The BioFi Project

Today, on the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, we mark 6 months of The BioFi Project. These have been some of the fullest, most beautiful, and deeply inspiring months of my life. And the overwhelming feelings I’m experiencing today are gratitude - to get to be in service in this way and for the support and energy that so many of you have brought to this work - and clarity - about the urgent need to shift power (and financial capital) to place-based regenerators. I hear the lands and waters calling us back into being a keystone species; to being Earth stewards; to using our hearts, minds, and hands to regenerate life. And I understand from the amazing regenerators I meet - from Alaska to the Amazon - that access to financial capital, that empowers them rather than controls them, is critical to enabling this work to deepen and spread. And I don’t see a pathway to the survival of life on Earth outside of grassroots, high integrity, biocultural regeneration. Thanks to my incredible team, our wise advisors, all the brilliant bioregional organizing teams deepening in relationship with us, the Indigenous allies teaching and guiding us, our epic BioFi Community of Practice (which has grown to 430 members!), the storytellers calling for the transition to bioregional economies, and to the folks that are building the BioFi and broader bioregional movements. So excited for the next 6 months! BioFi Project Team: Edward West, Tyler Wakefield, Taya Seidler, Karla Lopez, Aaron Brodeur, Clare Politano Brodeur, Félix de Rosen, Sarah Ashley Baxendell, Mia Diawara, Emily Rogers, Faith Flanigan, Matt Jorgensen, Kevin Bayuk, Michelle Lee, and Saroj Budhatoki. Advisors: Johny Mair, Ashoka Finley, Matthew Monahan, Jessica Zartler, Evan Steiner, John Fullerton, Kaitlin Archambault, LAURA ORTIZ MONTEMAYOR, David Haenke, Chris Eddy, Christopher Lindstrom, Turquoise Sound, Dune Lankard, April Minnich-Bucksbaum, Tibet Sprague, Manuella Cantalice, Josiah Cain, Monty Bryant 🧙🏼♂️✨, and Rhett Godfrey More then human guides: redwoods, buffalo, salmon, seeds, moss, mushrooms, and the many waters of the places that have shaped this work (and all of the tributaries of work that’s fed into it). Meme 1 by Felix de Rosen, Meme 2 by Intersectional Environmentalist, Meme 3 by Words Are Vibrations. #biofi #regeneration #regenerativeeconomics #imagination #neweconomics

The BioFi Pathfinders Gitcoin Grant Round, which The BioFi Project led in partnership with OpenCivics, Design School for Regenerating Earth, and Regen Coordination, with support from Celo Foundation, Ma Earth, and Regen Foundation marked a significant first step in connecting the bioregional organizing world with Web3, regenerative finance (ReFi), and the Gitcoin community. Though the inaugural round has wrapped, our organizations and cohort of bioregional teams continue digestion, further relationship building, and ideation on how best to iterate future rounds and channel far greater resources to place-based organizers at the heart of the BioFi movement. As we reflect, it’s clear this round was a learning experiment — a first step in exploring how to evolve web3 tools and online communities like Gitcoin's to shift the scales and better support the wisdom of diverse global networks and nascent grassroots organizers who face technological, language, financial, or social barriers. This latest retrospective article is a collaborative mosaic of interviews, quotes, and feedback from our bioregional teams, sponsors, and operating team–please enjoy! https://lnkd.in/gtz9y_ee All are encouraged to join in the conversation to share your perspective with us as we strive towards further refinement and omni-win approaches. We are particularly looking forward to collaborating with Ma Earth on what's next. A HUGE thank you to our round partners: Benjamin Life, Monty Bryant 🧙🏼♂️✨, and Joe Brewer and Tyler Wakefield, Emily Rogers, and Félix de Rosen from the BioFi Project team. Big shout out to our incredible advisors and supporting collaborators Scott Morris, Edward West, Matthew Monahan, Will Szal, and Andrea Farias. #BioFiPathfinders #RegenerativeFinance #BioregionalFinance #Web3ForGood

