• The BWL Collective works towards regenerating 1 million...

  • Searching for scalable Nature-based Solutions

1 MILLION CHANGEMAKERS REGENERATING 1 MILLION HA OF LAND & SEA IN EUROPE

The Bioregional Weaving Labs (BWL) Collective is a growing assembly of 25+ international system-changing organisations, grounded in a community of practice. We are the system changers in the field; working directly with farmers, nature conservationists, communities and stakeholders. We are taking collective action to ensure that high level climate and biodiversity plans become more actionable. We are weaving our expertise, knowledge, resources, and teams together to offer maximum support to change leaders, citizens’ initiatives and their communities that wish to restore, protect, and regenerate the landscapes and seascapes they live and work in. We consist of socio-environmental entrepreneurs that design and implement Nature-based Solutions and of facilitators who create the right enabling conditions for NBS to take hold and scale. Next to this, we have 10 Bioregion Ambassadors and 10 Weaving Teams ready to catalyse regeneration in 10 bioregions with us

By 2025 we want to mobilise and support 1 million changemakers who will together contribute to restoring, protecting, and regenerating 1 million hectares of land and sea in Europe, with significant and observable impact by 2030.  To this end, we are establishing Bioregional Weaving Labs in 10 different bioregions in Europe that build capacity and catalyse multi-stakeholder partnerships, mobilising at least 100.000 changemakers per bioregion.

REIMAGINING OUR LANDSCAPE AS BIOREGIONS

Bioregions, defined by common ecological features, offer a perfect opportunity for us to reconnect with the ecological and cultural characteristics of the geography we live and work in, and to reimagine that landscape. Bioregions are large enough to encompass all the biological activity and ecological processes necessary for life to sustain itself, and for local habitats and ecosystems to preserve their biological integrity. Data and metrics about climate and biodiversity are only meaningful when they are connected to where we live - where we can most readily take part.  

A bioregion offers a relevant business case for communities, farmers, investors and corporations. It has the potential to leverage specific liabilities in the region - like drought, fire, and flooding risk - with NBS that can be managed and monitored by local communities and financed through risk mitigation, on a bioregional landscape scale. This can bring us what we all want: a just and inclusive society, a greener environment with enriched biodiversity, healthier soils that capture carbon and produce abundant foods, global warming reversal and new jobs in a regenerative economy. 

UPSCALE REGENERATION

The ‘Bioregional Weaving Lab’ concept is a geographically grounded and carefully curated multi-stakeholder partnership process that weaves together people and solutions, equipping and helping them to organise for transformative change. We invite cohorts of 40-60 key local stakeholders (farmers, fishermen, landowners, investors, corporate leaders, shareholders, policymakers, community members, etc.) to reimagine a future for their bioregions in which they live in harmony with their environment. They align on a shared vision and map the needs of their bioregions to gain a clear understanding of the root causes that drive climate change and biodiversity loss, the liabilities, the potential of NBS to reverse climate change and biodiversity loss, and the gaps in systems. Through a BWL, stakeholders grow collective leadership capacity with their local communities to drive their own systems change, using the renowned Theory U process and weaving methodology, which are detailed in our full report.

BWL cohorts co-create and share practical tools and frameworks - like the 4 Returns and Drawdown framework - that help them to think and act in a more integrated and systematic way. We introduce NBS from our international network, which we jointly validate to be just, inclusive, and participatory. We co-develop the concept of ‘landscape level portfolio asset management’ for an integrated landscape approach to uptake and scale Nature-based Solutions. We help to match validated NBS that can mitigate liabilities in the region with banks, investors, and corporations to unlock large scale investment and close the financing gap for investments in nature. We support social innovators in improving their NBS business models and scalability. Cohorts co-create and prototype a smart landscape financing platform and organise events to engage a wider range of a bioregion’s citizens to manage and monitor the assets. 

