# Executive Summary Executive Summary 13 BFF OBJECTIVES Drive decentralization of Organize synergistic Catalyze the transition to fnancial resource governance portfolios of projects a regenerative economy BFF ATTRIBJTES Aim to align with living systems principles2 1. and Indigenous wisdom 7 . Treat growth and returns as a means, not an end 2. Serve the realization of the Bioregional 8 . Raise from purpose aligned funders/ investors Regeneration Strategy Implement an inclusive and participatory governance 3. structure that represents the bioregion 9. Provide aggregation and matchmaking 4. Work to shift power imbalances 1ã. Apply an integrated approach to sensing and ßRV 5. Be transparent and enable empowered participation 11. Invest in storytelling Leverage an integrated capital structure Engage in partnerships, place-based citizen-steward, 6. that embeds regenerative principles 12. and the community of practice 4 Types of BFFs Bioregional Trust Bioregional Venture Studio A lenture Studio that incubates or accelerates cohorts of A charitable trust that provides grants to a range of various types of organizations focused on key priority organizations and initiatives in order to create a opportunities for regeneration in the bioregion and key strong foundation for bioregional action in alignment with needs to build resilience according to the Bioregional the Bioregional Regeneration Strategy. Regeneration Strategy. Bioregional Investment Company Bioregional Bank A public benefit corporation, co-operative, steward- A Bioregional Bank that provides low-interest loans, owned entity, or Decentralized Autonomous Organization microloans, and technical assistance to aligned (DAO) that invests in portfolios of Systemic Investment organizations (including corporations, for-purpose Funds or issues Bioregional Regeneration Bonds. It businesses, non-profit organizations, and co-ops). leverages an integrated capital approach and aggregates The Bioregional Bank can also develop and issue an portfolios of high impact proqects or businesses. alternative currency. Regeneration Strategy, their structures will be diverse. Diverse, decentralized Strategy – A co-created, 20- 100+ year or multigenerational organizations can support increased systemic resilience and improve the plan for regenerating a effectiveness of BFFs as connective tissue4. Therefore, we do not seek to be overly particular bioregion, including prescriptive in how BFFs should be designed. Instead we lay out twelve high-level a guide to the worldviews, attributes our research tells us each facility could work towards, and eventually values, processes, and meet, in order to effectively support the realization of the BFF objectives: principles recommended in approaching the work. Strategies are ideally built upon 1. Aim to align with living systems principles5 and Indigenous wisdom comprehensive mapping and 2. Serve the realization of the Bioregional Regeneration Strategy systemic analysis and employ 3. Implement an inclusive and participatory governance structure that represents long-term thinking. the bioregion 4. Work to shift power imbalances 5. Be transparent and enable empowered participation 6. Leverage an integrated capital structure that embeds regenerative principles 7. Treat growth and returns as a means, not an end 8. Raise from purpose aligned funders/investors 9. Provide aggregation and matchmaking 10. Apply an integrated approach to sensing and MRV 11. Invest in storytelling 12. Engage in partnerships, place-based citizen-stewardship, and the community of practice -> 3. The Enabling Environment for Bioregional Financing Facilities should be designed and implemented once there is already a strong foundation of organizing and activation in the bioregion. This foundation will most likely include a dedicated team which is in charge of stewarding the community organizing, weaving, and activation. Supported by the Bioregional Organizing Team, a wider Bioregional Organizing Team group of local stakeholders embarks on a journey to regenerate ecological integrity – A team of local stakeholders that initiates a bioregional in their bioregion. All regeneration efforts are eventually aligned with the co-created regeneration and governance Bioregional Regeneration Strategy. A series of steps that organizing teams may process, activates other want to follow for their multi-stakeholder process is outlined in the five phases of stakeholders, builds networks Preparation, Mapping and Analysis, Convening and Activation, Co-initiation and of relationality and trust, Co-creation, and finally Co-evolution.6 and facilitates the collective regeneration efforts. 