Bioregional Congress

The Continental Bioregional Congress on the Prairie

Following are excerpts from the proceedings of the Continental Bioregional Congress, held Oct. 7-13, 2002 at Camp Wood in the Flint Hills of central Kansas, USA.

by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

The Continental Bioregional Congress on the Prairie, held Oct. 7-13, in the Flint Hills of Kansas, brought together 150 or so kindred spirits to live together for a week in a ceremonial village where life centered on the earth and community. In a sense, we left time as it played out in schedules, workdays, travel and home life to dwell together in dream time. Participants, who traveled to the congress from as far north as British Columbia and from as far south as Peru, dwelled together at Camp Wood, located in the heart of the Flint Hills, a large range of hills where tall grass prairie has largely remained intact because the flint makes the hills hard to cultivate. In this native landscape, we created our own ecovillage for the week, coming together for the first time in six years to ponder new directions and old wisdom of the bioregional movement, and to renew and reinvigorate a continental-wide community of bioregionalists.

What happened at the congress beyond the resolutions we consensed upon is so richly layered with all of our experiences that all I can offer here are some summaries of what I saw through all the congress parts, which surely add up to more than their sums. Like bioregional congresses past and to come, magical connections, realizations and breakthroughs threaded through all aspects of our work and play, and at any given moment, there was a panorama of amazing things happening.

WE ARE A CIRCLE

We officially opened the congress Monday night with an indoor circle at which time Alberto Ruz called us all together by playing his conch shell to invoke spirit and community. Ken Lassman, from Lawrence, KS., and Laura Kuri, from Cuernavaca, Mexico, each spoke in English and Spanish about this place and our work together, Ken telling us about the contours of the prairie ecosystem, and Laura helping us realize that, in light of the current American administration and economic globalization, we were very brave to even be coming together. David Haenke asked each person who attended all seven previous congresses to leap into the center of the circle, and in went David along with Gene and Joyce Marshall. David then called people who had attended each congress – Missouri, Michigan, British Columbia, Maine, Texas, Kentucky and Mexico – to leap into the center. And then all those who were here for the first time jumped into the center. Finally, all those who were here now took the leap.

The first morning circle, held bright and not-so-early on Tuesday, drew us together to introduce ourselves by sharing our name, place and passions. The responses ranged far and wide from, “my passion is permaculture” to “my passion is bringing down the Bush Administration.” We ended with a spiral dance, “We are a circle/ within a circle/ with no beginning/ and never ending” both in English and Spanish.

The rest of the week, we mainly used the morning circles as place for anyone who had anything to share, in words or non-verbally, to come into the center and speak his/her mind, usually with Fabio Manzini doing an admirable and often very witty job of translating. On one of those mornings, someone told us two pieces of news: Jimmy Carter had been awarded the Nobel prize for peace, and the U.S. congress had just given President Bush full power to make war on Iraq. Several people began sobbing, and Bea Briggs shared a particularly moving poem by Robert Bly, urging us to cry out and to cry for what was happening. Rita DeQuercus led us in a song of hope she wrote. But mostly, we stood in silence on the prairie under the vast overcast sky, many of us crying, no longer shielded from the numbing effects of American culture and completely able to feel the effects of the rulers of this land on other lands and other peoples.

The last day, we made our last circle on the prairie to join together in a ritual led by Carlos Gomez, Angelica Flores Mendez, with help from Albert Ruz and Heather Linhardt. After Carlos spoke to the earth and sky on our behalf, he told us to repeat after him, threw back his head and cried out, “Amerrrrrricaaaa!” We joined him, crying out “America” to the sky, and in doing so, reclaiming the name for this country where we stood. We then cried out, KANSAS!, MEXICO! and even PERU! Carlos, Angelica and Heather soon went around the interior of the circle, Carlos brushing us with a feather and prayers, Angelica giving us each a sacred stone, and Heather smudging us. At the end, Chris Wells brought out an enormous canvas boat, large enough to wrap around the entire circle. Previously, people mounted the turtle quilt, the beautiful quilt made at NABC 1 by people throughout the continent and sewn together by men at the first congress, which now served as our sail. With guitar-players and all of us in the center, we sang “We are the boat, we are the sea” in English and Spanish, circling the field, and even singing our boat into the lodge. As we brought the quilt and the boat of us all through the small door, Chris said, “see, we can even get through small openings.”

CLAN LIFE

Everyone was assigned a clan, which was named for a particular animal, plant or other natural attribute of the prairie region, including coyote, grasses, wildflowers, south wind, spider, crow, etc. While we worked out the clan assignments to be somewhat arbitrary, letting the clan card each participant drew from the basket choose the participant, where people ended up often resounded with their lives. The coyote clan, for example, with both Gene Marshall and Giovanni Ciarlos in it, was so obvious that people started yelling “typecast” when they saw the clan come together. Each clan also had a translator and, in most cases, one child (so that the children were distributed around). The purpose of the clans was three-fold: to give each participant a small circle in which s/he could be heard and could hear others, to draw people together to undertake volunteer tasks, and to celebrate the explore the totem of each clan (in mine, for example, the spider clan, we often sang “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” along with a Spanish song about elephants piling on a spider web).

While a few of the clans were a bit sparse with only three or four people, most had seven to eight active participants who met each morning for 30-60 minutes to talk about dreams hopes, challenges, emotional states of being, and even their clan totem. Speaking of which, each clan was also given a stick to decorate as a tribute to its totem with the understanding that on the last night of the congress, we would parade the totems during our All Species parade and dance. But when the time came, no one could find their clan sticks. I heard, “Coyote can’t find coyote’s stick” in the background while people rushed from building to building looking for where the sticks had gone. The answer came the next morning when Copper Ramberg, a 12-year-old from Lawrence, KS. and a member of the crow clan, brought the sticks into the center of the morning circle, telling everyone, “since the crows didn’t have a stick, we stole all of yours.” Typecast crows too.

WORKSHOPS

Many people came ready to deliver engaging and provocative workshops, and here’s a sampling of what was presented: “Permaculture in Mexico” with Antonia Gracia; “Introduction to Co-Counseling: Getting to Have Your Whole Self” with David Lillie; “The Great Story: The Living Legacy of Thomas Berry and Brian Swimm, and the Universe/Earth/Human Epic Like You’ve Never Heard It Before” with Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd; “Ecovillage Nuts and Bolts” with Albert Bates, Liora Adler, Alberto Ruz and many more; “Corporate Personhood” with Betsy Barnum; “Rank and Privilege in Egalitarian Groups” with Bea Briggs; “Democracy, the Earth and You” with Gene Marshall; “Geonomics Rising” with Kris Nelson; “Mexican Vegetarian Cooking” with Gloria Cardona; “Designing Ecosystems at The School for Designing a Society” with Rob Scott; “Eco-Sapiens Arise” with David Haenke; and several potent workshops on traditional healing with Carlos Gomez and Angelica Flores Mendez.

