# Designing, Building, and Implementing
move from research and template design to designing, building, and implementing BFFs through partnerships with Bioregional Organizing Teams and by catalyzing broader action in Bioregional Finance. We invite stakeholders from around the world, working across disciplines and sectors, to engage with us and with each other to support the decentralization of financial resource governance, the design of project portfolios for systemic change, and the transition to regenerative economies. We recognize that while there is no single solution to the polycrisis, Bioregional Finance can catalyze a global place-based movement that shifts value structures, and enables each of us to contribute to healing the Earth and culture in our unique ways. In Table 12 below we lay out some potential actions for key categories of actors.247 While no two bioregions will follow the same path, we hope that through shared learning and prototyping we can rapidly advance the field of Bioregional Finance in an emergent, evolutionary way. While many of these actions may on the surface look like to-do list items to check off, we suggest that they are all – including the most technocratic and technical – recommendations to form and nurture relationships of care, trust, healing, reciprocity, clear communication, and mutual learning. We look forward to embarking on this journey with all of you. The forthcoming BioFi Community of Practice on Hylo will be a key place for us all to engage.
247 These actions are not intended to be prescriptive and are not linear. We understand bioregional regeneration to be
a complex, dynamic flow of actions and relations across multiple nested scales within a landscape and hope for
these actions to support that process. We encourage you to consider that by reading this book, you are already an
active participant in this movement, whether or not you identify with one of these categories. We encourage you to be
curious about actions and relationships not listed that may be right for you to engage in.
Table 12. Actions for advancing Bioregional Financing Facilities
ACTORS POTENTIAL ACTIONS
Bioregional › Connect, engage, align, and organize diverse actors in your
Organizers bioregion and continually work to identify voices missing from
the process248
› Establish relationship with aligned local Indigenous
communities early in the organizing process249
› Prioritize building relationships of care, trust, and long term
commitment before formal community organizing
› Start a thorough, participatory, and iterative bioregional
mapping process
› Invite Indigenous communities to contribute to a story of place
through participatory mapping processes250
› Develop Bioregional Hubs to build capacity in the bioregion
› Connect with organizers in other bioregions to form
relationships and networks of mutual learning and support251
› Develop a Bioregional Regeneration Strategy
› Prototype and iterate participatory, inclusive governance
structures for effective bioregional connectivity and
representation
› Run a project incubator: prepare projects and organizations
for investment by helping them assess and locally source their
multi-capital needs; financial capital may not be what is most
needed now
› Prioritize projects and develop project portfolios best suited
for initial funding
› Experiment with facilitating financial flows through shared
governance and document your learnings
› Connect with the BioFi teams and/or experts in your bioregion
to design, implement, and evolve BFFs
› Develop an integrated MRV strategy
› Learn out loud: Publicly share the story of efforts and learnings
as they unfold
› Join the forthcoming BioFi Community of Practice on Hylo
Regenerators › Tell the story and share the vision for the transition to
and Indigenous a regenerative economy in your place in a way that
Communities, demonstrates the wisdom and expertise in the unique
Nations, and Tribes stewardship role you hold. Invite and support others in doing
the same
› Connect with aligned projects, organizations, or Indigenous
groups in the bioregion and consider developing an integrated
or at least coordinated approach – leverage synergies
› Develop project or organizational proposals for your vision
› Share your multi-capital and financial capital needs with
bioregional organizers
› Work with bioregional organizers to develop a phased funding
approach illustrating what types of financial capital are
needed at each stage of the work and what activities those
resources will be used for; seek expert support where needed
248 See 3.1 Bioregional organizing and value creation for a list of key actors. Exercise sensitivity to the place-specific
context impacting Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) within a place 249 Some communities and First Nations may have cultural liaison officers available to advise on engagement protocols,
culture, and history. 250 As the first peoples of the land, their stories, including place names and language, are invaluable to the bioregional
mapping process. 251 Bioregional Weaving Labs (Europe), Design School for Regenerating Earth (Global), and Regenerative Communities
Network (Global) are three of many great places to start.
. Next Steps and Call to Action 142
› Work with bioregional organizers to design and collect project
data and develop an integrated MRV strategy
› Share project progress updates transparently and frequently,
showcasing locally and globally what is possible
Investors › Invest in capacity to understand bioregional, systemic
approaches to regeneration so that they are better equipped
to assess and engage with this new category of investment
› Build private equity funds focused on regeneration of the
biosphere that can deploy capital into Bioregional Investment
Companies
› These funds should be underpinned by risk management
philosophies that enable dynamic, forward-looking, and
holistic risk assessment, consider value-at-risk, and have a
strong impact mandate
› Work closely with other financial capital providers to ensure
an integrated capital stack approach
› Work with Bioregional Hubs and Bioregional Organizing
Teams to construct systemic investment portfolios in line with
Bioregional Regeneration Strategies
› Experiment with more innovative financial mechanisms to
better deploy financial capital in service of building resilient
bioregional and regenerative economies
› Consider investing in revolving or evergreen fund structures
or structures that enable an exit to community
› Embark on a personal, team, or organizational exploration of
what concepts of value, wealth, risk, and return mean to you,
your team, or your firm in this pivotal moment in human history
Philanthropists › Support the design, build, and implementation of BFFs through
the BioFi Project, Dark Matter Capital, or other organizations
working on BFF creation
› Start capitalizing BFFs through a strategic, integrated capital
stack approach, in collaboration with other financial capital
providers
› Explore more trust-based, participatory, post-capitalist,
philanthropic approaches that support systems change and
healing and reconciliation252
› Further explore the roots and responsibilities of philanthropic
capital and how it can be deployed in the most catalytic way
Policymakers › Explore policies that can drive decentralization of financial
(nation state resource governance to achieve global climate and nature
level)253 goals, and to avert and mitigate further ecological, economic,
and social collapse
› Take steps to better integrate risks of destruction of life on
Earth into decision-making on proposed projects, policies
and regulations, including through developing and applying
valuation, metrics, and decision-support tools254
› Engage in economic policy reform to align incentives with
regenerative practices (e.g., through tax and subsidy reform