The Bioregional Learning Centre UK

The Bioregional Learning Centre was recently shortlisted for the Lush Spring Prize – the Intentional Projects Award, which is all about knowledge sharing and we’re excited to be attending a gathering of all 20 finalists.

Hosting a conversation at South Devon Wool Works’ Wool Gathering in Buckfastleigh boosted momentum for getting a small-scale processing plant up and running.  A day spent on the farm with Paula Wolton of One Hut Full is helping her hill farming vision to evolve and get the wonderful Hut back out on tour… the beginnings of our fibreshed “lab”.

Many weeks of  design have resulted in a science-based report for California Trout that gives each of California’s 32 species of salmon, steelhead and trout its own ‘Level of Concern’ and describes the anthropomorphic threats that are affecting them.  Lots of learning for our watershed.

And we are beginning a funded project to scope out new economic opportunities in Devon.

In a system, like the human body or a transit system, it is clear to see that there are many functions performed by many parts.  All of the functions impact on all the other functions, and when the network of relationships that connects them all up is working well, the whole system flourishes.  And the opposite is true: if one or two lines on the London Underground are out the other lines are forced to adapt.

To have impact at the scale and reach that is now needed, work at the whole systems level is essential for social change; we have to pay attention to the smooth running of the whole network, as well as the parts.  Change is not linear, power is not top down or even bottom up, relationships between actors are as important as what each is doing, and shared vision becomes the glue that holds the network together.

Communities have always played a role in stewarding their bioregional ecologies and managing their local economies. Now that the issues that we are facing need all of us to tackle them, not just experts, our work is to ally the expertise of communities with local government, learning organisations, businesses, civil society and many other kinds of organisations.  And to do this with imagination, creativity and the will to rediscover what it means to be a citizen of place.

Representing a bioregion and giving it an identity involves a wide range of skills and capabilities: the geographer’s knowledge of mapping; the conservation biologist’s expertise in biodiversity and habitats; the ecologist’s literacy in ecosystems; the economist’s ability to measure flows and leakage of money and resources; the artist’s capacity to represent real-world phenomena in ways that change our perceptions; the designer’s capacity to create platforms that enable regional actors to share and collaborate.

We practice interdisciplinary design – the process of developing design solutions with people of different backgrounds, cultural and professional, where a wider range of needs and requirements are all folded in, producing ideas which are then co-developed.  This approach, where “there is a collective ownership of ideas and everybody takes responsibility for them” (Tim Brown, IDEO) is an ideal way to engage with a very complex system like a bioregion.

We are starting a list of bioregional design deliverables…

The River Keeper Project is educational, creative, scientific and experimental.  Our collective experience shows that people want and need a voice, a better chance in life, an opportunity to be heard, a better future for the next generation, a sense of belonging to a place and community.  So beginning with the River Dart, we are testing out activities designed to re-connect rivers and their watersheds with people and communities.  We want rivers and watersheds to be cared for by more people and to receive better protection and management based on a shared vision of the future. And we want to invite people in communities, businesses (including landowners), all kinds of civil society groups and families of all ages and backgrounds to join in.

Would you like to participate?  Let us know.