The Bioregional Conversations
An action-learning initiative exploring how to help bioregions emerge
and evolve
Coming together in a series of seven cutting-edge conversations to explore the different ways in which bioregioning is taking shape around the world, this small circle of leading bioregional practitioners intends to deepen the learning culture developing around bioregions internationally.
The conversations will touch on how to set up a funding ecosystem for a bioregion, how to engage in landscape-scale visioning, decision-making and action, how to work with existing power structures, how to include the spiritual and indigenous ways of inhabiting earth in this work, and much more.
Learnings from these conversations will inform the future design and development of a bioregioning course, catalyse the formation of a peer-to-peer learning community and inspire new bioregions.
Conversation 1
Watch Isabel Carlisle of the South Devon Bioregion in conversation with Scotland-based colleagues Elle Adams in the Findhorn Watershed and Clare Cooper of Bioregioning Tayside. Isabel describes the deep, bioregional story of South Devon and shares the ways its communities are taking action. Clare focuses on growing bioregioning through community science, and Elle shares how she is applying bioregioning approaches in a Rivers Trust context. The conversation covers capacity building, learning processes and future directions.
Programme
07 May: Isabel Carlisle of the South Devon Bioregion in conversation with Scottish colleagues Elle Adams in the Findhorn Watershed and Clare Cooper of Bioregioning Tayside
21 May: Melina Angel of Colombia Regenerativa in conversation with Latin American colleagues Juan José López (Córdoba, Colombia) and Alexis Catalán Caniulef (Wallmapu, Chile)
04 June: John Thackara in conversation with Irish (The Burren) colleagues Brendan Dunford of Burrenbeo (tbc) and Chris Chapman of the Burren College of Art plus French colleagues at Atelier Luma, Arles
18 June: Stuart Cowan (CEO of the Buckminster Fuller Institute) in conversation with Lawrence Grodeska of the Bay Delta Trust (San Francisco Bay, USA) and Brandon Letsinger of Regenerate Cascadia (Pacific Northwest, USA)
02 July: Udi Mandel of the Enlivened Cooperative in Hawaii in conversation with Juan Manuel Crespo (Amazon Sacred Headwaters) and Noa Lincoln – Assistant Professor of Indigenous Crops and Cropping Systems, University of Hawai’i Manoa.
16 July: Erika Zarate of the Resilience Earth Coop in Catalonia in conversation with Daniel Christian Wahl (Mallorca) and Oscar Gussinyer of La Garroxta Bioregion, Catalonia
30 July: Eduard Muller of Costa Rica Regenerativa in conversation with Edgar Mora (Costa Rica urban component) and Costa Rica Regenerative Agriculture and Biodiversity
What is bioregioning?
‘Bioregioning is […] about re-establishing our connections to the local landscape and its cycles. More than that, it is about building the network of local knowledge that would mean critical decisions are made in the best interests of the bioregion, and, crucially, that local citizens have greater agency in those decisions.’
Justin McGuirk, Future Observatory Journal
‘Bioregioning is […] belonging, seeing yourself as part of the ecosystem, seeing in systems, understanding that things are interconnected, capacity and sense of place, collectively imagining, resilience, governance, policy, finance, evidence, adaptability, nudging in a regenerative direction… it’s a verb, not a noun, where the meaning keeps unfolding…‘
Thoughts from the BLC team
Visit our bioregioning page to see BLC’s roadmap for developing a bioregion in 6 steps
We work in and at the intersection of economy, ecology, learning, arts and culture and the gaps in between.