Our Bioregional Learning Ecosystem for Territorial Regeneration

There is a complexity to what we are doing that makes it hard to explain. What IS a bioregional learning ecosystem? Why is it necessary to create one if we are to regenerate our territory? How important is this for the rest of the world?

Two years ago, I create this 10-minute video explaining What is a Bioregional Learning Center? It is helpful to know that this a a transformational idea -- first articulated in 1983 by the late systems thinker Donella Meadows. In order to regenerate a territory, we need to have whole-system understandings for how life works in each unique place on Earth. We need the capacities for collective intelligence that enable us to participate actively in the restoration of vital ecosystems at various nested scales.

For our work in Barichara, Colombia we are creating a learning ecosystem that embodies all of the features of a bioregional learning center. This is what I dreamed of manifesting when my family first arrived here almost six years ago in November of 2019. Much progress has been made and the work is deepening continuously now on many different levels.

We established our territorial foundation Fundación Barichara Regenerativa with ten co-founders as the manifestation of the Barichara Regeneration Fund that I created during my time leading the planetary community of Earth Regenerators. This year we are weaving among six different community funds that serve the major axis of regenerative education, regenerative economics, regenerative culture, ecosystem restoration, and territorial healing.

The legal process is now underway to constitute Tierra Sagrada as the non-profit organization that transforms private land into community commons for the regeneration of our territory. We have several special pieces of land that are ready to bring into Tierra Sagrada in the next year.

Preparations are now underway for the third year of our regenerative school fo children, Sueños del Bosque, that is weaving the learning processes among teachers and regenerative field sites throughout the territory. And the artist collective Historias Regenerativas has been elevating stories of bioregional regeneration in Barichara for the last several months -- as we increase our capacities to share what is happening here with local people and those who follow along from the rest of the world.

My posts on this website are usually short because the links to content go quite deep on their own. We have documented our process through dozens of progress reports, a series of webinars called Barichara Updates, and more than 30 sessions of our Regenerative Finance Lab in the Design School for Regenerating Earth.

I share this with you today because we are now being supported at unprecedented scales -- with about $1,000,000 US coming into our regenerative ecosystem in the next year. We are going to need about $250,000 more to keep all of the key processes going. Watch this space to see what emerges.

And of course, if you would like to support our work please consider making a donation here. Or reach out to me directly for a conversation.

Onward, fellow humans.

Joe Brewer Co-Founder of Design School for Regenerating Earth Co-Founder of Barichara Regenerativa Co-Founder of Tierra Sagrada