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The ATREE Academy for Conservation Science and Sustainability Studies in collaboration with Pitchandikulam Forest, Auroville, Kalpavriksh and the South Asian Bioregional Working Group is happy to announce a 3-day certificate course.
Date: March 28-30, 2025 (9 AM – 6 PM every day inclusive of lunch time)
Location: Pitchandikulam Forest, Auroville, Tamil Nadu
Course Fee: The course fee is Rs. 3,000 (inclusive of 18% GST) per person, excluding travel and accommodation. However, free basic shared accommodation is available at Pitchandikulam Forest (PF)-Auroville for only 10 students on a need basis.
You can make the payment via UPI or net banking (details provided in the Google Form) before March 1, 2025. After making the payment, please email the screenshot or payment receipt to: academy[dot]office[at]atree[dot]org
Who Can Apply?
This three day certificate course aims to provide the necessary tools and perspective on bioregionalism thought and practice in India. It is for anyone who would like to promote environmental and community stewardship through a sense of place and flows of nature.
The bioregionalism lens enables one to work on diverse scales –from something as micro as designing an effective home garden or a watershed to more large-scale efforts like connecting ecological corridors or ecosystem restoration across boundaries. And so, a bioregional approach is useful for anyone interested in promoting ecologically healthy ecosystems along with inclusive and just societies – from the scientific research community to planners and policymakers to conservation students and more.
Language of Instruction: English
All participants are expected to organise their own accommodation and travel to the venue. Please reach out to us for suggestions on places to stay near PF, Auroville. Ten bursaries are available for students towards shared accommodation.
“If Nature were to draw a map of the world, what would it look like?” (One Earth, 2020)
Bioregionalism is the effort, and the social movement, striving to redefine and revitalise geographic spaces, which have common historical, ecological, socio-cultural attributes, and overlap with a sense of place and community of those who live within that space. At its core, it is a spatially bounded space (region) where nature and humans (bio) interact without necessarily considering, or being limited by, boundaries of nation-state or smaller governance jurisdictions.
Bioregionalism is a philosophy that argues that political, cultural and economic systems are more sustainable when organized and managed around bioregions. A bioregion is defined by characteristics of the natural environment (geography, climate, plant and animal life) along with human settlements and cultures these attributes have given rise to; rather than by human-made divisions. For example, the trans Himalayas or Sunderbans, Malabar Coast or the Western Ghats can be considered as diverse bioregions of India.
Bioregionalism thinking is rooted in Indigenous teachings and the wisdom of natural laws. It emphasizes living in harmony with the ecological and cultural realities of a region rather than adhering to political boundaries or economic zones.As humanity urgently faces the critical challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource depletion, the bioregional approach offers a path to healing and co-creating a sustainable and harmonious future.
Learning Objectives
Unit I: What is a bioregion?
Understanding through subconcepts like catchment, watershed, biome, geological structures, climatic zones and cultural and aesthetic rootedness to a place to learn about bioregions in India and the world.
Unit II: Diverse perspectives of Bioregionalism
Introduction to the concept of a bioregion from diverse perspectives- Historical, Conservation science, Social movement, decolonial perspective and decentralised governance perspective
Unit III : Visioning a bioregion in India
Using cartography to understand crucial bioregions like Sunderbans, Himalayas, East Coast
Unit IV : Place-politics-ecology
Understanding the influence of colonial, nation-state and industrial/development paradigms on bioregional understanding.
Unit V: Bioregionalism in practice
Field visit to Nadukuppam Village in the Kaluveli (coastal) Bioregion, TamilNadu
Unit VI: Marine Bioregions
Imagining a bioregionalism for the coast and the adjacent ocean
Unit VII : Environmental policy from a bioregional perspective
Importance of a bioregionalism framework and its implications today? History and present and future work done in India
Unit VIII: Bioregionalism, civil society and environmental governance
Unit IX: Toward a bioregional future in times of climate change
Discussing ways to get involved in the context of habitat degradation, land and coastal erosion, and pollution.