PLENARIES AND COUNCILS

At the heart of all congresses are the sessions where we meet as a whole group. As one person wrote in her evaluation, these sessions were sometimes ponderous and sometimes amazing as Caroline Estes, drawing on her great experience, great heart, and great intuition, once again did a skillful and wise job of moving us toward common ground.

The first plenary was devoted to deciding what councils we wanted to form to help us wrap our hearts and minds around the multitude of issues effecting us, including everything from hearing the voice of the earth to re-storying the earth to living outside the monetary system. Through a group brainstorming sessions, followed by everyone “voting” by putting stickers next to the issues that they were most interested in working on, we formed four councils: Communities, the Future of the Bioregional Movement, Human Relations with Other Species and Earth & Sharing Stories, and Creating Politics and Economics of Caring (including ending corporate rule and US accountability). With a fairly small number of people, this proved to be the perfect number for having enough participation and depth on each council.

The Future of the Bioregional Congress, through the week, developed a comprehensive plan to start a bioregional office, formulate a coordinating council composed of a balance of people from the north and the south, invite Earthaven Ecovillage in Kutuah to host the next congress, and look at many ways to spread bioregionalism. The Communities Council looked at the core elements of healthy communities, and how we can deepen our connections with diverse communities at home and around the continent. The Creating Politics and Economics of Caring Council put together an extensive list of objectives and actions, including having citizens set rules for corporations, promoting sustainable life, working toward giving a voice to all people, increasing public awareness of political and economic processes, demanding freedom of education and education for freedom, and redistributing wealth. And the Human Relations with Other Species and the Earth Council reminded us to be more aware of our relations and connections, note the tension between who we are and what we want to become, and to share our stories of remembering our relations through a website.

On Saturday, when we had two long plenary sessions, the representatives of the more-than-humans arrived. Caroline began the plenary by telling us they would be coming, and while we could look at them, we were not to talk with them or touch them. Within the hour, a steady drum beat stopped the plenary, and we all looked up to see Jim Schenk beating on the drum, and leading in four representatives: one for the four-legged and crawling, one for swimming creatures, one for winged beings, and one for plants. The energy in the room stilled and shifted into something else: we were now in the presence of the sacred, and we needed to remember this as we spoke and took action. After some silence while the representatives settled themselves, we resumed the plenary with a fuller remembrance of where we were.

By Sunday morning, all the loose ends from all the resolutions were tied up, even though our numbers were dwindling. But all the late-night scribbling and rushed meetings during meals added up to a surprising number of proposals consensed upon, including the re-institution of a structure (an office, a coordinating council, a site committee) to carry us from congress to congress, and a deeply passionate plea for peace.

CULTURAL SHARING NIGHTS

Once again, these evenings proved to be a pivotal part of sharing our places with each other. The first night was Chase County Night, and we were gifted with visits from Jim Hoy, a Flint Hills historian and naturalist; Annie Wilson and her daughters, Flint Hills writers and singers; Jane Koger, a long-time resident who created an entirely over-the-grid ranch on land her great-grandparents homesteaded and she rediscovered through serendipity; and a honey-voiced, powerful gospel singer named Benny, who shared tales of love for this place. As an added treat, Judy Goldhaft performed her transformative water dance.

The next night was Mexican night, first launched with a ritual to honor all the elders among us, feed the earth, and bless ourselves, and then carried into an amazing Mexican dinner – mole, beans, rice, tortillas, a special kind of juice and other delicacies. The chapel that evening was full of music, stories, slides, and video that brought us closer to the work of the eco-punks in Mexico City, the ecovillages in the countryside, and the rich culture reclaimed and honored by some of the 25 or so congress participants with roots in Mexico. Rounding out the evening were trays of Mexican desserts, which Laura Kuri brought across the border to help us taste Mexico a little more.

The following night was a mixture of places and people. Alice Kidd told stories of her community in British Columbia, and in memory and honor the late Fraiser Lang, writer of the Salmon song, we sang and did the salmon dance. Stephanie Mills read from her extraordinary new book, Epicurian Simplicity. Chris Lowry, with backup provided by David Haenke and Dan Bentley. Stan Slaughter shared a touching song about a beloved horse disgarded for tractors on a family farm. I made up some spontaneous poetry, spontaneously translated by Bea Briggs. And John Herrington told about the evolution and near extinction of the American chestnut, now being revived. To prove his point, he and his partner, Karen Shelton, distributed freshly-roasted chestnuts to us all.

The last night of cultural sharing began with an ecstatic concert by Jim Scott which had singing about everything from the layers of the rain forest to peace. KAW Council took the stage to share some stories of organizing the congress while one of our younger members, 7-year-old Forest Lassman, rolled across the stage. Albert Bates and Liora Adler then presented a powerful and extremely far-reaching video on ecovillage design and community around the world. Liora and Alberto Ruz also shared the work of La Caravana as it makes it way around South America, seeding bioregionalism in fertile ground everywhere it travels.

Our final night began with many of us dressed as plants and animals, on stilts or on the ground, dancing around the fire where drummers drummed, singers sang and dancers danced. Despite a short parade of everyone in the chapel and back, everyone persisted in keeping our connection close to the fire where the music went on for hours.

Every so often, I would look into the field surrounding the fire where I could see a tall egret, on stilts and wearing long white wings, swaying in the dark.

MEN’S AND WOMEN’S CIRCLES

The men’s circle, from what I’m told, took place at the labyrinth, a huge canvas unfolded in a pasture where congress participants took solace and found peace and prayer. The men spiral-circled, beginning with the oldest, at age 75, and going down to the youngest, age 23. Each one of them spoke, sharing stories of their lives and celebrating their time together.

