Metabolic Democracy of Biomes: when the Constitution stops being an average and becomes living territory

When I look at most constitutions, I see a statistical dream:

a “social average” written in legal granite,
trying to serve a country as if it were one single, flat, homogeneous space.

But biomes are not averages.
A desert, a rainforest and a coastal city do not share the same metabolism.

If I take my Damasian mind seriously – body-in-relation, interoception plus proprioception – I cannot accept a constitution that ignores that every territory has a nervous system, made of water, soil, animals, microbes and people.

So when I speak of Metabolic Democracy of Biomes, I’m proposing something simple and radical:

the Constitution stops being an average compromise
and becomes a living contract between biomes and the humans inside them.

Laws, budgets and rights must be aligned with local metabolic needs,
not only with national abstractions or the comfort of the 01s.

The focus I want to light

Among all the issues we can discuss about federalism, decentralisation and climate law, I choose one focus:

every biome needs its own voice and veto inside the Constitution.

Not as a poetic metaphor, but as legal and institutional design:

• rivers, forests, mountains and urban biomes become
  legal subjects or holders of biocultural rights;
  
  

• human communities that live with them – especially Indigenous and traditional peoples –
  speak as stewards of those rights, not just as “stakeholders”;
  
  

• the Constitution recognises that laws must differ by biome,
  and that national norms cannot be just “one-size-fits-all”.
  
  

This is more than environmental federalism.
It is metabolic federalism.

Biocultural rights and living territories

In recent decades, legal experiments have already opened a door:

• rivers like the Atrato in Colombia have been recognised as subjects of rights,
  articulated with biocultural rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities;
  
  

• constitutions in countries like Ecuador and Bolivia recognise rights of nature,
  trying to align law with Andean ideas of Buen Vivir and relational ontologies.
  
  

Biocultural rights theory insists on something I fully embrace:

you cannot protect a biome
without protecting the cultures and bodies that inhabit it,
and you cannot protect those cultures and bodies
if the biome is destroyed.

Metabolic Democracy of Biomes pushes this further:

• biomes are not only bearers of rights;
  
  

• they become constitutional units of decision,
  with biome councils that can veto projects and laws
  that violate metabolic limits.
  
  

In practice:

• the desert biome can say “no” to a water-intensive industrial model;
  
  

• the Amazonian biome can say “no” to certain mining and monocultures;
  
  

• coastal urban biomes can say “no” to developments that increase flood and heat risk.
  
  

The “average country” does not decide over the forest;
the forest-biome, through its people and data, decides.

Neuroscience: biomes, interoception and mental health

Metabolic democracy is not just ecological or spiritual;
it is also neurophysiological.

Research shows that:

• regular contact with nature is associated with
  lower stress, better mood and reduced risk of psychiatric disorders;
  
  

• people with a stronger connection to nature report lower anxiety and stress,
  especially when they frequently visit green spaces;
  
  

• interoceptive awareness – sensing internal bodily states –
  predicts connection to nature and pro-environmental behaviour,
  and is associated with greater well-being.
  
  

For me, this is pure Mente Damasiana:

when my interoception is alive,
I feel myself as part of the biome, not just inside it.

Destroying a biome is therefore a public health intervention in reverse:

• fewer trees and waters = more heat, more pollution, more noise;
  
  

• less nature connectedness = more stress, anxiety and cognitive overload;
  
  

• bodies pushed into Zone 3: survival, fear, ideological capture.
  
  

Metabolic Democracy of Biomes responds:

• we treat biomes as co-regulators of nervous systems;
  
  

• constitutional protection of rivers, forests and urban green is also
  a neuroprotective measure for attention, mood and creativity.
  
  

Polycentric democracy: from one centre to many biomes

Complex systems research and Elinor Ostrom’s work on polycentric governance
confirm that multi-centre systems can handle ecological complexity better
than a single, central authority.

Polycentric systems:

• have many semi-autonomous decision centres (local, regional, national);
  
  

• allow experimentation, learning and adaptation at different scales;
  
  

• can coordinate to face climate change and environmental crises
  more flexibly than rigid hierarchies.
  
