Biodiversity

Together we are mobilising 1 million changemakers to protect, restore and regenerate 1 million hectares of Europe’s land, rivers and sea by 2030!

The Bioregional Weaving Labs (BWL) Collective is a growing assembly of 25+ international system-changing organisations, funders and impact investors, initiated by Ashoka, co-led by Commonland, and grounded in a community of practice. We are representing hundreds of system changers in the field - including many Ashoka Fellows - working directly with farmers, nature conservationists, communities, and stakeholders in bioregions to restore, protect and regenerate ecosystems and to preserve biodiversity.

Bioregional Weaving Labs Collective

We do this by establishing Bioregional Weaving Labs in 10 different countries in Europe, that leverage the potential of changeleaders and their systemic innovations and weave them together to increase their collective impact. Together we mobilise 100.000 changemakers per bioregion who are aligned to work towards one holistic landscape plan, and to generate 4 returns in the bioregions: natural, social, financial returns and return of inspiration

To date, we established 8 BWLs in Europe: in Ireland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, France, Austria, Romania and Spain, and engaged dozens of change leaders in each bioregion. We are also building a (growing) portfolio of systemic innovations from all over Europe – many from Ashoka Fellows - that are community-based and scalable and can inspire and support the bioregions in their landscape development.

With all BWLs we form a Learning Network and organise an annual Learning Summit to catalyse peer-to-peer learning and become more knowledgeable fast on how to restore, protect and regenerate land and seascapes at scale, and how to finance it. This is only the start of a long-term effort (a minimum 10 years) to develop collective actions such as campaigning, and advocacy and replicate our multi-stakeholder approach to preserve biodiversity at scale.

The Bioregional Weaving Labs (BWL) Insights Report

The BWL Insights Report 2022 formed the basis for our joint mission and strategy; it explains the urgency of addressing the poly-crises of climate, pollution and biodiversity in an integrated and holistic way. It argues for the potential of weaving social innovation and Nature-based Solutions as a way forward. It finally explains the BWL strategy; why we choose weaving as central methodology, why we work in bioregions and why we establish Labs. The report annex offers a deep dive into the systems-changing initiatives of 14 Ashoka Fellows in the field of biodiversity.

Download the report Download the BWL brochure

Policy Recommendations

Ashoka contributed to a briefing with policy recommendations for the EU commission on delivering the Green Deal through holistic landscape restoration. BWL is set as an example how to realise social mobilisation on a landscape scale.

See full report here

Deep dive and how to join

Due to its participatory and creative nature, social innovation is well-positioned to address environmental challenges, which are multifaceted and often require societal or behavioral shifts towards more sustainable options. We invite Ashoka Fellows and other social innovators to contact us, in case they want to explore a collaboration.

What became clear by interviewing Ashoka Fellows and holistic landscape practitioners is that to solve the interconnected challenges in the field – biodiversity loss, resource over-extraction, soil degradation, climate change – we need to trigger a fundamental mindset shift.

We need to shift how humanity sees its relationship with nature, from the current mindset of human superiority, separation from nature, and extraction to the connection, regeneration, and reliance on our planet, in order to unravel the damage our global, interconnected systems are causing. We are the regeneration!