BioConomy

BioRegion Establishment Template

Properties2
tagstemplate, founding-suite, bioregion
aliasesbioregion template, bioregion establishment

8 min read

The second template in the founding suite. Establishes the BioRegion within which the BioHub operates: its boundaries, its ecological and cultural profiles, the coordination bodies active within it, and the governance principles under which coordination happens. Produces three outputs: the BioRegion Definition, the BioRegion Atlas, and the BioRegion Charter.

Overview

A BioRegion is a geographical area with a common ecosystem, typically characterized by a watershed system, at a scale where actors are bound by shared geography, climate, water, soil, species, communities, and cultural history. The BioRegion Establishment Template produces the documents through which the BioHub says: this is the geography we coordinate within, this is what it contains, and these are the principles under which coordination happens.

The template runs after the BioHub Identity Template and the TIME Diagnostic have both been completed. Its three outputs become prerequisite inputs to the BioConomy Value Proposition Template.

When to run this template

Run this template after the Identity Template’s three outputs are in hand and accepted by the cohort, and after the TIME Diagnostic has produced output identifying the coordination forms active in the coordinator’s local environment. The anchor location is settled (from the Identity Statement). The cohort structure and decision-making forms are in place (from the Founding Compact).

Do not run this template as a first exercise for a coordinator with no prior grounding in the anchor location. Prompt 1 requires the coordinator to supply enough local context to give the AI a real starting point, on top of what is inherited from the Identity documents.

Prerequisite documents

  • The three Identity outputs: Identity Statement, Field and Lineage Positioning, Founding Compact.
  • BioStack and BioConomy foundational document.
  • Framework of coordination forms (TIME, or an equivalent).
  • TIME Diagnostic output for the BioHub.
  • Any preliminary documents establishing the anchor location’s ecological or cultural context that were not incorporated into the Identity documents.
  • Bioregional science reference documents (Water Retention Landscape methodology, biome delineation frameworks, catchment characterization tools).

The Metabolic BioHubs Best Practices Research Brief is inherited through the Field and Lineage Positioning document and does not need to be attached separately.

The three prompts

Prompt 1: Scoping proposal with candidate boundaries. Produces two to four candidate BioRegion boundaries for the cohort to consider, with rationale for each across seven categories (boundary, ecological basis, cultural and historical basis, jurisdictional overlay, coordination bodies active, size classification, trade-offs). Includes a preliminary recommendation. The cohort then reviews and selects a candidate (or narrows to two if the trade-offs warrant further evidence).

Prompt 2: BioRegion evidence pack. Takes the selected candidate and builds an eleven-section evidence pack: ecological profile, hydrological profile, jurisdictional profile, cultural and historical profile, institutional profile, infrastructural profile, climate profile, soil carbon baseline, ecological-cultural boundary tensions, multi-BioHub context, and cross-profile synthesis. Surfaces the tensions for cohort resolution.

Prompt 3: The three final documents. Produces the BioRegion Definition, the BioRegion Atlas, and the BioRegion Charter.

The three outputs

BioRegion Definition. Short, formal, foundational reference document. Five to ten pages. States the BioRegion’s boundaries, the reasoning behind them, the reconciliation of ecological and cultural boundaries, the coordination bodies recognized within, the multi-BioHub context and protocols where applicable, the jurisdictional overlays and regulatory context, and the constraints acknowledged. This is what a counterparty, funder, or peer BioHub will read to answer “what is your BioRegion?”

BioRegion Atlas. Long, structured referential document. Thirty to sixty pages. Compiles the ecological, hydrological, jurisdictional, cultural, institutional, infrastructural, and climate profiles, the Water Retention Landscape baseline, the soil carbon baseline, the biodiversity inventory, and any specialized science threads (such as bioprecipitation research candidates). Structured for section-by-section reference use. This is the BioHub’s operational knowledge base for planning specific coordination work.

BioRegion Charter. Governance and commitment document. Five to ten pages. Establishes the BioRegion as a coordination object worthy of commitment. Articulates the principles under which coordination happens within it (retention logic, subsidiarity, polycentricity, commitment pooling, honest gap-flagging). Recognizes prior custodial and coordination bodies with their authority intact. Sets out consent and custodial principles for cultural and indigenous knowledge, multi-BioHub coordination protocols, provisions for co-signature by participating bodies, and provisions for revision and dissent. Used to convene formal coordination relationships.