4 Nunes: Neither Vertical Nor Horizontal 5 In a way that recognizes the interconnectedness of everything on Earth (rocks, minerals, water, plants, fungi, animals, air, etc.). Recognition of this interconnectedness is foundational in Indigenous traditions from around the world and is also laid out in Western science in the Gaia Hypothesis. 6 Inspired by the the pioneering and successful work of both Bioregional Weaving Labs and Regenerate Cascadia. Table I. Illustrative regenerative actions and returns (inspired by the 4 Returns Framework7) Note: This table is not INSPIRATION comprehensive. Actions: Returns: › Connecting people to place and › Sense of purpose ecology › Sense of connection to place & ecology, › Revitalizing a sense of beauty identity, and belonging › Experiencing positive change › Return of hope › Collective visioning through art ECOLOGICAL Actions: Returns: › Rewilding › Soil health improvement › Restoring water cycles › Increased biodiversity › Wildlife corridors › Restored water cycles and improved water › Ecological conservation quality › Carbon sequestering and emission › Resilience against extreme weather reduction › Mitigation of natural hazards › Regenerative agriculture & forestry › Increased food security and sovereignty SOCIAL Actions: Returns: › Revitalization of spiritual practices, › Social connections healing rituals and language › Human health (physical, mental, spiritual, › Youth engagement and empower- etc.) ment › Knowledge › Education › Skills › Food, music, storytelling, arts & › Safety culture › Bioregional and watershed identity › Connecting interrelated social is- sues within a bioregional lens › Bioregional learning ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL Actions: Returns: › Building regenerative food indus- › Direct & indirect local job creation tries › Land value uplift › Establishing local, communi- › Profit and economic prosperity ty-owned renewable energy pro- › Local investment opportunities duction › Financial return on investment › Empowering local entrepreneurship › Lower value-at-risk › Promoting social entrepreneurship › Establishing ecotourism › Bioregional frameworks and place- based economy › Supporting the transition › to relational economies 7 Commonland: 4 Returns Framework & 4 Returns Platform Building on the concept of Bioregional Learning Centers, we suggest the Bioregional Hubs – A development of Bioregional Hubs. These grassroots hubs can foster the critical community-led institution that functions as a central wealth of community resources and connectivity from which BFFs can sprout gathering place (physical and/ and support the transition to regenerative bioregional economies by focusing on or virtual), resource center, financial capital flows. and facilitator of various regeneration-related activities, One bioregion may have multiple hubs, each supporting a specific community or initiatives, and networks with a focus on a certain aspect of the bioregional system. Hubs may already exist within a bioregion. While Bioregional Hubs can also or may be adapted from existing institutions. Important roles that Bioregional Hubs offer educational and capacity can perform to support the development of BFFs will include: building programs, much like Bioregional Learning Centers — Stewarding the co-creation and implementation of the Bioregional Regeneration do, their focus extends to Strategy facilitating the flow of multiple — Listening, ongoing, and comprehensive systems mapping, and research forms of capital (intellectual, social, cultural, etc.) to cohere — Capacity building and upskilling and strengthen a bioregional — Identification and incubation/acceleration of regenerative business cases collaboration network by — Transparent and real-time progress tracking and data collection fostering connections and — Curating interfaces with global networks of Bioregional Hubs and Learning partnerships, and catalyzing Centers projects and initiatives that align with the Bioregional Regeneration Strategy. -> 4. Designing, Building, and Implementing Bioregional Financing Facilities Once a Bioregional Organizing Team has brought together key bioregional actors to develop a Bioregional Regeneration Strategy as part of the Co-initiation & Co- the realization of the vision laid out in the strategy. BFFs do this by working hand in hand with the Bioregional Organizing Team and Bioregional Hub to enable the decentralization of financial resource governance, the design of synergistic project portfolios, and the transition to a regenerative economy. Whereas Bioregional Hubs work to bring together and empower a bioregional regeneration network by facilitating regenerative flow of all capital types, BFFs focus specifically – but not exclusively – on facilitating the regenerative flow of financial capital. Together, the Bioregional Organizing Team, Bioregional Hub, and BFFs form the three legs of a stool that supports bioregional regeneration.9 8 Or evolved from an existing aligned institution. 