We are hosting three final BioFi events next week to close out the year! Join us on 📆 Tuesday, Dec 17 for ‘Navigating the BioFi US Federal Funding Database’ from 12-1PM PST. We'll hear from The BioFi Project team members Mia Diawara and Karla Lopez about how to use the database that we've developed and from Josephine Watson about ongoing research to identify federal grants in the US that bioregional organizing teams can tap into. And a special guest appearance by Aria McLauchlan to talk about how the election might influence the grants landscape for conservation/regeneration-focused programming. 🔗 Register here: https://lu.ma/69clekw3 Join us on 📆 Wednesday, Dec 18 for ‘ Regenerating the Argentinian Andes’ from 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM PST. On this month’s Field Building Call, we'll hear from 2 inspiring organizations working on conservation and reforestation in the Argentinian Andes Acción Serrana and Un Árbol ONG. 🔗 Register here: https://lu.ma/g9ukdk9p Finally, if you are in the Austin area, join us on 📆 Friday Dec 20 for 'BioFi in Austin: A convergence for bioregionalists in the Edwards Plateau and Blackland Prairie bioregions’ from 11:30AM-1PM CST in person at the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, where we will also hear from our incredible hosts Pliny Fisk III and Gail Vittori. 🔗 Register here: https://lu.ma/58qlb4q9 🎥 If you are not able to make the virtual events live, you can always watch the recordings on Hylo and our YouTube channel. Sign up to join the BioFi Community of Practice on Hylo: https://lnkd.in/g_63aCra 📆 Click here to add the BioFi Community of Practice Google Calendar to your personal calendar: https://lnkd.in/gD5DaJtc We look forward to seeing you all there! Cc: Tyler Wakefield, Karla Lopez, and Emily Rogers #biofi #regeneration #regenerativeeconomies

I am very excited to share an article that The BioFi Project contributed to the most recent issue of Culture Hack Labs where we explore how BioFi can drive simultaneous and mutually reinforcing systems change and worldview change. Here's a taste: "Given the powerful influence of late-stage capitalism in shaping worldviews and the obstacles it places in moving beyond mechanistic and reductionist perspectives, the BioFi Project's work centers on transforming economic and financial systems. Our theory of change is that through engaging in the inquiry and emergent practice of creating bioregional, regenerative economies, we can catalyze the conditions for well-being and well-seeing that enable people to begin to embody a more unitive worldview.... We believe that through participating in Bioregional Finance, or ‘BioFi,’ people can learn to steward financial capital and other forms of capital together with their neighbors and allocate these capitals to activities that realize long-term strategies for regeneration of entire bioregions. They can envision and create economies that support the liberation of all beings within their overlapping and porous borders. They can begin to orient towards economies that regenerate life on the planet rather than suck up the Earth and turn it into money. In this way, BioFi is an aikido move that leverages the attractor of money to bring people into bioregional networks of solidarity and supports them to embody new worldviews through a range of activities that catalyze and are catalyzed by economic systems transformation." What do these provocations bring up for folks? I would love feedback, thoughts, and reflections! Thank you so much to the brilliant Yael Marantz for the invitation and to the always thoughtful Tyler Wakefield for his support editing! #biofi #regeneration #investinlife #naturestates #bioregionalism

We're looking forward to our next BioFi Field Building call, 'Engaging Indigenous Wisdom, Place-based Governance, and Deep Forgiveness across Africa' happening November 20th, 10-11:30am PDT / 5:00 - 6:30 PM UTC. In this session, we'll hear from voices across Sub-Saharan Africa who are leading the charge in equitable regenerative finance: 🌱 Michael Haupt – Ex-corporate technologist turned “Regenerative Finance Decoder” working with Valley of Grace to bridge sustainable funding gaps in South Africa. 🌿 Gadafi Emma Alip – Regenerative finance thinker and ReFi Uganda representative focused on building frameworks that nurture human and ecological resilience. 🪶 Ramson Karmushu – Founder of MIKIA Kenya, dedicated to integrating Indigenous Traditional Knowledge with modern innovation to promote inclusive conservation and financial access for Indigenous communities. 📆 Click here to add the BioFi Community of Practice Google Calendar to your personal calendar: https://lnkd.in/gD5DaJtc 🕸️ If you haven't already joined the Community of Practice, please join us on Hylo here: https://lnkd.in/g_63aCra 🎥 Can't make it? No worries! The call will be recorded and shared on Hylo and our Youtube channel for you to access. Our monthly Field Building Call provides an opportunity for community members to share stories of active experimentation and learning in BioFi.  During this time, we will hear up to three different 10-minute presentations from Community of Practice members representing initiatives building BioFi aligned projects or organizations from diverse perspectives and places. Following each presentation, there will be space for questions and dialogue between the Community and presenters.  #BioFi #ReFi #RegenerativeFinance #BioregionalFinance #ReFiAfrica As usual, this call will be hosted by The BioFi Project's Tyler Wakefield with support from Karla Lopez. https://lu.ma/g7o98pil