The women’s circle was held in the chapel where a circle of 40 or so women sat in a circle on chairs and on the floor. After a sacred song (the hookie-pookie, introduced by Pam McCann, who asked “if this was really what it was all about”), each woman spoke of her life – her struggles, her gifts, her dealings with grief and joy, her power and the power around her, her connection with the earth, and her gratitude for other women. We then rushed outside to stand in a circle that spiraled in tight, all of our arms around us, as we did a healing ritual, and passed a kiss all the around, from Angelica in the center to the last woman and back to Angelica who tilted her head to the sky and threw a kiss up to the heavens. And then we sang and sang and sang while, just across the field, we could hear most of the men and some of the women in another circle, chanting, “Kaw! Kaw! Kaw!” in prayer right before dinner.

MEALS

Thanks to the hard work and superb organization of Rita DeQuercus, along with spectacular help from our cooks Lori Thomas and Mike Greever, and volunteer help from all of us, we enjoyed many fine meals featuring locally-grown, often organic food. From cashew chili to home-made ginger bread, we joined together for each meal to taste more of what comes from this place and time. Moreover, at the table, friendships were forged, issues were debated, rifts were mended, emotions were released, discoveries were made, reunions were celebrated, debates were heated up, resolutions were forged, plans were made, jokes were told, and a whole of good food was eaten.

EMERGING FROM THE CONGRESS

If nothing else, everyone who attended this congress will remember the congress for a long time whenever they look into their cupboards or pantry because we had so much food left over that we made everyone take something home. Particularly in abundance were Luna Bars, which were to have been sold at the cantina. Some of us on the organizing committee contemplated making all people who wanted to speak at the plenary eat a Luna Bar first, but we relented. Instead, these treats, along with piles of potatoes, packs of tortillas, hoards of apples, jars of jam, bottles of soy sauce and other delicacies were carted home all over the continent to be consumed for days, weeks and months to come.

The travel home seemed to go on as long, or perhaps even longer, than the congress with occasional dinners and gatherings in Lawrence and Topeka with all those who stayed on a few days or weeks. But eventually, even the last of the left-over tortillas got consumed and everyone got home.

Now, months later, when people ask what the congress was like, I find myself searching for some impossible way to translate what it was we did and were together into language that doesn’t diminish any of it. Yet, back in mainstream society and mainstream time, it’s hard to convey what it was to live with everyone in a time outside of time, a time connected to the congresses years before, and a time that will surely connect to the congresses to come. Something happened at the congress that unfolds slowly, a gift that keeps on giving, showing us a wider view of the world, a deeper understanding of what changes are needed, and a spiral of community that gives us all we need to bring bioregionalism home in all aspects of our lives.

Being my first time at a bioregional congress, I didn’t know what to expect. I was excited! Dinner was incredible: salad, soup, rice, and beans for one hundred and seventy five people. The cooks worked like crazy. We were fed three meals a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The cooperation to operate the camp was amazing. All week, people helped with cleaning, cooking, childcare, and anything else needed to keep things going.

The first morning, I didn’t know anyone except some people from Lawrence, and I wasn’t really comfortable. However, being myself, that soon changed. At morning circle, we cawed three times, and someone would make a speech. At another circle we said our name, where we came from, and our passion. I thought that was good for everyone. When we first arrived we had picked a clan out of a straw basket. They later announced the purpose of this: people of the same clan would meet and talk about our experiences, fears, joys, and loves. When you went to your clan, you were supposed to feel comfortable saying what you wanted, creating a sense of family and trust. This was effective for me, though I can’t speak for anyone else.

There were a lot of wonderful people who I could spend a lifetime with! In the middle of the too-short week I befriended some people there. But I couldn’t help the feeling that everyone was standing still, not making progress like they should. I saw the older group of baby boomers, and the new revolutionaries, and the discrepancy between the two. The baby boomers were tired and frustrated, adamant about the way they do things. The young people are frustrated too, which turns into anger. The young people at the bioregional congress got support, but only because they had the courage to enter that world. In my experience at the congress, I learned from everyone. Though I saw many problems, I will definitely go back next year in Peru. You can’t accomplish anything just standing outside and watching. It was wonderful being there; it really inspired me to teach others what I had learned.

Reprinted from The Planet Drum Pulse by permission of Planet Drum and the author.

It took six years after Meztitla´s First Bioregional Gathering of the Americas to reconvene in the North, and it took five years for the Consejo de Visiones in Mexico also to reconvene this spring in Tzajalá, Chiapas since the 7th took place in Dos Palmas, in the Maya-Caribbean bioregion in 1997.

Tomó seis años después del Primer Encuentro Biorregional de las Américas en Meztitla para que el Congreso Biorregional del Norte se volviera a reunir. Y tomó cinco años para que el Consejo de Visiones de México se volviera a encontrar en esta primavera en Tzajalá, Chiapas, desde que tuvimos el Séptimo Consejo en el ejido de Dos Palmas, en la biorregión Maya del Caribe en el año de 1997.

There are many possible reasons why it took so long to meet again at a North American bioregional congress. At this point it is futile to try to get into that. We were not as many as we expected to be at the prairie Kansas camp, but as we say in Mexico, ¨Those who had to be there, were there.¨ No doubt of that. The work to get us all there was considerable, and above all we should thank very much the KAW crew who made it possible, especially at this time in history, and right in the middle of the Bushmen Era.

Existen muchas posibles razones de porqué tomó tanto tiempo para realizar un Congreso de Norteamérica. En este momento es inútil tratar de elucidarlo. No fuimos tantos en el campamento de Kansas como esperábamos, pero como decimos en México: ¨Llegaron los que tenían que llegar, ni uno más ni uno menos..¨ Y no hay duda alguna que así fue. El trabajo para que llegáramos todos fue muy grande, y antes que nada tenemos que agradecer mucho a la banda de KAW que hizo que este encuentro fuera posible, especialmente en estos momentos de la historia que los EUA viven en medio de la Era de Bush.

It took some time to melt the ice. The Mexican representation, nearly twenty of them, were many first-time comers to a Congress, and did not know very well at the beginning how, why and where to integrate in the process. The families from the North were quite aware of the lack of ethnic and age diversity among their participants. A few key spokespeople were absent. But as always, reality imposes itself over “should” and “would.”