9 Noting that their role is to realize synergies and build networks between the many critical actors in a bioregion. Figure III. The three legs of bioregional regeneration BIOREGIONAL REGENERATION Bireginal Bireginal Bireginal Organizing Team Hub(s) Financing Facilities rather than more, dependent on both financial capital overall and financial capital from outside the region, and where financial flows better align with real flows of value. BFFs will work on creating regenerative flows at multiple levels – at the level of organizations it invests in, and at various levels in nested systems. This includes supporting regenerative organizations in the bioregion with technical assistance, and the development of the enabling environment conditions needed for regenerative organizations to succeed; deepening and expanding markets for regenerative activities; creating regenerating pools of funding to support management of common assets; raising the right type of investment capital; leveraging derisking approaches; and creating cutting edge, integrated MRV a phased approach as laid out in Table II. Table II. An overview of the four types of BFFs (Part 1/2) PHASE 1 1. Bioregional Trust 2. Bioregional Venture Studio A trust that acts as a catalytic grant fund A non-profit, public benefit corporation, – providing grants to a range of priority co-operative, steward-owned entity, organizations and initiatives in order to or DAO that supports the development create a strong foundation for bioregional of a cohort of synergistic regenerative action. It can also set up and manage organizations to drive systems change. bioregional eco-credit programs, Common These organizations provide dealflow for Asset Trusts, and Ecological Institutions. the Investment Company. Capital Raising Capital Raising › Philanthropic and public grant capital › Philanthropic grants (could be sub-national, national, or › Public sector grants (could be sub- multilateral), as well as individual national, national, or multilateral) donations (including through › Supply chain finance crowdfunding) › Concessional capital › Bioregional Tithing program10 Capital Allocation Capital Allocation › Invests in and incubates cohorts of › Provides grants to fund key processes early-stage organizations that work laid out in steps 2-5 of the Multi- together to change a specific system stakeholder Bioregional Regeneration and generate cascading benefits (Table 4) › Provides grants to priority projects or organizations aligned with the Bioregional Regeneration Strategy › Provides grants to Bioregional Hubs and Bioregional Organizing Teams › Funds the development of a bioregional MRV platform (to be developed together with a Bioregional Hub) › Sets up the Bioregional Venture Studio, Bioregional Investment Company and Bioregional Bank Both Capital Raising and Allocation › Works with citizen groups to develop, bundle, and sell bioregional scale eco-credits (including to companies operating in the bioregion) › Sets up Common Asset Trusts – holding the rights to manage key ecosystems in the bioregion as commons › Sets up Ecological Institutions – supporting greater sovereignty and economic legibility of bodies of nature 10 Credit to Edward West of Applied Alchemy. Table II. An overview of the four types of BFFs (Part 2/2) PHASE 2 3. Bioregional Investment Company 4. Bioregional Bank A public benefit corporation, co-operative, A bank that provides low-interest loans, steward-owned entity, or DAO that develops microloans, lines of credit, and technical a portfolio of Systemic Investment Funds assistance to aligned organizations. It can and Bioregional Regeneration Bonds. It also provide retail banking services to leverages an integrated capital approach, individuals and can develop and issue a aggregates portfolios of high impact complementary or nature-based currency. projects or businesses. Capital Raising Capital Raising › Concessional capital › Market-rate investment capital › Public sector grants (could be sub- › Concessional capital national, national, or multilateral) › Philanthropic grants › Philanthropic grants › Public sector grants (could be sub- › Guarantees national, national, or multilateral) › Deposits › Supply chain finance Capital Allocation Capital Allocation › Provides low interest loans to aligned Systemic Investment Funds organizations › Invests in diversified portfolios of › Provides technical assistance projects & businesses designed to create systemic impact Currency Creation › Develops and issues complementary Bioregional Regeneration Bonds or nature-based currency › Same objectives as the funds, but through a fixed income security Market-rate Supply Nature- FINANCIAL Donations Philanthropic Public Crowd- Eco- Investment Concessional ChaiÎ Guarantees based RESOURCES Grants Grants funding Credits Capital Capital Finance Currencies Capitalising Reporting + Returns Collaborating on integrated MRV Bioregional Hub(s) Seeding Resourcing Bioregional Bioregional
 Bioregional INTERMEDIARIES Venture