Sharing some thoughts on the election, why I believe the time to create nature states and rebuild Native nations is now, why we must invest in healing the places beneath our feet, and the steps we take to move in this direction. Thoughts, feedback, and reflections super welcome! "Like many of you, I woke up this morning with a great deal of grief about the path that the nation state of America — the place that has been my home and the home of my ancestors going back between 150–400 years — is on. But in that liminal space between sleep and wakefulness, I also felt a shift in my relationship to this country that feels hopeful and provocative. I will share with you here and now. America is a story. And one that is rapidly losing its power. A more beautiful and, I would argue, more true story is gaining traction in its place. This is a story about a diverse tapestry of ‘nature states’ nested within the lands we have identified for nearly 250 years now as a ‘nation state.’ As the nation state and its systems show how brittle they are, as they continue to perpetuate harm and destruction beyond belief, as they stop short of meeting our most basic needs, as they fail to provide us with nourishing food and clean water, as they fail to inspire or connect us, and as they pull us more deeply into the myth of separation, many of us are feeling called to ‘reinhabit a separate country.’ And so, a tapestry of nature states and Native nations emerges..." Image: A snapshot from my home bioregion, Redwood Nation: Redwoods — the very tallest trees in the world — have very shallow root systems, but they tie their roots together and find resilience, strength, and incredible longevity in community. May we do the same. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ga5HcJBa #bioregionalism #investinlife #regeneration #regenerativeeconomy #biofi #indigenouspower #decentralization #governance

BioFi Pathfinders round grantee spotlight number 4 (and last few hours to donate to this grants round! The window closes at 5pm PT): Regenerate Cascadia was born out of a desire to support and empower the good work already underway across the Cascadia bioregion, supporting landscape groups in identifying their own regeneration strategies and linking projects together through a unified vision and story of place. By serving as a scaffolding or back bone for the bioregional movement, Regenerate Cascadia is offering essential support structures for existing initiatives to work better together. They’re providing a mycelial network that allows the bioregion to self-organize and work towards shared goals and possibilities. By building the backbone of flow funding infrastructure, Clare Attwell, Brandon Letsinger, Taya Seidler, and the entire team behind Regenerate Cascadia are focused on aligning funding ecosystems and building local investment opportunity networks, which will support all of Cascadia in self-determining and resourcing a holistic set of next steps forward, together. 🌱 Support their vision and participating BioFi Pathfinder Gitcoin Grants Round teams: Donate via PayPal/Card: https://lnkd.in/gf9_pSS6 Donate via Crypto: https://lnkd.in/gkxBHn7f Benjamin Life, Tyler Wakefield, Monty Bryant 🧙🏼♂️✨, Joe Brewer, Scott Morris, Edward West, Emily Rogers, The BioFi Project, Design School for Regenerating Earth, OpenCivics, Celo Foundation, Regen Coordination, Ma Earth, Regen Foundation #bioregionalism #biofi #refi #investinlife

Dear lovely humans and AIs of LinkedIn, I’d like to take this moment to offer a few invitations, and in doing so, update you on some of what I’m up to and some of who I be these days. With Election Day tomorrow, I know many of us in the US and those watching around the world are feeling some disturbing mixture of anger, sadness, fear, confusion, and detached numbness as we stare into a political system and political culture that has become so thoroughly unhinged from reality and appears to be on a runaway trajectory towards… who the hell knows? No matter how many years or decades ago we may have begun to accept and grieve our loss of faith in our collapsing systems, it still sucks. It still hurts. It’s still terrifying - perhaps more so than it ever has been, given the significance and complexity of the global coordination challenges we face. First, before we do anything, I invite us to let these feelings actually enter us. I invite us to mourn the violence of these systems on our ourselves, our families, our communities, our ecosystems, our planet, and our global community of life. And, I invite us to mourn the immense gap between this present reality and our heart’s visions of a more beautiful world we know is possible. Seriously, I invite us to allow the tears to come, to go for a walk, to make art, to tell a tree all about it, to sit still and breathe it through, or my favorite: find a body of water, dunk your head under, ask for permission and for the embrace of the water, and scream that rage out. Come up for air and go again and again until there’s nothing left to give. (A thick pile of pillows can work too - just give your roommates a head’s up first!) With a little pressure released, we might have the space to now open ourselves to the creative, intelligent, and life-giving power held within this heartbreak. I invite us to listen gently: how might we be able to transmute this rage into growing pathways of possibility for viable, loving, and beautiful futures? What is ours to do, in this moment, in our unique web of relationships and with the resources we have access to? In asking myself these questions today, I’m beyond grateful to have a clear answer: Give my attention and surplus resources to the people I trust are building the cultures, institutions, and systems for coordination and care that I actually believe in and want to see flourish in this world. To find out who these folks are, and what I'm up to these days, read further: https://lnkd.in/gcKQ9Gxx (This is a word count problem - not a cliffhanger tactic - I promise!) Tagging below and in comments the lovely people and orgs who are mentioned in the brief article: The BioFi Project, OpenCivics, Regen Coordination, Design School for Regenerating Earth, Ma Earth, Regen Foundation, Gitcoin