--- type: summary title: "Bioregioning Tayside: the BFF page and interviews" description: Bioregioning Tayside's project page and two linked interviews on building Scotland's first Bioregional Financing Facility, from stocktake to pilots. status: draft confidence: medium validation: machine timestamp: 2026-10-09 licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 tags: [tayside, scotland, bff, interviews, regenerative-finance, bioregional-governance] sources: [] --- # Bioregioning Tayside: the BFF page and interviews *Three pages from the Bioregioning Tayside website, captured on 24 September 2026. The first is the project page for the Bioregional Finance Facility. The other two are interviews it links, both published by Bioregioning Tayside. The interview of 5 January 2025 is with the facility's lead architect from Dark Matter Labs. The interview of 4 August 2025 is with a co-designer who joined the team in 2025. Read for this page: all three pages in full. Interviewees are described by role.* ## What it argues Bioregioning Tayside calls the facility its "latest and most ambitious project to date" (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, project page). It is working with Dark Matter Labs to build Scotland's first Bioregional Financing Facility (BFF) (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, project page). The first interview argues that more money for nature is insufficient on its own. Money that flows through the existing financial architecture risks further commodification, privatisation and centralisation of natural assets (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 5 January 2025). Where money goes, how it is structured and who decides "is as important as the quantum of capital" (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 5 January 2025). The second interview places BFFs inside regenerative finance (ReFi). It likens ReFi to the underground fungal network, and BFFs to "the fruiting bodies" that appear in a particular place (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 4 August 2025). It argues for moving step by step: start small, test mechanisms and learn by doing (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 4 August 2025). ## Key points - **What a BFF is.** The lead architect calls BFFs a new layer in the global financial architecture (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 5 January 2025). They decentralise financial governance, design portfolios for systemic change and support a regenerative economy at bioregional scale (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 5 January 2025). - **Portfolios.** BFFs bundle smaller projects into larger portfolios that can attract institutional investors (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 5 January 2025). Linking regenerative farming, watershed restoration and community energy allows "multi-solving at the portfolio level" (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 5 January 2025). - **More than funding.** The lead architect also frames BFFs as governance systems, capacity-building tools and mechanisms for accountability (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 5 January 2025). - **Why Tayside.** The Tay is Scotland's largest water catchment (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 5 January 2025). The region has research strengths in food, energy and water security, which the interview sees as a base for a future economy (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 5 January 2025). - **Stage 1.** Bioregioning Tayside completed a stocktake and gap analysis early in 2025 (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, project page). The co-designer says it assessed readiness across 15 key elements and plugged several gaps (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 4 August 2025). - **Stage 2.** The next stage maps ecological regeneration opportunities, then asks how to value that work and who allocates capital (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 4 August 2025). The long-term aim ties investment returns to biodiversity, water quality, soil health and social cohesion (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 4 August 2025). - **Pilots and the plan.** Pilot projects should be rooted in local communities and diverse in theme, scale, sector and people (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 4 August 2025). A Bioregional Plan, co-created with communities, is meant to guide the financing and investment strategy (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 4 August 2025). - **Advice for the team.** The co-designer stresses psychological safety, bold experiments and a regular return to core values (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 4 August 2025). The interview draws on adrienne maree brown's Emergent Strategy (raw/bioregioning-tayside-bff-pages-2026-09-24.md, interview of 4 August 2025). ## Where it sits in this wiki - [[Tay Bioregion Stocktake and Gap Analysis (2025)]]: the stage 1 report that these pages describe and link to. - [[Bioregional Financing Facilities (book, 2024)]]: the book the lead architect co-authored, which the first interview illustrates and links. - [[BFF Discovery Arc 2: Blended Finance and Catalytic Capital]]: the second interview names blended finance as a ReFi trend, which this arc takes up (synthesis). - [[BFF Discovery Arc 1: Allocation Decision Governance]]: both interviews ask who decides how capital is allocated, the question this arc addresses (synthesis).