ABSTRACT
The aim of a bioregional ethic is to fi nd ways of harmonizing nature and culture. As argued in Chapter 4, this goal can be furthered through the adoption of a coevolutionary framework which sees nature and culture in transactional rather than in confl ictual terms. Local environments may be modifi ed to a reasonable degree, but not to the extent that they diminish ecological diversity or disrupt larger evolutionary processes. The ultimate goal is a coadaptation of cultures to their local environments. From a coevolutionary perspective, the notion of what constitutes a bioregion as such cannot be grounded exclusively in either nature or culture. Sale leans towards naturalism, defi ning a bioregion as “ . . . a life-territory, a place defi ned by its life forms, its topography and its biota, rather than by human dictates; a region governed by nature, not legislature” [Aa21: 43]. Bioregions are distinguished, in Sale’s defi nition, by “particular attributes of fl ora, fauna, water, climate, soils, and landforms, and by the human settlements and cultures those attributes have given rise to” [Aa21: 55].