Cohort work between prompts

Between Prompts 1 and 2, the coordinator convenes the cohort to make the boundary selection. This is cohort work under the decision-making forms established in the Founding Compact.

Between Prompts 2 and 3, the coordinator convenes the cohort to resolve the tensions the evidence pack has surfaced. Two categories of tension are load-bearing here: the ecological-cultural boundary reconciliation (where within the selected boundary ecological and cultural boundaries diverge) and the multi-BioHub scope question (where other BioHubs or bioregional initiatives operate within the selected boundary).

Where indigenous or first-nation authority is involved in the ecological-cultural reconciliation, the cohort applies the consent and custodial principles established in the Founding Compact. Where the cohort does not have the standing or the relationships to resolve the tension, Prompt 3 should be paused until the necessary consent and relationship work is done.

Neither cohort review step can be delegated to the AI. See Running a Template for the shared conventions.

Working with candidate boundaries

Prompt 1 produces alternatives so the cohort can choose. At minimum, one ecologically-primary candidate and one culturally-primary candidate are produced. Where relevant, a hybrid candidate and a candidate at a different scale (smaller or larger) are added.

The size classifications the prompt uses are: sub-catchment or settlement cluster; catchment or district; multi-catchment or regional; bio-geographic province. These are working proposals and may need adjustment for marine, coastal, or high-latitude BioRegions where the classifications do not map cleanly.

Where the Identity Statement records a working BioRegion candidate, it is included as one of the candidates and evaluated on the same terms as the others. The Prompt 1 output may support, extend, or challenge it.

Ecological and cultural boundaries rarely align cleanly. The template treats the divergence as a feature to be named and reconciled, not a problem to be smoothed over. Where they diverge within a candidate, Prompt 1 names the divergence. Prompt 2’s ecological-cultural boundary tensions section surfaces the specific tension points. The cohort resolves them before Prompt 3.

Multi-BioHub context

Other BioHubs, bioregional initiatives, or coordination bodies may already operate within the selected boundary. Emerging BioHubs may sit at adjacent scales (nested inside the selected boundary, or containing it within a larger one). Prompt 2 surfaces these. The cohort resolves how the BioHub relates to them before Prompt 3.

The Charter’s multi-BioHub coordination protocols refine the working protocols established in the Founding Compact. Both remain revisable as the BioRegion’s coordination landscape shifts.

Handoff to the BioConomy Value Proposition Template

The three BioRegion outputs become prerequisite inputs to the third template. Attach all three (alongside the three Identity outputs) to the first prompt of the BioConomy Value Proposition Template.

The BioRegion Definition supplies the bioregion boundary, the coordination bodies recognized within, the jurisdictional overlays, and the multi-BioHub context. The BioRegion Atlas supplies the ecological, hydrological, jurisdictional, cultural, institutional, infrastructural, and climate profiles used to populate the Value Proposition Canvas’s Living Substrate panel; the Water Retention Landscape baseline used for water yield tenders; the soil carbon baseline used for carbon sequestration tenders; the biodiversity inventory used for biodiversity data tenders; and the heritage anchor and cultural profile used for heritage and tourism tenders. The BioRegion Charter supplies the governance principles used to structure the Retention Guarantee, the consent and custodial principles applied to cultural and heritage tenders, and the multi-BioHub coordination protocols used for tender-level coordination.

Once the BioRegion Definition is produced, update Section 8 of the Identity Statement to complete the cross-reference opened at the founding.

Sources

Provenance

Extracted from BioRegion Establishment Template v0.2 (August 22, 2026) in the VoG as Patron Project Prototype knowledge base. Full prompt text, output specifications, evidentiary discipline (IC / MS / TBV tagging), constraints, and flags remain in the source document. This page presents the shape of the template, its position in the suite, the cohort work it requires, and the three documents it produces, in a form legible to a coordinator arriving at the wiki without prior context.

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