Tomó tiempo para que el hielo se derritiera. La delegación mexicana, con cerca de veinte representantes, estaba compuesta por muchos integrantes que vinieron al congreso por primera vez. En un principio muchos de ellos no sabían ni como, ni porqué ni donde integrarse al proceso. Las familias del norte estaban conscientes de que hubo muy poca diversidad étnica y de edad entre sus representantes. También estuvieron ausentes algunas personas claves del movimiento. Pero como siempre, la realidad se impone siempre sobre los podrías y deberías, que siempre representan tan solo ¨lo ideal.¨

Slowly, day after day, the process of integration happened by magic, process, flexibility and patience. The plenary, the morning circles, the clans, the councils, the workshops, the shared meals, the ceremonies, the cultural activities and music every night around the fire, did their job, and by Wednesday, after Mexican afternoon and evening, there were no more group distinctions and we became a large family, a congress, a gathering, a hoop of people trying its best to make the event not only successful by itself but also to reach a purposeful consensus on its future.

Poco a poco, día tras día, el proceso de integración se realizó gracias a la magia, el trabajo, el consenso, la flexibilidad y la paciencia. Las plenarias, los círculos matutinos, los consejos, los talleres, el compartir alimentos, las ceremonias, los clanes, las actividades culturales y la música cada noche alrededor del fuego hicieron su trabajo. El miércoles, después de la tarde azteca y de la fiesta mexicana, ya no existieron más los grupos distintos, y nos volvimos una gran familia, un congreso, un encuentro, un círculo de gente tratando de hacer lo mejor posible para que el evento no solo fuera un éxito por sí mismo, sino de lograr llegar a un consenso de cómo continuarlo con propósitos más firmes para el futuro.

The proceedings will for sure convey a detailed description of the work done at the four Councils, and a list of workshops and cultural activities. I participated mostly in the discussions on the Future of the Bioregionalist Movement. And a few important decisions were reached after not few intense hours of clarifications, concerns, disagreements, among which three I consider the most relevant.

Las memorias de evento van a darnos una descripción detallada del trabajo que realizaron los cuatro Consejos y una lista de los talleres y las actividades culturales. Yo por mi parte participé sobre todo en las discusiones sobre el Futuro del Movimiento Biorregional. Y algunas decisiones que considero importantes se lograron después de no pocas horas intensas de clarificaciones, preocupaciones y desacuerdos. Entre ellas quiero rescatar tres de ellas que considero las más relevantes……

The constitution of a Coordinating Council for the coming congress, included eight people, as full members plus nine as support for those, with four of them coming from Mexico. Two experimented veterans, Fabio Manzini and Laura Kuri and two young leaders from the urban bioregionalist punk band, Alejandra and Raul Salas. I came forward as a representative for South America, with Liora Adler as my support person. Ten people from the northern Congress represent the various bioregions north of Rio Bravo.

La constitución de un Consejo Coordinador para el próximo congreso, incluye a ocho personas, como miembros, mas nueve como sus suplentes Cuatro de esas personas vienen de México. Dos experimentados veteranos, Fabio Manzini y Laura Kuri, y dos jóvenes líderes del movimiento juvenil urbano y biorregionalista punk, Alejandra y Raúl Salas. Yo mismo me integré al grupo como representante de Sur América, con Liora Adler como mi sustituta y personas del Congreso Biorregional representan desde el 12 de octubre a las varias regiones del norte del Río Bravo.

The continuity of the resource center, temporarily in the Ozarks with David Haenke, will expand as new people join that voluntary staff crew in the coming months. And the most important news, from my point of view, was that four members from Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina, offered to take to their council the proposal to host the next Congress sometime in the year 2004. This will be the first time, from the six congresses I have attended that the event is hosted by a functioning ecovillage, and I think this should set a precedent that we should try to repeat in coming gatherings. It adds coherence to our event and it helps support emerging or established intentional communities and ecovillages in the various bioregions of the North.

La continuidad del Centro de Recursos, temporalmente en los Ozarks con David Haenke, ira creciendo con la integración de nuevos voluntarios en los próximos meses. Y la noticia más importante, desde mi punto de vista, es que cuatro miembros de la Ecoaldea Earthaven, de Carolina del Norte, ofrecieron llevar a su propio consejo la propuesta de ser los anfitriones del próximo Congreso, en el año 2004. Esta será la primera vez, de los seis congresos en los que he participado, que el evento se realizará en una ecoaldea funcionando. Creo que esto debe sentar un precedente que debiéramos repetir en los próximos encuentros. Añade coherencia a nuestras propuestas y ayuda a apoyar a las comunidades de intención y a las ecoaldeas en los varias biorregiones del Norte.

The other important news for the expansion of our movement, was that the proposal that the Caravana Arcoiris por la Paz, the main outreach group of the bioregional movement in South America, brought to the Congress the call for a Hemispheric gathering, congress or council of visions in Cuzco, Peru, in September 2003, received full approval and enthusiastic support from the Congress which consented to endorsing and committing to participate in it. It was also proposed that the yearly meeting of the Coordinating Council could happen in conjunction with the gathering.

La otra noticia importante para la expansión de nuestro movimiento, es que la propuesta que llevó la Caravana Arcoíris por la Paz al Congreso, siendo el más activo de los grupos biorregionalistas trabajando en Sudamérica, de realizar un encuentro, congreso, o consejo de visiones hemisférico en Cuzco, Perú, en el mes de septiembre de 2003, recibió una aprobación completa y un entusiasta apoyo de los participantes. El Congreso de Kansas consintió en endorsar y se comprometió en participar en dicho evento Se propuso además que la reunión anual del Consejo Coordinador podría tener lugar e conjunción con el encuentro.

It was noted that even if the movement has continuously and consistently grown since its origins, with these new decisions, we open the possibility to create alliances with other networks, friendly organizations and movements that are working in the same direction our movement has been doing for more than two decades. The event in Cuzco will definitely focus on bringing together representatives from other ethnic, national and bioregional areas, especially from Mexico, Central and South America, so this will provide a unique experience for the northern activists, to meet, learn and share with people from the whole hemisphere. Cuzco is considered to be the heart of the Tewantinsuyo, the ancient Andean confederation of the Four Directions.

Se hizo notar, que si bien el movimiento ha continua y consistentemente ido creciendo desde su creación, con estas decisiones abrimos la posibilidad de crear alianzas con otras redes, organizaciones amigas y movimientos afines que están trabajando en la misma dirección que lo hemos estado haciendo por las dos últimas décadas. El evento en Cuzco tendrá como foco el tratar de juntar a representantes de otros grupos étnicos, biorregionales y nacionales, especialmente de México, Centro y Sudamérica, lo cual dará una oportunidad única a los activistas del norte, de conocer, encontrarse, aprender y compartir con personas de todo el continente. Cuzco es considerado ser el corazón del Tewantinsuyo, la cabecera de la antigua confederación Andina de las Cuatro Direcciones.

