To become a Zoöp, an organisation installs a Speaker for the Living as advisor, teacher and board observer. The Speaker represents the voices and interests of other-than-human life in the operational sphere of the Zoöp, and helps translate these to organisational decisions. All living beings need: a place to live, food, security, a chance at procreation, a chance at pleasure.
The person that takes up the role of the Speaker for the Living is chosen by the Zoöp together with the Zoönomic Foundation. This foundation has only one task, as laid down in its statutes: to represent the voices and interests of other-than-human life in the operational sphere of Zoöps. Speakers for the Living receive their assigment from the Zoönomic Foundation. In this way the the independence of the Speaker within the Zoöp is secured.
The Zoönomic Annual Cycle
With a Speaker for the Living as part of the organisation, the Zoöp commits to following the Zoönomic Annual Cycle, through which it learns:
- in what way the organisation is part of the ecosystems it participates in;
- how to act as a healthy supportive body in these ecosystems.
The Zoönomic Annual Cycle is a learning process. It comes down to answering four questions every year.
1. Demarcating: What bodies form the Zoöp?
2. Observing and sensing: What are the life-worlds of these bodies?
3. Characterising : Do these bodies support, obstruct or ignore each other in their quality of life?
The first time these three questions are answered, forms the baseline assessment of the Zoöp. Based on this assessment the Zoöp formulates regenerative goals for the coming year.
4. Intervening: What interventions should the Zoöp choose and implement in order to achieve its regenerative goals and to increase its ecological integrity?
The Zoöp publishes its regenerative goals, its planned interventions and their effects. The knowledge it develops on transforming its operation into a regenerative part of the enabling ecosystems is shared through the Zoönomic Knowledge platform (in development).