  

Metabolic Democracy of Biomes is, in my language,
a polycentric constitutional design organised by biomes:

• each biome council is a centre of decision about land use, water, energy and DREX flows;
  
  

• municipal and regional governments sit inside these biome logics,
  not above them;
  
  

• national institutions coordinate, arbitrate and redistribute,
  but cannot violate biome vetoes.
  
  

The result is:

a democracy that listens to soil moistures, river levels, forest coverage,
and mental-health indicators as constitutional signals,
not only to polls and GDP.

A constitutional sketch (in Spanish)

Artículo X – Democracia Metabólica de los Biomas

1. El Estado reconoce a los biomas que componen el territorio nacional —incluyendo ecosistemas terrestres, acuáticos, costeros y urbanos— como unidades constitucionales de decisión y de protección, cuya integridad metabólica es condición para el ejercicio efectivo de los derechos humanos y de la vida en común.
   
   

2. Se establecerán Consejos de Bioma, con participación de pueblos originarios, comunidades locales, entidades científicas y autoridades públicas, encargados de definir límites ecológicos, orientaciones de uso del territorio y prioridades de inversión para cada bioma, de acuerdo con principios de Bienestar Metabólico y de derechos bioculturales.
   
   

3. Ninguna ley, política pública, plan de explotación de recursos naturales o proyecto de infraestructura podrá ser aprobado si los Consejos de Bioma competentes determinan que excede los límites metabólicos del bioma afectado o vulnera derechos bioculturales reconocidos. La ley establecerá mecanismos de coordinación y resolución de conflictos entre biomas.
   
   

4. Los presupuestos públicos, los sistemas tributarios y las políticas de moneda metabólica, incluyendo el DREX CIDADÃO e IMIGRANTE, deberán considerar las diferencias entre biomas, destinando recursos y regulaciones específicas que aseguren la regeneración de los ecosistemas, la salud integral de las comunidades y la resiliencia frente a la crisis climática.
   
   

5. El Estado promoverá la generación y el uso de indicadores de salud metabólica de los biomas —como calidad y disponibilidad de agua, cobertura vegetal, biodiversidad, temperatura, contaminación y salud mental de la población— como criterios vinculantes para la planificación territorial, energética y económica.
   
   

Suggested references (up to 8, with comments – ≥3 neuroscientific / psychological)

1. Macpherson, E. (2020). “Constitutional Law, Ecosystems, and Indigenous Peoples in Colombia: Biocultural Rights and Legal Subjects.” Transnational Environmental Law.
   Analyses Colombia’s recognition of the Atrato River as a legal subject and the development of biocultural rights, showing how law can link Indigenous stewardship with ecosystem protection.
   
   

2. Bavikatte, K. S., & Bennett, T. (2015). “The discourse of ‘biocultural’ rights and environmental protection.” Journal of Human Rights and the Environment.
   Introduces biocultural rights as a basket of group rights that protect both ecosystems and the communities that steward them, aligning with the idea of biomes as legal actors.
   
   

3. Zapata, D. C. S. (2025). “Rights of Nature as a Response to the Climate Crisis.” Environmental Challenges.
   Discusses how rights of nature and bioculturality can be used to rethink environmental law and climate governance, supporting a biome-centred constitutional approach.
   
   

4. Bratman, G. N. et al. (2019). “Nature and mental health: An ecosystem service perspective.” Science Advances.
   Reviews evidence that nature experience supports attention, mood and mental health, grounding the claim that protecting biomes is also neuroprotective.
   
   

5. Branham, L. et al. (2024). “Interoceptive awareness, nature connection and wellbeing.” Frontiers in Psychology.
   Shows that interoceptive awareness predicts nature connection and wellbeing, supporting the Damasian argument that feeling our own bodies is linked to feeling the biome.
   
   

6. Chang, C. et al. (2024). “A lower connection to nature is related to lower mental health.” Scientific Reports.
   Demonstrates that weaker nature connection correlates with higher stress and anxiety, especially when green space use is limited.
   
