Subject: IBS

From: Jim Mcnelly <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 94 00:40:00 +0600

Subject: IBS

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From: Phillip Ferraro <[email-masked]>
Subject: IBS
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        Jackie McMillan <[email-masked]>,
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Dear Friends;
 The Institute for Bioregional Studies is a self-funding
organization that teaches the skills necessary to create a
sustainable future. Since we have chosen not to solicit
government funding we are asking your help to get the word out
about our programs. Please read the accompanying article and ad
and distribute them to any journals or discussion boards which
you might have access to or print and circulate the information
to those who you feel would be interested in our programs.
 This request to network information tests the true
potential of the Internet to challenge communications channels
which inhibit low income groups.
Your assistance will be invaluable in helping us to attain our
goal. Thank you.
-Phil Ferraro, Director, IBS
Ad-
The Institute for Bioregional Studies offers a three week
residential program in Community Development and a two year
program in Bioregional Resource Management. Studies include:
Social Ecology, Appropriate Technology, Environmental Planning
and Community Self-Reliance.

Instructors: John Todd, David Haenke, Doug Aberley,
     Susan Meeker-Lowry, Dave Dellinger and others.

College credit available. For information send $5.00 to:
IBS 449 University Avenue Suite 126 Charlottetown,
Prince Edward Island, Canada C1A 8K3.
(902) 892-9578.

Article-
Reconstructing an Ecological Society: a bioregional vision,
by Phil Ferraro
 I was recently asked to moderate a panel discussion on
"Models for Sustainability" during the CUSO Community Economics
Exposition in Prince Edward Island. I pointed out that when we
examine models of sustainablility it is natural to question the
causes of the current 'in-sustainability' in our society. We
often hear the remark that "people are the cause of the
environmental crisis". This draws our attention from the role
society plays. This popular attitude forces us to accept the
status quo of our species in which everyone is brought into
complicity.
 Murray Bookchin, whose writing and teaching has been a
prophetic vision of the ecology movement for over thirty years,
observed in his book, Remaking Society, "Our society seems
unclear about its own nature and sense of direction. We tend to
foster a belief in the virtues of competition and egotism, as
instruments for gain and mindless consumption....Our need for a
truly human and ecological civilization has never been greater
if we are to rescue our planet and ourselves.....A rapacious
society and its wealthy beneficiaries are responsible for
environmental dislocations; not people".
 Bookchin, who is the founder of the ecological
philosophy called Social Ecology, has taught us that "Nearly all
ecological problems are social problems. We must search out the
relationship of society to nature, the reasons why it can
destroy the natural world, and, alternatively, the reasons why
it has and still can enhance, foster and richly contribute to
natural evolution. Human beings have the unique capacity to
choose, alter and reconstruct their environment-and raise
the moral issue of what ought to be, not merely live
unquestioningly with what is. Tainted as the biosphere has
become by present social conditions our presence marks a crucial
change in evolutions direction from one that is adaptive to one
that is potentially creative and moral."
 Bookchin explains that society has chosen to be
domineering, hierarchical and exploitive.  Through Social
Ecology he offers a solution to the challenge of reconstructing
an ecological society. These principles have more recently been
developed into action plans through Bioregionalism.
 At the Institute for Bioregional Studies, the  reformist
approach to environmentalism, with its single issue ideas has
been abandoned for an ecological vision, based on the need to
totally reconstruct society along ecological criteria. Society
based upon domination will be replaced by a  society based on
nonhierarchical relationships, decentralized communities, eco-
technologies, organic agriculture and business' scaled to the
watersheds in which they are located.
 Our communities need to be rescaled to fit the natural
carrying capacity of the regions in which they are located so as
to create a new balance between town and country. The
sustainabiity of the planet can no longer be limited to single
issues of pollution control and resource limitations. The
necessity to live in balance with nature is neither fantasy nor
a utopian ideal; it is the foundation to an ecologically sound
society.
 Bioregionalism is the tool we need to go beyond mere
environmental regulation. However we should be prepared for the
impediments caused by transnational corporations who control
>70% of all economic trade and whose free trade agenda clears
the way for further assaults on the planet.
 Truly committed members of the bioregional movement are
ready to advance with a vision of the potential that lies within
our reach. During the summer of 1994, the Institute for
Bioregional Studies (IBS) will offer a series of programs in
Kingston, Nova Scotia. These programs are designed to give a
visual character to ecological ideals so that they mature into
ambitions. College credit for the summer program is
available.
 IBS also offers a two year Bioregional Resource Planning
program that will prepare people for carrers in community
planning, conservation, natural resources and wildlife
management, agriculture and forestry. In a sustainable economy
the crucial precepts of ecological design, diversity and
interdependence, must be applied to develop an ecological
economy. Therefore the most important skills enhanced through
the IBS' Resource Planning program are those that provide the
ability for participants to develop their own self-reliant
business' tailored to their bioregion. IBS seeks develop an
awareness of a more holistic  attitude toward small business and
develop new opportunities related to environmental products and
services.
 There is a growing recognition that rather than taking
away jobs, environmentalism has the potential to create many new
resource based industries. This program will provide
participants with the information and understanding required for
the transformation to an ecological society.
 The Institute for Bioregional Studies is a self-
supporting organization that operates without outside funding.
For a catalogue listing all the programs for '94 you can write
to the office at: IBS 449 University Avenue Suite 126,
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada C1A  8K3. A $5.00
contribution, to cover expenses, is required with each request
for a catalogue.

cc: Leo Elliott [[email-masked]]
    [email-masked]