We ended the VIII Congress all of us on board a huge ship mural that Chris Wells from All Species Project brought from New Mexico, sailing with the big Turtle Quilt taking the winds and reminding us that wherever we are, and whatever we do, we are all in the same boat, and that the fastest we get our trip together, the more chances we have to reach for a safe land after the coming big deluges finish their process of purification of Mother Earth.

Terminamos el VIII Congreso con todos los participantes a bordo de una gran Arca que Chris Wells del Proyecto de Todas las Especies de Nuevo México trajo, llevando como vela la gran frazada de la Tortuga, principal símbolo del Congreso, recordándonos que en cualquier lado en que estemos, hagamos lo que hagamos, nos encontramos en el mismo barco. Y que mientras más pronto nos unamos, más chances tendremos de llegar a tierra firme después de que los grandes diluvios que están purificando a la Madre Tierra concluyan.

The final consensus was a declaration from the Congress that regardless of the decisions of any president or National Congress, the Bioregional Congress of the Americas vetoes the use of war, against Iraq, its people and its natural richness, or against any other country, as a viable solution to resolve the problems among individuals, interests or governments. This statement will be published with its official language by the Congress.

El último acuerdo al que llegamos a un consenso, fue que independientemente de las decisiones que tome cualquier presidente o cualquier Congreso Nacional, el Congreso Biorregional se opone y veta el uso de la guerra, contra Irak, su población y sus riquezas naturales, o contra cualquier nación, como una solución posible para resolver los problemas entre individuos, intereses o gobiernos. Esta declaración va a ser publicado por el Congreso próximamente.

Once again, the effort to convene in the prairies of Kansas, were fully rewarded by the renewal of our bonds, the sharing of wisdom, hearts, songs, hugs and smiles, and the possibility to give a new start to the movement, with our full commitment to reach out for a richer diversity of people, ages, ethnic and affinity of interests than ours. And in the meantime, see you all in Cuzco and in Earthaven. We will soon more details on the up’coming continental events.

Una vez más, los muchos esfuerzos que todos realizamos para reunirnos en las praderas de Kansas, fueron ampliamente recompensadas por la reanudación de nuestros votos, el compartir de nuestra sabiduría, canciones, corazones, abrazos y sonrisas, que nos dan la posibilidad de darle un nuevo inicio a este movimiento. Con ello renovamos nuestro compromiso por tratar de llegar a una mayor diversidad de gente, de todas las edades, etnias, y diversidad de intereses afines a los nuestros. Mientras tanto, los esperamos a todos en Cuzco y en Earthaven. Ya estaremos mandando pronto un reporte más amplio sobre los detalles de estos dos próximos eventos continentales.

For more information on the work and whereabouts of the Caravana Arcoiris por la Paz

www.lacaravana.org

[email protected]

[email protected]

Bioregionalism is my calling. It has shaped me and my community through long years of reinhabiting a space in St’at’imc territory, in British Columbia, Canada.

I call myself a bioregionalist primarily because of the cultural presentations we indulge in at congresses. That‚s what caught my attention; that is what keeps me coming back. When I first heard of a Bioregional Congress I was living in a commune, already making my life out of the ideas and concerns we still share today for the earth and all its inhabitants. We met every day to decide what to do. We met with the larger community to decide what to do. Meetings were a hated necessity – especially without facilitation or consensus. I didn’t know that you could have so much fun!

Our community adopted bioregionalism long before we heard the term. Glen Makepeace attended the first congress and brought back enough enthusiasm that in 1986 four of us went to Michigan. By the end of the second congress we were committed to hosting the third congress in our own bioregion. The next two years were a whirlwind of planning and meeting. A highlight was an event held at Fairhaven College in Bellingham. We spent an entire day developing cultural presentations. The final performance was the clincher. I was hooked.

There followed a period of cultural flowering in our community. The poems, the songs, the music and dance were magical. We began to celebrate the daily life we were developing through our own cultural work.

Our community has been significantly shaped by three things: food, music, and death. We share food regularly at seasonal celebrations. We have separate gardens and shared gardens; we talk gardening all the time. Our first connections were established in a food co-op where we buy the things we don’t produce ourselves. There we discuss the implications of all our purchases – ecological, health, economic and political – in an ongoing conversation that has lasted for over 20 years. The latest debate is over canola oil – whether organic oil is GMO free. Food is a cornerstone of our community. Homegrown music saved our lives. We live in mountainous terrain, the bane of cell phones and AM radio. At first we couldn’t get reliable reception at all and many of us started with no electricity in our homes. Life would have been awfully boring if the musicians among us hadn’t started something. At first it was very difficult; we had few common songs and a wide range of preferences. But over time many new songs were written and shared, many new-to-us songs entered our life through local sponsors. Music has helped us through the many difficult periods in modern life. I remember parties with no words, as former couples shared space by losing themselves in the music. Music inspires us and music heals us. Music and food have supported us even in the face of death.

Death has shaped us and changed us in many ways. Our first elder died in 1983. We’ve lost friends and comrades, young and old. Compared to the St’at’imc First Nations people in whose territory we live, we have not lost many folk. We have learned much from them.

At the time of the 7th gathering in Mexico we lost four people; a friend to breast cancer before the gathering and three young men in a car crash at the time of the gathering. In August this year, Fraser Lang, the father of one of those young men, and the composer of Salmon Circle, died of a heart attack at age 48. We have Fraser and his ex-wife Allison to thank for some of the inspiration for our ways of dealing with death.

When we can, we try to arrange for people to die at home. When we can we try to arrange to get the body or ashes from the authorities. This is not always easy or possible. We make our own caskets and arrange the person’s body inside, decking them out for a party and equipping them for the next step with flowers and trinkets of remembrance. We dig a hole.

On the day of the “celebration of life” we prepare lots of food and our instruments for a party. We put on our party clothes, concentrating on the colours that they loved. We meet at their home place and hang out with them and each other for as long as it takes. At a certain point the casket is open for people to say their goodbyes. When it is time to move on we carry them to the grave-site in a procession. We gather around and tell stories of their life.

We don’t just tell the good stuff. Although it can upset some there is generally a balance of stories, some celebrating their achievements and their passion and beauty, while others remind us of the other side of character, often with humour and compassion. You can see the healing spread as the stories collect. Each speaker brings a unique and different experience. It takes a whole community to tell the story of a person’s life.

