Fibreshed

Pioneering Fibershed California says: “a fibershed is a geographical landscape that defines and gives boundaries to a natural textile resource base. Awareness of this bioregional designation engenders appreciation, connectivity, and sensitivity for the life-giving resources within our homelands.” – fibershed.org

In South Devon BLC has teamed up with South West England Fibreshed and next economy partner Bounce Beyond to map our local fibre from growing through processing to manufacture and fashion. In our part of the world, most of the fibre is from wool but flax, hemp and linen, and the dyes for colouring fibres, are also part of the mix. Through mapping the system we can see where to nudge its behaviour.

The Fibershed movement has a soil to soil philosophy, all the way from growing natural fibres to composting. The Fibreshed ethos goes beyond sustainability, to something that is truly regenerative and it does this by considering the whole system in which fibres, textiles and garments are not only produced, but also how they worn and how they are disposed of. (South West England Fibreshed)

We all live in ‘sheds’, our natural life-support systems. Most of us know what a watershed is: the local geological basin that catches rain and feeds it into streams and rivers for our drinking water, food and eco-system health. A bioregional economy also pays attention to local food sheds, energy sheds, soil sheds and fibre sheds and how they overlap and interact. Re-localising is a key strategy for climate resilience and turns us into stewards of our own resources. Sourcing locally reduces energy and CO2 emissions as well as boosting local economies and livelihoods.