Bioregional event 5th and 6th September 2015

Where this conference came from

The origins of this conference spring from a thread of events:

• recent “grass roots” workshops on the topics held informally around the North West of England
• the Blue Economy conference at MERCI in Manchester with Gunter Pauli in 2012 and subsequent informal events in Manchester.
• the validation of the bioregional strategy of grass-roots “mapping” by the Schumacher College project with Kirkpatrick Sale, leading to the “Dartia” report on the mapping the Dart Valley Bioregion in Devon and subsequent work
   

Some questions to answer

There are some key questions to ask at the outset. These deserve far wider discussion than can take place at a single event, and the focus of each event will be different.

What kind future do we want to live in?

What does “sustainable” mean?

How can we support each other in re-shaping our region?

How is "our region" defined in bioregional terms?
 

The agenda for the September conference

At this next event, we explore the first three of these questions, with particular emphasis on How can we support each other in re-shaping our region? We start with an assumption that resource mapping - both of people and of natural resources - plays a significant role in engaging and empowering local action.

• how can promising projects be supported and connected within a bio-region? 
• how can we make good practice and relevant research available to people doing the work “on the ground”?
• what will be the role of technology - information technology in particular - in these support systems?
   

Our region as a bioregion

Defining a bioregion is an ongoing task and is best carried across a multitude of small events. Early definitions can only be tentative until a consensus emerges from a continuing conversation among the residents of a region which fully embraces their sense of place. Suffice it to say that "we should have a definite idea that a bioregion has a fuzzy boundary, as opposed to a fuzzy idea that it has a definite one".

For current purposes in Manchester, we have a  working definition of the watersheds contributing to the Irwell-Croall-Mersey river system which links the various headwaters to Manchester, Salford and Liverpool.
 

Back to Manchester Conference September 2015