I grew up in a culture that tried to banish death, that tried to package food and music for the highest bidder. By celebrating our homeplaces in story and song we help to re-create living cultures in our bioregions. Our cultural life owes much to food, music, and yes, death.

CONTINENTAL BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS … Graying activists of various and sundry stripes assembled for a week in the tallgrass prairie country of eastern Kansas to celebrate cultural diversity, honor alternative solutions to global degradation of the environment, and formulate visionary resolutions using consensus decision-making processes for peace, justice and community building and all of it under the aegis of bioregionalism.

BIO WHAT? … The bioregionalist movement entered American social consciousness in the early ‘70s thanks to Peter Berg and Judy Goldhaft of the Planet Drum Foundation in San Francisco. The kernel of the bioregionalist idea was to cross political boundaries to deal with the whole range of issues facing our society from a watershed and physical environment perspective … As the Planet Drum home page <www.planetdrum.org> explains, a bioregion is “a distinct area with coherent and interconnected plant and animal communities, and natural systems, often defined by a watershed.” … In other words, instead of imposing our surveyor’s mentality on the land as inherited from George Washington, our country’s founding father (back in those dark ages when only fathers were considered founders), bioregionalists follow watercourses, track animal habitat, and map plant and rock communities to see what commonalities can be found in the land itself. Then, championing these changed relationships to place and calling for a new reinhabitation of bioregions along more holistic, sustainable and ecologically sensitive patterns, Planet Drum for years held conferences (like the Listening to the Earth gathering in San Francisco back in ’74 that I was lucky enough to attend); published bundles (assemblages of maps, poems, essays and illustrations relating to various bioregions of the North American continent – redubbed “Turtle Island” by Gary Snyder, the movement’s foremost bard) as well as newsletters, pamphlets and books; and generally sparked a host of bioregional projects and programs, including continental gatherings like the one that just happened in Kansas. Currently Planet Drum is deeply involved in an Eco-Ecuador project to collaborate with local officials to make Bahia de Caraquez an eco-city and in Operation Guard Fox to hold winter Olympic sites accountable for their environmental consequences – Nagano in 1998, Salt Lake City in 2002, and Turin in 2006.

NUMBER EIGHT … The Continental Bioregional Congress on the Prairie was the eighth continental gathering of bioregionalists since 1984, when the first such gathering was called. As David Haenke, one of the drivers behind the continental congress idea, likes to say, “Bioregionalism deals with the bioregion as a whole system comprised of a set of diverse, integrated natural sub-systems (atmospheric, hydrologic, biologic, geologic) run by ecological laws with which humans (as one species among many) must work in cooperation if there is to be a sustainable future. These laws form the basis for the design of all long-term human systems, economic, technological, agricultural, and political” … That kind of whole-systems thinking leads to profound reverence for other species, and works to include their needs in human decision-making (often referred to as “deep ecology”). As David has further written, the idea of a continental congress is that “the sustaining, self-organizing laws of nature can be applied to [human] law. Specific areas considered are: agriculture (use of permaculture, organics), technology (appropriate types to increase harmony between man and nature), energy (renewable sources), economics (environmentally responsible, locally owned and operated), land usage (land trusts, stewardships under ecological covenants), conservation (alliances for environmental defense), health and education (“holistic, ecologically based), and political policy (political ecology, natural law). In other words, a continental congress takes on the whole enchilada in one fell swoop. To that end there were presentations, and workshops, and endless meetings around all of these topics – a banquet of delicious topics almost too rich for those of us used to working within a less than visionary world on the verge of war.

CROSSING BOUNDARIES … Personally I found bioregionalism’s basic premise of crossing political boundaries as its greatest attraction … What that meant at the Congress was the inclusion of a whole contingent of Mexican bioregionalists from the ecovillage of Huehuecoyotl in the Tepoztlan mountains of Morelos <www.laneta.apc.org/rem/huehue.htm> who also host annual gatherings (Consejos de Visiones) in Mexico and next year in Peru . And so all proceedings and meetings at the Congress were held in both languages, translators working overtime to help each of us understand the others … Perhaps it is just my own provincialism, but I had never attended a bilingual gathering, nor had I ever experienced the cultural richness of poetry, song and stories in Spanish as well as English. There were indigenous spiritual ceremonies we participated in, and lots of wonderful new personal connections. I was honored to get to know Alberto Ruz, who also participates in the Rainbow Gathering – a very deeply spiritual and political leader. I met and made friends with people like Allessandra Liora Adler, Dr. Fabio Manzini, Ana Ruiz, Laura Kuri and a contingent of young “punks” who are working to green their neighborhood of Mexico City … And then there were the Canadian folks, like Christopher Lowry. And bioregionalist folks I’d known about for years and never met like Stephanie Mills from the Great Lakes and Chris Wells of Santa Fe. It was these connections that were the event’s primary value for me.

… The effects of attending the 8th Continental Bioregional Congress in eastern Kansas linger with me a week or so later. A special thanks to the Telluride Institute for helping finance our family’s participation in this landmark event … I forgot to mention Carlos Gomez – a most amazing man from the Huehuecoyotl ecovillage in Morelos <www.laneta.apc.org/rem/huehue.htm>. His good humor and leadership was an inspiration for me throughout the gathering. I can’t wait to go down to Mexico and visit and learn from him again … There was a canvas labyrinth set up in a horse corral at the camp where the Congress was held, modeled after the one in Chartres Cathedral in Paris. It was a wonderful meditative dance to walk the changing directions of the maze – an activity my youngest became entirely entranced with and insisted we run through several times. Mary and I did it as a kind of ambulatory lovemaking, and it was very powerful – particularly sitting in the middle after walking past each other in silence dozens of times… A visit to Jane Koger’s Homestead Ranch in Matfield Green was another high point of the Congress. A 4000-acre cattle ranch in the tallgrass country of the Flint Hills, it includes a section that Jane’s grandfather homesteaded over a century ago. She has built a most amazing strawbale house that employs wind and solar energy, and she is dedicated to working towards sustainable farm practices within the limitations of the market economy as it currently exists. A bioregional pioneer, Jane was featured in one of William Least Heat Moon’s books. She also opens her ranch to Tallgrass Retreats under the direction of a local minister, intent on empowering rural women and offering them a spiritual direction … Stan Slaughter was another talented individual we were happy to make acquaintance with. An eco-troubadour based out of Taos, he writes and performs great eco-songs as part of environmental education acts for young and old. I hope we can get him up to Telluride one day <www.stanslaughter.com>… Dr. Francis Harwood also was in attendance. She clued me in on the founding of Santa Fe’s new EcoVersity <www.ecoversity.org> – a visionary approach to training sustainability practitioners for present and future generations. Permaculture, wilderness experience, renewable energies, natural building – the offerings run the gamut of bioregional necessities … Truly, the connections made at the Congress were invaluable, and the friendships sure to grow stronger and develop over time.

