregional movement as a whole renews its sense of where it has been, where it is now, and where it needs to go to better address the many injustices happening all over the world, and to better forge strategies to restore and preserve the earth.

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