`Bioregionalism Could Become a Global Movement'

French architect DIDIER PROST is an advocate of bioregionalism, which calls for a renewed focus on local people and knowledge to innovate for greener solutions. He speaks to RAJAT GHAI on how bioregional approaches can be adopted to solve India's environmental problems.

- Rajat Ghai

What is bioregionalism?

Bioregionalism is a movement that was born in Italy in the early 1970s. It is a revolutionary way to reimagine our surroundings. The concept assumes significance as we are increasingly facing environmental and social problems the world over. Hence, we need to cultivate newer approaches about how we intend to plan and develop our surroundings. For that, we have to connect people with their land, nature and institutions. In short, we have to build a new model of development based on what is known as a “bioregion”. We have to build new borders—not administrative and political ones, but ecological and cultural ones. We have to build what we call “a consciousness of the place” by analysing a particular area, its history and the “global archaeology” of that history. This can be done by eliciting the participation of people from all spheres of society—academia, polity, grassroot communities, non-profits and workers. Using their inputs, we need to develop a plan for that area that will be different from other regular economic development process. Our current development process sucks all the resources and reserves from an area and then dumps the waste in the environment. Bioregionalism, on the other hand, integrated local ecologies in the economy.

Did bioregionalism come about as a response to globalisation?