The Water Committee of the Bioregional Movement met initially in May of 1984. Water workers from across the continent designed a platform and wrote resolutions and shared stories of Water degradation. In 1986 and 1988 the resolutions were refined and again stories shared. In 1990, tired of

the stories of Water Atrocities, when the Water Committee met it was agreed that we should give thanks to the Water. The Water Committee met on the banks of Lake Cobboseecontee and gave thanks to the water. The group joined the plenary session, bringing with us the purity and strength of purpose that we received from the water.

In 1992, when the Water Committee met on the Guadalupe River in the Hill Country of Texas at the 5th Turtle Island Bioregional Gathering each person shared about their water work. We then sat in silence in the circle as it rained for about 4 minutes, the same amount of time each person had

spoken. It was remembered and noted that water speaks a universal language

of oneness and sustains all life.

We continue this practice of thanks-giving through the www.planetaryhealer.net project and The Water Reiki Forum.

http://www.onedegreebeyond.com/members/bbs.htm

For more information, please contact Barbara at: 5473 Hwy 23N Eureka Springs,AR USA 72631 [email protected]

479 253-9431

Eco-art began with the trail bordering the lake which I announced would be moving around each day, kind of hidden, needing to be found & interacted with–by attaching strands of flax yarn for spinning on branches along the path & under them, bowls of lake water to help finger spinning, marked by recycled aprons brought to me by Lavetta (instead of traditional sign materials of wood, paper & markers). Weavings by children around fallen husks appeared from branches along the path. (Thanks to Lavetta for providing many surprise assorted recycled materials that were used during the CBC.)

Just as I had announced, Chris Lowry’s log with mosaic made with the mud found in a little pond behind the maze was quickly appropriated by the crew that did the camp erosion work project. Two other mosaics spied by the lake, one on a standing upright log section, with cactus parts, wood pieces & flowers held together with a mud & sand mixture, like cob that hardens, another more subtle one in the raked debris. Chris’s log became steps down that eroded steep path to the maze–all part of a fluid eco-art process.

Ardys Ramberg came from Lawrence with materials suited to the CBC, to make a decidedly eco-art open air framing enclosure which called us into proximity of the wild flowers & plants along the edge of the fence where we could focus our gaze on where we are surrounded by the horses.

Curtis’ basket making brought a creative burst of weaving to wherever he moved, showing that eco-art leads & trails the body .

Paper sheets were made by children with a mixture of beaten camp grasses & cotton pulp brought to a new liquid life in Curtis’s blender. The first 2 days I’d completed 2 woven & one laid papermaking molds with thrift shop findings and waxed linen donated by Jerry Sipe, to be utilized along the path, but without a papermaking workshop not much papermaking was done. I forgot how much the needed skills must be taught before people feel the freedom to dip in & create paper, ergo initial workshop time needed. (Papermaking is a weeklong workshop in itself.)

Cassie skipped downhill to tie the first Bottom Line piece, made from blades of green grasses, onto the small tree trunk by the maze. That nightfall I spied a wondrous 7 grasshoppers marching up the tree trunk single file a few inches apart up over the bottom line. After the hard winds & rain, bits of the bottom line scattered over the earth. The long Bottom Line piece woven from dying iris leaves found on the quick as I left Caryn & Ken’s home for the CBC did reach the fence from that small tree by the maze as I had hoped for, that meditative connection. Others could not easily join me to weave the Bottom Line longer, a lack of suitable leaves on the camp grounds.

The Bottom Line became a magic subject of Art Goodtimes’ talking gourds workshop- there were some very moving suggestions for various kinds of Bottom lines that could be used in our lives- mine is the replacement of the money power Bottom Line with the handmade self-sufficient one which is always angling upward in possibility. The talking gourds circle went four times around the circle, deepening each time. (I missed more often experiencing in the CBC this multiple circling around method that deepens what issues forth from each person.)

Weaving was revealed as the meditation it is, used privately by several of us during the CBC, to participate wherever we are in a centering calming necessary way. “language in the hands of a weaver does more than just thread needles. although that too.”– Artful

Lentil seeds from the kitchen coffers sprouted in our clan west wind earth image, but cold winds evaporated the moisture, the piece had to be kept covered & the ants I had hope would participate in moving the seeds did not delve in.

Measuring success, however, is not always by numbers attending, but by small incrementals leading to seeing in a new way and continuing in that chosen path, such as Lavetta getting into the eco-art spirit by piercing some little point shapes from flowers into the t-shirt of a friend and asking to be photographed. And such as the children, led by Laura Ramberg, making an installation of shells they found where one entered the wood floorboards of the boathouse at the end of the eco-art path.

It was difficult to get people to move off their chosen workshops and council meeting paths unless a large staging event was planned- thus quiet discovery was opted for eco-arts manifested at the CBC–what art could do or could be at a Congress was entered by small magic discoveries as we all moved about the land.

My idea with Art G to manifest “Troubagourds” singing announcements about the CBC didn’t find time to flourish. Perhaps for the next congress.

The artist book made from more aprons than I could use for signs, as suggested by the sudden appearance of aprons, found no time to begin, suggesting that sponteneity is difficult to consummate by one person’s desire in a weeklong tight scheduling of group Congressing.

However, as for any real “Art” at Bioregional Congresses, I do not yet find common ground for making art that artists do in the Art world. Art is a culture all its own. It has its own lineages, followers, concentrations, devices & expressions. Perhaps this kind of merging takes resources that need to be well developed in advance. Perhaps it is not yet possible without inducing a competing plane of concentration & activity.

The constant weaving activity kept grounding me so much all during the CBC that I didn’t notice any failings of the Congress till it was too late to suggest changes, the silencing concentrated meditation of making art is often in direct conflict with a presence of brain-storming-mind needed to make changes.

Entering: for source inspiration, when first entering this camp land, I had found some great rock formations. But the clusters of people I thought might find the rocks for drying their papers, or for just gathering together to tell stories or singing didn’t manifest, as the campfire in front of the bunks became the nightly singing fire.