 Investment Bioregional Trust Bank Bioregiona l Investing Studio Compané Profits Stakeholders Governing Capital `llocation, Incubation, Portfolio 4 Returns Data Collection Structuring & Capacity Building Projec t Projec t Projec t Projec t Projec t RE ENERATORS 1 2 3 4 n Systemic Coordination of financial capital, including public and philanthropic grant capital, concessional and market-rate investment capital, as well as supply chain finance and eco-credit revenues. Other critical financial tools are public direct investment, tax revenue, subsidies, and the issuance of Bioregional Regeneration Bonds. as an evolution of impact investing. They seek to establish a financial architecture that recognizes the complexity inherent to systemic transformation, and the fundamental interconnectedness of interventions. They help to build synergistic and systemic investment portfolios, creating positive spillover values which enable mutually reinforcing and positive feedback loops of systemic value generation across projects. BFFs provide a pathway for even multinational corporations – that often seem to operate everywhere and nowhere at the same time – to come back into relationship with the very real places and people they are dependent on and are in turn impacting. BFFs enable them to move towards healing and reciprocity through how they invest. -> 5. BFF Governance and Capital Allocation The governance structure of BFFs underpins their ability to both decentralize financial resource governance and catalyze the transition to a regenerative economy. As BFFs represent an intentional attempt to encode an institution with worldviews, values, logic, and context that are fundamentally distinct from those of existing financial institutions, governance will be a challenging area requiring great care and collective experimentation. The assumptions and habits of governance learned through participation in traditional institutions may not serve BFFs, and both intra- and interpersonal friction in the learning process will likely emerge. It is critical for BFFs to cultivate a healthy unlearning/learning culture where they can carefully consider and experiment with what values are encoded in their governance, who participates, and what frameworks, processes, and tools are applied. At the highest level, we encourage BFFs to implement an inclusive, participatory governance structure that represents the bioregion and is built upon a solid relational foundation of trust. BFFs governance design does not emerge from a vacuum, but rather from the rich context of the learnings and relationships built throughout bioregional organizing efforts and the creation of a Bioregional Regeneration Strategy, which can clarify specific, place-based understandings of the values that are to be upheld governance. In particular, we recommend careful consideration of the “R Values” that many Indigenous communities center in their governance (Section 4.1).11 We offer many proven and emergent frameworks, processes, and tools that can support BFFs in both governance design and practice. Finally, we encourage BFFs to explicitly design their governance towards three key aims: shift power imbalances, work with existing authorities, and build right relationship with other BFFs across regions and scales. This is hard, messy work with no easy answers that fit all contexts. However, we trust that through experiments in creating BFFs around the world, the collective intelligence of place can be harnessed to inform and support an entire network of BFFs – allowing common patterns of trustworthy governance structures to emerge. -> 6. Innovative Mechanisms for Financing Bioregional Regeneration A series of innovative financial tools and approaches is emerging that can help to capitalize BFFs and support the transition of a bioregional economy. Some worth mentioning include: — Decentralized Autonomous Organizations and Web3-based eco-credits — (Digital) Nature-based Currencies — Local Market Networks & Bioregional Vouchers — Bioservices Banks — Participatory grant-making through quadratic and Conviction Voting — Quadratic Funding and Equity Crowdfunding as proxies for capital allocation — Place-based Bioregional Tithing, voluntary taxation, and Business Improvement Districts — Advance Market Commitments for bioregional regeneration — Profit Pooling and whole-economy health as triggers for investor returns Many of the themes explored in this book are aligned with the values and patterns driving the decentralized finance or “DeFi” movement. The authors believe that the potential of existing protocols, tools, technologies, and templates in the Web3 space to bolster the bioregional movement and supercharge grassroots regeneration, has – as yet – not been realized. 