Global Bioregional Month: September 2026
r3.0 Conference & Confluences Kick Off the Month
Recently, members of the Bioregional Coherence Circle noticed the convergence of several large-scale bioregional events clustering around September, and so we met and agreed to frame Sept 2026 as Global Bioregional Month as an invitation to weave the broader movement together. We’ve identified 3 anchor events so far -- this post will focus on the last one listed (but first to convene), the r3.0 Conference. Here’s brief info on the other two first:
--The Design School for Regenerating Earth is hosting a Mediterranean Bioregional Gathering in Tunisia in the 2nd half of Sept, weaving across the 3 continents (Africa, Asia, Europe) that are tied together by the sea.
--The 11th Turtle Island Bioregional Congress (TIBC11) gathers bioregionalists from across the continent to the Cascadia bioregion Sept 15-19 to revitalize this core practice of the bioregional movement from a decade-plus hiatus (TIBC10 happened at The Farm in Tennessee in 2009) in its four-decade tradition (TIBC1 happened in the Ozarks in 1984).
--The r3.0 Conference -- themed Bioregional Regeneration as Collapse Resilience: Earth-centric Biocultural Kinship, Knowledge & Governance -- kicks off the month with 3+ days (Sept 8-10) with online programming, complemented by concurrent Confluences of bioregional groups (50+ groups across 6 continents registered Confluences last year) gathering in person locally to experience the Conference, cross-pollinate ideas across bioregions, and deliberate on their own bioregional priorities.
We at r3.0 launched our Conference Website earlier this week, and announced our the first of our Speakers: Dr PennElys Droz of Salmon Returns & JumpScale.
The Agenda page lays out our new Program Structure (streamlined at the request of Confluence participants who were a bit overwhelmed by last year’s packed Program), featuring a single Panel Session each day (on Relational Kinship, Bioregional Knowledge Commons, and Bioregional Self-Governance), book-ended by Reflection Sessions for Bioregional Confluences to cross-pollinate their learnings -- with ample space interspersed for Confluences to host their own internal deliberations. (These sessions are timed to accommodate time zones globally as much as humanly possible...)
We’ve also opened up Confluence Registration, and already 5 bioregional groups from 3 continents (Turtle Island, Oceania, and Europe) have registered! You can register by filling out this brief Expression of Interest form.
You can register at one of three levels:
-Living Room Confluence: small (5-10 people), self-hosted gatherings, geared toward the “bioregional curious” who are early in their journeys;
-Bioregional Group Confluence: mid-sized (10-20 people) gatherings of emerging bioregional groups in need of logistical support to host in their own venues; and
-Bioregional Team Confluence: larger (20+ people) gatherings of more established bioregional teams needing to rent venues and support more complex logistics.
A number of benefits flow from registering your Confluence:
-Free Conference Registration to all Confluence participants;
-Qualifying for a fair proportionate share (based on size level) of the 2026 Confluencing Fund, which we are seeking to more than double to $50k from last year’s €21k (we’re accepting donations to that Fund here); and
-Immediately enabling all Confluence participants to start attending the monthly Confluencing Community Calls.
Last month’s Bioregional Confluencing Community Call spotlighted the work of Tobias Luthe, Folef Hooft Graafland, and Mirjam Luthe of the MonViso Institute in the Po River Bioregion in Italy and Switzerland.
This month’s Confluencing Community Call spotlights the work of Tomi Winfree and her colleagues in Regenerating Mornington Peninsula in Australia.
Next month’s Confluencing Community Call spotlights the work bridging between the Northeast Woodlands Bioregioning Collective, the Natôquhsunônak (Our Relatives) Inter-Tribal Alli… and the Lake Champlain Confluence hosted at the UVM Institute for Agroecology.
Each Confluencing Community Call features an opportunity for all bioregional groups present to share updates on their latest developments -- creating robust cross-pollination of understanding of diverse bioregional organizing strategies.
And all Confluencing Community Members gain access to recordings, presentation decks, and other materials from the monthly Community Calls.
Rounding out this message by returning to Global Bioregional Month, other large-scale bioregional gatherings are in early planning stages for Sri Lanka by the South Asia Bioregionalism Working Group and in Australia by the Australian Earth Laws Alliance.
We welcome other events to be planned for this month, in ways that create synergy and momentum for the globalizing movement of localized action. Please reach out if you know of other events that may converge.