# Next Steps and Call to Action 8. Next Steps and Call to Action 140 -> 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.  › 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 and possible introduction of Common Asset Trusts, payments for ecosystem services, environmental permits, etc.), especially at the bioregional scale 252 Some aligned resources include: Flow Funding, Post Capitalist Philanthropy, and the Six Principles of Trust-Based Philanthropy. 253 Further recommendations for financial and economic policymakers available here: An Overview of Nature-Related Risks and Potential Policy Actions for Ministries of Finance: Bending The Curve of Nature Loss. 254 e.g., through implementing or supporting the development of natural asset/capital accounting, developing alternatives to gross domestic product (GDP), and developing nature loss scenarios.  › Consider financial regulation that drives a dynamic, forward- looking, and holistic assessment of risk and supports the localization of risk assessment › Work with Bioregional Organizing Teams and BFF management to collaboratively develop strategies for devolving resource allocation decision-making to bioregional entities › Push for the Global North to Global South funding flow to support Global South countries in meeting the targets under the Rio Conventions to flow directly to BFFs rather than through a multilateral fund › Set up a technical assistance fund to support Bioregional Organizing Teams and Indigenous nations (or consortiums of nations) to design, build, and operate BFFs › Invest in a portfolio of BFFs through a bond fund › Provide guarantees to enable Bioregional Investment Companies and Bioregional Banks to raise return-seeking financial capital Policymakers › Implement the actions described above for national (local level) policymakers that local policymakers also have jurisdiction over › Work with Bioregional Organizing Teams and BFF management to collaboratively develop strategies for devolving resource allocation decision-making to bioregional entities › Create local authorities, bonds, and taxes to directly support landscape, bioregional and watershed scale regeneration › Take steps to cultivate a bioregional perspective (holistic, ecologically-intersectional, Indigenous-informed, systems- level) when considering policy and program development and implementation › Seek deeper and more frequent cross-jurisdictional, multi- sectoral, multi-stakeholder collaboration on issues of bioregional importance and purview › Prioritize funding and capacity-building for initiatives that explicitly pursue their work through a holistic, intersectional bioregional lens Multilaterals and › Work with client countries to design and implement BFFs Development › Decentralize financial resource governance to BFFs when Agencies possible › As new public resources are mobilized – for example those promised under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework – structure them to flow to BFFs rather than to a global fund and then to national governments255 Web3 practitioners › Work to apply existing Web3 technology and to develop new tools and protocols where needed to innovate at the BioFi x DeFi intersection – particularly in the areas of capital raising, participatory capital allocation, MRV, governance, relational trust networks, complementary or Nature-based Currencies, Ecological Institutions, Rights of Nature, and wallets for ecosystems or species › As much as possible, seek partnership with “on-the-ground” regenerators and communities who are facing contextually- specific challenges and can guide iterative experimentation 255 This is particularly important for getting financial resources to Indigenous nations and tribes. Innovators, › Develop new financial and governance tools/instruments, Technologists, and business models, and legal structures that can support the Futurists legibility of both the local and global (real) value of biocultural regeneration and support the transition to regenerative economies › Continue to design and innovate integrative, cost-effective MRV solutions deliverable/contributable by place-based regenerators › Further iterate and improve the concepts of BFFs Designers, › Support Bioregional Organizing Teams to design and Economists, and implement BFFs and oversee iterative improvements Financial Services › Support bioregions in developing and implementing Consultants appropriate capital raising and participatory capital allocation approaches › Work on complementary or nature-based currency experiments › Share learnings openly and widely in the BioFi Community of Practice so that others may benefit from it Storytellers, Artists, › Invite local artists, storytellers, and designers early on into the and Designers process256 › Use art, storytelling, and other forms of creative expression to engage and reflect the local communities’ vision for a regenerative, bioregional economy – supporting a sense of common purpose and identity › Form artist collectives to work together to create art that fuels a movement in the bioregion › Submit collective proposals for grants to the Bioregional Trust once it is set up › Form a national or global fund to resource artists building the bioregional movement › Connect with local regenerators or Indigenous tribes to discover opportunities for connective tissue between place- based “old story” and artistic vision for “new story” culture creation Academics › Partner with a Bioregional Organizing Team to conduct strategic research to support the development of a Bioregional Regeneration Strategy, BFF, or Bioregional Hub › Support the development of an integrated MRV platform and strategy for BFFs and Bioregional Hubs › Support Bioregional Organizing Teams in systems mapping and identification of leverage points that can inform BFF investment strategies › Write about BFFs and bioregional efforts in academic journals or other publications. › Speak about case study examples at conferences to help spread the word and raise the profile of these efforts › Publically engage in debates, podcasts, or interviews about bioregional philosophy and tools (such as finance) › Organize meetings or conferences on bioregional themes › Interface with policymakers and other stakeholders to weave connections and facilitate information flow › Share research with bioregional communities › Listen to bioregional communities and help them share their stories with other bioregions and the broader planetary community 256 Due to historical and ongoing marginalization, it is particularly important that, where possible, these contributors are paid for their time and creative work.