Event
Joined-up Action Café
Joined Up Action for Climate & Nature in South Devon aims to co-create a resilient South Devon that is prepared to adapt to the climate and biodiversity crises. This programme, led by BLC, has been running since early 2024 when South Hams District Council (SHDC) awarded us funding to run a learning journey for climate adaptation and produce a discussion paper.
Have you been to this new Café yet?
Climate change will impact every community in South Devon, as it will across the world. By anticipating these impacts and preparing our response now, we can choose how we want to move forward instead of being forced by events into emergency action. BLC is committed to making it possible for citizens and policy-makers to work together. We are hosting talks and discussions called the Joined-up Action Café series to help us all learn together.
In previous Cafés, we delved into the new Land Use Framework and identified barriers around momentum, capacity, funding models, inclusivity & equality. We explored systems thinking and the realities of how humans operate, foregrounded the Devon Doughnut and looked at what we mean by localising the Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Climate Adaptation strategy, with a focus on flood resilience. Jane Nichols from Sustainable South Hams, asked the question: "How do we rally for nature?" It was a great opportunity to think about nature in relation with community. Sign up here.
The South Devon Bioregion has an amazing resource in the huge number of active & engaged people and organisations working around climate, nature, livelihoods and communities. We all want to see a resilient South Devon that is prepared for climate change and able to cope with increasing disruption.
Individual projects that tackle these issues are vital, but we need systemic change that unites our efforts. This work will take longer and be more complex, but together we can build long-term capacity and collective responsibility.
The Cafés are part of something bigger.
Joined Up Action for Climate & Nature across South Devon (Joined Up Action) has been building as a network and exploratory development process since Spring 2025, with BLC acting as a convenor.
A lot has been going on behind the scenes, but we’re now at the point of sharing more widely and looking to get more people involved and engaged. We have identified three pillars of work towards Joined Up Action:
Information
- Open access to trustworthy information so communities can plan effectively
- Sharing data and solutions to problem solve together
- Supporting local government as listening ears on the ground [?]
Capacity building
- Growing capacities to cope with change in a joined-up way
- Deciding how to look after the things we care about
- Dialogue, debate, discussion and design
- Learning programmes and workshops
Financing
- Financing work through a locally-led initiative that sets up a South Devon financing facility
- The facility aggregates government funding, philanthropic funding, bond revenues, community shares and venture capital.
The network, covering a wide range of relevant individuals and organisations, has developed initially through in-person workshops where participants have been able to explore options for what Joined Up Action might look like in practical terms. Lestari have taken on the capacity building pillar and will be developing a bioregional knowledge-sharing network and platform, and a long term capacity-building programme.
BLC has commissioned work to investigate how exactly a financing facility for the bioregion might work, including the groundwork for a Bioregional Bond and potential infrastructure for receiving and distributing funds.