Leaving: I had the post Bioregional busy Blues, sounds like a song! I felt like I jumped off a fast track. Fast track is our lives. And! fast track is what you get when you track the track instead of staying on it. It disturbed me that I never heard an educated discussion around the looming problem of an FTAA “Fast Track” coming fast around our bend.

Once home: I did interface with renewed strength in the Civic Alliance “Scorecard” work group effort to put into place the Sustainability Bottom Line as their underlying driving force.

The American Chestnut Story:

Those who knew the tree will never forget it.

by John Herrington, Vermont

Not too long ago, the American chestnut was one of the most important trees of forests from Maine south to Florida, from the Piedmont west to the Ohio valley. In the heart of its range only a few generations ago (see graphic below), a count of trees would have turned up one chestnutfor every four oaks, birches, maples and other hardwoods. Many of the dry ridgetops of the central Appalachians were so thoroughly crowded with chestnut that, in early summer, when their canopies were filled with creamy-white flowers, the mountains appeared snow-capped.

And the trees could be giants. In virgin forests throughout their range, mature chestnuts averaged up to five feet in diameter and up to one hundred feet tall. Many specimens of eight to ten feet in diameter were recorded, and there were rumors of trees bigger still.

Native wildlife from birds to bears, squirrels to deer, depended on the tree’s abundant crops of nutritious nuts. And chestnut was a central part of eastern rural economies. As winter came on, attics were often stacked to the rafters with flour bags full of the glossy, dark brown nuts. Springhouses and smokehouses were hung with hams and other products from livestock that had fattened on the harvest gleanings. And what wasn’t consumed was sold. Chestnut was an important cash crop for many Appalachian families. As the year-end holidays approached, nuts by the railroad car-full were shipped to New York and Philadelphia and other big cities where street vendors sold them fresh-roasted.

The tree was one of the best for timber. It grew straight and often branch-free for fifty feet. Loggers tell of loading entire railroad cars with boards cut from just one

tree. Straight-grained, lighter in weight than oak and more easily worked, chestnut was as rot resistant as redwood. It was used for virtually everything – telegraph poles, railroad ties, shingles, paneling, fine furniture, musical instruments, even pulp and plywood.

Then the chestnut blight struck . . .

First discovered in 1904 in New York City, the lethal fungus – an Asian organism to which our native chestnuts had very little resistance – spread quickly. In its wake it left only dead and dying stems. By 1950, except for the shrubby root sprouts the species continually produces (and which also quickly become infected), the keystone species on some nine million acres of eastern forests had disappeared.

We can have this precious tree back.

For decades, plant pathologists and breeders tried to create a blight-resistant tree by crossing our own species with the resistant Chinese chestnut and other chestnut species form Asia, but always with unsatisfactory results. Now, advances in our understanding of genetics have shown us where those early researchers went wrong. More importantly, we now know what path we must take to successfully breed an American chestnut with resistance to this deadly invader. We now know we can have this precious tree back.

Following is a summary of the decisions consensed upon at the Continental Bioregional Congress

1. Formation of four working councils for the duration of the congress, provisionally named: Communities, Future of the Bioregional Movement, Human Relation with Other Species and the Earth (later referred to as Story Council); and U.S. Accountability (later renamed Creating Politics and Economics of Caring).

2. Formation of Continental Bioregional Congress Resource Center.

3. Formation of Coordinating Council for bioregional movement. The coordinating council proceeds by the will of the Continental Bioregional Congress as expressed in the decisions taken from the plenaries thereof. From the close of this congress until the opening of the next, we place stewardship of our papers, decisions, business and concerns with a coordinating council, the members of which shall be those 8 persons and seven alternates affirmed by this congress on 12th Oct. 2002.

4. Acceptance of the following people as members and alternates of the Coordinating Council: Caryn Goldberg and Ken Lassman/ Gene Marshall – alternate; Alberto Ruz/ Liora Adler – alternate; Fabio Manzini/ Laura Kuri – alternate; Alexandra Salas/ Manual De La Cruz – alternate; Acacia Berry/ Betsy Barnum – alternate; Rita DeQuercus/ Pam McCann – alternate; Curtis Andrew Beckwith/ Sue Nelson – alternate; Jeanne-Marie Manning/ Michael Almon – alternate.

5. Creation of the Creating Politics and Economics of Caring standing committee, which will continue its work until the next congress, subject to oversight by the coordinating council.

6. Endorsement of the Earth Charter by this bioregional congress.

7. Adoption of Statement of Call to Action.

8. Endorsement of Peace Resolution: The Eighth Continental Bioregional Congress opposes in the strongest possible terms all military activity that has the purpose of dominating resources of people, and that destroys life, culture or the land. In particular, at this point, we stand opposed to any plans or actions of the United States to invade Iraq. The Bioregional Movement supports regional autonomy and self-determination, as well as social, economic and ecological sustainability, as the wisest and fairest policies and practices for humans all other life on earth. We call for all those who love life to raise their voices and stand with us in opposition to this war. We call for the US Congress to put the war resolution to a nation-wide direct vote by the people of the U.S. of America.

9. Endorsement and commitment to participate in the Sept. 21-28, 2003 gathering of bioregional and other like-minded groups from throughout the Americas in Cuzco, Peru.

10. Invitation to Earthaven Ecovillage of the Kutuah Bioregion to host in 2004 the next Continental Bioregional Congress and to establish a site committee for that purpose in cooperation with the coordinating council.

11. Adoption of Cochabamba Declaration plus the following statement: We, gathered together at the 8th Continental Bioregional Congress of the Bioregional Movement, bioregionalists, peoples of place and local regions in the Americas, come together in solidarity with the web of life, with all species and with all peoples in defense of our vital rights to real democracy. We bioregionalists declare that all species have a right to exist and rights to healthy, natural habitat, and full range of self expression. We also declare that all people have inalienable rights to self-determined, participatory democracy, to justice and to all things that sustain life for all species: such as: A clean water cycle, Basic healthful foods, Pure air, Good health, land and earth, Shelter, Unpatented, non-genetically modified seeds, The work or contribution of all beings, whether paid or unpaid is to be valued equally We bring to the whole Bioregional Congress a proposal to also endorse the Cochabamba Declaration of December 8, 2000 in defense of the vital right to water (click here). In addition, we recommend that the next Bioregional Congress create and then muster wide support for a similar declaration in defense of: Seeds, Air, and Earth.

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