Investing the First $150,000 in the Northern Andes Regeneration Fund
Earlier this year, I shared that we are designing a regeneration fund for the Northern Andes. It is an ambitious effort growing out of the movement of territorial foundations in Colombia that is spearheaded by the support organization Territoria based in Bogota.
We are excited to announce that we are receiving our first significant grant of $150,000 to catalyze this fund into being. Our focus will be to prototype a bioregional funding ecosystem that spans several distinct territories of the Northern Andes that are all based in Colombia.
As you can see in the map below, there are local efforts to establish territorial foundations in many parts of the region.
Our strategy for investing these initial funds is to strengthen the three territories that have (1) legally constituted a territorial foundation, with (2) local teams who have mapped key social actors and regenerative processes in their landscapes, and who have (3) already created a portfolio of local initiatives in a collaborative budget organized at the territorial scale. The three territorial foundations that have done this are Barichara Regenerativa, Paisano in Bogota, and Putumayo Florece.
An additional seven territories are on the same path, but are not as advanced in their progress to organize collaborative budgets for their local communities.
A Bioregional Portfolio of Regenerative Initiatives
The way this fund is being organized is around large-scale landscape systems like watersheds, ecological corridors, and the capacities they hold for human systems to interact with them.
The $150,000 will be divided into five parts — each roughly equal in amount — and distributed in the following manner:
Regenerative Work in Barichara, Colombia
Through the work of Barichara Regenerativa, there is a vision to weave existing regenerative processes that help restore the Barichara River while assisting the transition to a regenerative economy at the territorial scale. Twenty percent of the grant will go to supporting this effort.
Regenerative Work in the Savanna of Bogota
The foundation Paisano has a very dynamic web of local stakeholders working to restore major watersheds and support the emergence of community philanthropy in the neighborhoods of Bogota. Twenty percent of the grant will go to supporting their efforts.
Regenerative Work in the Headwaters of the Putumayo River
There are intense mining interests in this headwater region of the Amazon Basin for the upper Putumayo River. The foundation Putumayo Florece will support alternative pathways into regenerative farming and ecotourism that enable local campesinos to protect vital ecosystems. Twenty percent of the grant will go to supporting their efforts.
Strengthening the Movement of Territorial Foundations
Other territories in Colombia have local teams organizing their own territorial foundations. While they have yet to complete the mapping of local regenerative initiatives, the work is already underway. Twenty percent of the grant will go to supporting them so that they are better able to receive and distribute funding in the future.
Administration of the Northern Andes Fund
The regional support organiation Territoria will administer these funds and increase the learning exchanges among the territories of Colombia. They will receive twenty percent of the grant to cover these administrative costs and to set up monitoring and reporting to document and share what is learned in this early stage of the existene of this fund.
What you can see here is that with a modest amount of resources, we are growing our capacities to map local actor networks, identify and cultivate community leadership for weaving them, and support learning exchanges within territories and among them at the same time.
If you are interested in learning more about how you can support the Northern Andes Regeneration Fund, please let us know.
Onward, fellow humans.
Joe Brewer is co-founder of the Design School for Regnerating Earth as well as a co-founder of Barichara Regenerativa. You can follow him on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram and support his work directly on Patreon.
