BioFi Design Principles

These principles were developed to guide the BioFi Project team, bioregional organizing teams, Indigenous communities/coalitions, and other collaborating organizations to effectively design Bioregional Financing Facilities (BFFs) or other BioFi-aligned mechanisms such as eco-credit programs, bioregional tithing (or other crowdfunding) programs, complementary currencies, mutual credit programs, or commitment pooling programs.

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Like everything bioregional, BFFs and other BioFi mechanisms should be designed to serve each unique Bioregional Regeneration Strategy. Therefore, their structures will be diverse. Diverse, decentralized organizations can support increased systemic resilience and improve the efficacy of BFFs and other BioFi mechanisms as connective tissue (see Figure I). Therefore, these principles should be implemented within context.

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We drew on Permaculture Design Principles, Rainwater Harvesting Principles, Life Principles, Indigenous Economics, and on-land observation and tending to develop this set of BioFi Principles. Permaculture and Rainwater Harvesting Principles are based on Indigenous land and water stewardship practices that were developed over millennia. Fritjof Capra’s Life Principles are informed both by physics and Eastern mystical traditions developed by indigenous peoples. The BioFi Project acknowledges indigenous wisdom as foundational for this work.