Merging Efforts for Bioregional Awareness

The early Congresses of the 1980s emerged from various previous initiatives, prominently featuring the Planet Drum Foundation in San Francisco, led by Judy Goldhaf and Peter Berg. This foundation played a key role in promoting bioregional awareness and defining bioregions. Peter Berg, in collaboration with Raymond Dasmann, a notable conservationist and ecologist, contributed significantly to the development of biodiversity concepts. They were instrumental in launching programs such as the Man and the Biosphere Project and coining critical terms like biodiversity and biogeographic regions. Their seminal paper from 1976 solidified the idea of bioregions, while the Planet Drum Foundation produced informative materials that fostered local identities within different bioregions.