11 For example: relationality, reciprocity, responsibility, respect, reverence, regeneration, redistribution, and reconnection Table III. Case Studies CASE STUDIES 1. Salmon Nation – Envisioning a Nature State 2. Bioregional Weaving Labs in South East Ireland – An Example for a Multi-Stakeholder Process and Bioregional Regeneration 3. The Bioregional Learning Center in South Devon – Modeling Bioregional Hubs 4. Hawai‘i Investment Ready Initiative – An Intermediary for Investing in a Resilient Economy for all Hawai‘i 5. Spruce Root – An Indigenous-led CDFI Catalyzing a Regenerative Economy 6. Regen Network and Eco-credits – A Novel Funding Mechanism for Regeneration 7. Golden Bay and the Wellbeing Protocol – Participatory Grant-making through Quadratic and Conviction Voting in Practice 8. Regenerate Cascadia – Coordinated and Coherent Bioregional Organizing 9. The Edge Prize – Scaling What’s Possible by Supporting Regenerative Innovators 10. Hylo – A Coordination Platform for the Future of Bioregional Organizing 11. ReCommon – Regenerative Common Land Trusts 12. Regenerosity – Flowing Capital to Grassroots Regenerators -> 7. Additional Case Studies: Stories of Bioregional Organizing and Bioregional Finance in Action In addition to the multiple case studies throughout this book, five more case studies are presented in the annex. Each of the case studies tells diverse stories of combining dedicated social processes and thoughtful technological innovations to create strong foundations for BFFs. While each is substantial as a standalone case study, they represent, as a set of interdependent stories, a collective case study in how creative efforts across bioregions are resourcing each other and the global movement. -> 8. Next Steps and Call to Action A series of recommendations and calls to action are presented for important stakeholder groups: Bioregional Organizers; Regenerators and Indigenous Communities, Nations, and Tribes; Investors; Philanthropists; Policymakers; Multilaterals and Development Agencies; Innovators and Futurists; Designers; Economists; and Financial Services Consultants. 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 – actually suggestions for forming and nurturing relationships of care, trust, healing, reciprocity, clear communication, and mutual learning. Most of these recommended actions are not merely speculative. They have been sourced from a diverse set of active practitioners around the world. Thus, our list may also be seen as a celebration of the strength and maturity of existing bioregional organizing, coordination, and financing efforts. And yet, there is still much to do, and innovation to pursue, for this movement to cohere, and for BFFs to be established as effective, trustworthy institutions. The recommended actions should not be understood as prescriptive or linear. Not all actions will look the same, or be needed across all contexts, and they do not need to follow an ordered sequence from first to last. We understand bioregional regeneration is a complex, dynamic flow of actions and relations across multiple nested scales within a landscape and our global networks, and we see these actions as supporting that process. Finally, we encourage you to consider that by reading this book, you are already an active – even essential – participant in this movement, whether or not you resonate with everything written or identify as a key stakeholder. We encourage you to hold your professional or place-based identities lightly, and approach this book with curiosity towards the relationships and actions — listed and unlisted — that feel most compelling to you. Perhaps look up from the screen or the page every once in a while — you may be surprised by what is available right now, in your place. -> 9. Conclusion destructive economic system and grow new, regenerative, bioregional economies that can autonomously engage in economic reciprocity with their neighbors. Our financial architecture must serve this recognition. There is an order to the changes now emerging from the disorder of our current social and economic systems: capital is finding its way to flow back to life and the humans stewarding it.