LEARNING NETWORK

We facilitate a Learning Network for the convening Weaving Teams of all 10 BWLs to continuously learn, build expertise and exchange best practises in facilitating a lab to enhance multi-stakeholder partnerships. We invite others to learn with us and share our learnings open source. This model is highly scalable and is providing all learning open source. We aspire for the 10 bioregions to evolve in becoming flagship projects that can inspire other regions to follow the example.

 


 

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

What our research has made clear is that, too often, the stakeholders involved in Nature-based Solutions work in fragmented silos, put ego before eco, and are not ensuring that transformation processes are truly inclusive and well governed. In addition, women, youth, minority groups, and vulnerable communities are among the most affected by climate change and biodiversity loss, but their voices are usually not well represented in the design and implementation of NbS.  Therefore, we must move away from traditional leadership towards collective eco-system leadership, and to cocreate inclusive, holistic, and integrated approaches instead of fragmented ones. Above all, we must become aware of our interconnectedness with each other and with the planet and aim for collective impact. 

Our solutions

Bioregional Weaving Lab facilitators

  • Ashoka is facilitating a global network of social entrepreneurs whose system-changing innovations solve deep-rooted social problems and initiating partnerships for collective impact.
  • Commonland is working on large scale, holistic landscape restoration through the 4Returns framework and facilitating multi-stakeholder partnership processes.
  • Presencing Insitute is an action research platform, co-creators of innovation labs, delivering capacity building and leadership programs based on an awareness based system change framework, Theory U.
  • The Weaving Lab is a global community that is growing the field of ’weaving‘. Through peer-to-peer learning it is deepening its practice, advancing research, and strengthening the community of practitioners 

Solutions for nature conservation

  • Hoge Kempen National Park (Belgium) is providing a (Re)Connection model for natural ecosystems, increasing socio-economic benefits through eco-tourism while protecting the environment.
  • Sea Ranger Service (The Netherlands, UK, Norway) is training unemployed youth to become Sea Rangers to protect the ocean and restore ocean biodiversity at scale.
  • Kogayon Association & Vacaresti Natural Park (Romania) is cultivating a citizen-driven functional conservation system for natural heritage and environmentally protected areas to ensure natural prosperity and sustainable development.

Solutions for healthy soils

  • Anatolian Grasslands (Turkey, Sweden) is enabling people and the institutions towards the "Age of Regeneration" by using Regenerative Agriculture as the main leverage and through holistic models, tools and hands-on implementation. 
  • Farming for Nature (Ireland) is recognising, supporting and rewarding farmers for enhancing the natural health of the countryside. 
  • Herenboeren (The Netherlands) is supporting families in developing self-owned nature-driven cooperative farms.
  • Savory Institute is equipping land managers with innovative tools and curricula for holistic management of the land via the establishment of regional hubs. 
  • Vazapp (Italy) is providing farmers opportunity to exchange experiences, encourage cooperation and disseminate knowledge through organising cultural events. 

Solutions for green cities

  • Incredible Edible (UK) is inspiring citizens to grow food in public spaces and share it across their communities to enhance active citizenship.

  • Bioregional is providing a framework and a process for sustainable living that enables companies, communities, and city-regions to make sustainable living actionable and desirable.  

  • Klub Gaja (Poland, Iceland, UK) is engaging citizens to take practical actions for the natural environment and animal rights, like planting trees with the community or with schools  

  • Fundacja Laka (Poland) is facilitating the growth of biodiverse flower meadows in city centers, near roads, and on brownfields to preserve biodiversity. 

  • GIY (Ireland) is inspiring and enabling a global movement of people who grow their own food at home or in the community to reconnect with nature. 

Solutions for data collection & impact measurement

  • Drawdown Europe Research Association (DERA), building on the acclaimed Project Drawdown model and framework to guide and facilitate science-based climate action. 
  • Beeodiversity (Belgium, France, Luxembourg, France, Germany, UK, Bulgaria, Spain, Netherlands, Austria) is redefining the role of bees in our ecosystem through offering an innovative scientific monitoring tool using bees as drones to capture valuable data about the environment.
Infographic about Weaving for a Thriving Planet solutions

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