Building bioregional citizenship: the case of the Oak Ridges Moraine, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

In the last 20 years, the Oak Ridges Moraine in Toronto's metropolitan region has changed from a scarcely mentioned landscape feature into an environmental icon for residents and environmentalists and a conservation object for the provincial government. In efforts to save the Moraine from urban sprawl, the concepts of bioregion and bioregionalism have been invoked to create a suburban/exurban defence of non-human nature and to promote an ethic of place. We identify three dominant currents of bioregionalism: ecocentrism (a concern for the intrinsic value of non-human nature), scientific managerialism (focused on the setting aside of natural areas), and socio-environmental considerations (centring on environmental justice). We note that invocations of ecocentrism and science are NIMBYist or shallow, and references to environmental justice issues are absent. We conclude that a concept of bioregional citizenship that sees beyond a physically defined bioregion recognises the emotional ties people feel beyond their immediate living space, and includes environmental justice as a useful concept to advance the bioregionalist agenda.