Taranaki Environment Centre now has a 
Bioregional Living
Buzz into
www.hivetaranaki.co.nz
Taranaki people
utilising Taranaki resources
supporting Taranaki living
- learn: resources local people can share
- link: include yourself & who you know
- live: connect and trade with each other
Find Taranaki people, groups and businesses and the different skills, knowledge, local products or services they can share.
Nominate yourself and the many others you know who also have skills, knowledge, local products or services to include in the hive.
Choose to use these valuable skills, knowledge, local products and services and support bioregional living.
About Bioregional Living
One way to live more sustainably is to provide our basic needs for living from our local environment - our own global "backyard".
A bioregion is our "backyard"
the part of the planet we are responsible for.
If we know what skills, knowledge, products and services we have in our region, we are better able to provide our basic living needs from within Taranaki.
From this knowledge we can
- learn to use what we have wisely and develop and grow to fill any gaps.
"every local need that is unmet by local means is an opportunity for new enterprise"
- identify what jobs and businesses could be created locally, eg: growing food, making tools and utensils.
"create a rich soil in our backyard to grow local enterprise"
- plan workshops and training for people to gain skills and knowledge in specialised areas that can be used to create new local jobs and businesses.
It is the people and natural resources which are best suited to Taranaki
that are the measure of our true wealth and prosperity.
Advantages of Bioregional Living
Increases the stability and security of Taranaki and we become more self-reliant.
If we can provide our basic needs locally then whatever scarcity or disasters might happen in the world, we can survive and provide our own essential needs, such as food, water, shelter, energy.
Strengthens our sense of community
As we begin to trade more locally, we make connections with one another and build more caring, co-operative neighbourhoods and communities.
We foster deeper connections with our place, our families, friends and neighbours.
Gives us a sense of control over our lives and how we live.
We increase our shared sense of belonging, commitment, responsibility and leadership to our community.
Supports living in balance with the natural environment and cares for people.
Transporting our food, building materials, clothes, tools, even water from many miles away is often depleting and detrimental to someone else's quality of life and their "backyard".
Fostering an increasingly resilient local economy and fair trade with other bioregions for non-essential resources supports the well-being of all people and where they live.
"live local, think global"
Helps to reduce waste and to use it productively.
Anything we throw "away" goes to someone's backyard. There really is no "away".
In nature there is no such thing as waste. Waste from one species becomes food for another, and in this way nature maintains a perpetual, sustainable balance.
Being aware of where our resources are coming from and where our wastes go helps us to use them wisely.
By linking the supply and demand for resources to each other within a region, and with other regions, what is waste for one business becomes a raw material "food" for another to thrive on.
Preserves and develops our unique local identity and culture.
Can we feed everyone in Taranaki from what we grow and raise here?
Can we shelter and clothe all the Taranaki people using local resources?
Can we supply the energy we need to survive?
Taranaki is an abundant place, and the answers to these questions could easily be "YES" depending on the choices we make.
Use the hive as an ethical consumer guide to make choices which support local community living and a sustainable Taranaki.
Nominate yourself and as many others that you know who have skills, knowledge, local products or services to include in the hive.
Be locally creative. Do - Make - Buy - Sell - Own - Invest = Local.
"The true essence of sustainability lies in a bioregion"
Rosemary Morrow