   

7. Ostrom, E. (2010). “Polycentric systems for coping with collective action and global environmental change.” Global Environmental Change.
   Foundational text on polycentric governance, arguing that multiple semi-autonomous centres are better suited to manage complex environmental problems.
   
   

8. Carlisle, K., & Gruby, R. (2019). “Polycentric Systems of Governance: A Theoretical Model for Complex Environmental Problems.” Policy Studies Journal.
   Provides a detailed model of polycentric governance, showing how multi-level, multi-actor systems can handle complexity, which underpins my idea of a biome-based constitutional design.
   
   

Chile – 12 Fundamentos para una Nueva Constitución

Libertad de Expresión del ADN y Estado Laico DANA

Principio Biocéntrico: el ser humano como parte del bioma, no su señor

Estado Plurinacional y Cuerpo-Territorio: pueblos originarios como guardianes del ADN de la Tierra

Comunicación Viva: enfrentando el poder de los 01s sobre medios, deuda y narrativas

Buen Vivir Metabólico: economía al servicio de la vida, no de la ganancia de los 01s

Democracia de Quorum Sensing Humano: otra forma de decidir en sociedad

DREX CIUDADANO CHILENO: moneda metabólica para distribuir existencia y proteger el bioma

Créditos de Carbono, Ciudadanía Climática y DREX INMIGRANTE: pertenencia más allá de las fronteras

Soberanía de Datos DANA: tributación de la minería de datos humanos por los municipios

Centros de Datos Ecológicos Municipales y Red de Pagos Local: cuando el PIX no se apaga

Democracia Metabólica de los Biomas: cuando la Constitución deja de ser promedio y se vuelve territorio vivo

Jiwasa y Sistemas Complejos: liderazgo orgánico por pautas y biomas

 
Una Nueva Constitución Chilena  - Politica Decolonial

Chile - 12 Fundamento para uma Nova Constituição

Liberdade de Expressão do DNA e Estado Laico DANA

Princípio Biocêntrico: o humano como parte do bioma, não senhor

Estado Plurinacional e Corpo-Território: povos originários como guardiões do DNA da Terra

Comunicação Viva: enfrentando o poder dos 01s sobre mídia, dívida e narrativas

Bem-Viver Metabólico: economia a serviço da vida, não do lucro dos 01s

Democracia de Quorum Sensing Humano: outra forma de decidir em sociedade

DREX CIDADÃO CHILENO: moeda metabólica para distribuir existência e proteger o bioma

Créditos de Carbono, Cidadania Climática e DREX IMIGRANTE: pertencimento para além das fronteiras

Soberania de Dados DANA: taxação da mineração de dados humanos pelos municípios

Datacentros ecológicos municipais e rede de pagamentos local: quando o PIX não desliga

Democracia Metabólica de Biomas: quando a Constituição deixa de ser média e vira território vivo

Jiwasa e Sistemas Complexos: liderança orgânica por pautas e biomas

Chile – 12 Foundations for a New Constitution

Freedom of Expression of DNA and the DANA Secular State

Biocentric Principle: the Human as Part of the Biome, Not Its Master

Plurinational State and Body-Territory: Indigenous Peoples as Guardians of the Earth’s DNA

Living Communication: Confronting the Power of the 01s over Media, Debt and Narratives

Metabolic Well-Being: An Economy at the Service of Life, Not of the 01s’ Profit

Democracy of Human Quorum Sensing: Another Way of Deciding in Society

Chilean DREX Cidadão: Metabolic Currency to Distribute Existence and Protect the Biome

Carbon Credits, Climate Citizenship and DREX Immigrant: Belonging Beyond Borders

DANA Data Sovereignty: Taxing Human Data Mining Through Municipalities

Municipal Ecological Datacenters and Local Payment Networks: When PIX Never Turns Off

Metabolic Democracy of Biomes: When the Constitution Stops Being an Average and Becomes Living Territory

Jiwasa and Complex Systems: Organic Leadership by Issues and Biomes