The Founding and Future of the Eco-Region Network Initiative

Eco-Regions are partnerships of dioceses and community partners based on shared ecosystems, watersheds, or environmental concerns. These partnerships aim to foster community and cultivate a collaborative environment where people, projects, and properties are shared, and nature-based climate solutions that address local and regional needs are implemented. Through these Eco-Regions, we aspire to equip and empower individuals, parishes, dioceses, and regions to transform our use of our land and waterways, and invite us to consider how to grow, distribute, and consume food in a fashion that glorifies God. 

U.N. Climate and Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COPs) make it clear that to safeguard and restore ecosystems, and stay within +1.5 degrees, as well as feed 10 billion people by 2050, we must transform the ways we produce, distribute, and consume food and inhabit our land and our waterways. People of Faith, grounded in God’s love, must be part of the whole society transformation toward sustainability. Through “nature-food-faith” networks, we seek to preserve and restore native plant communities, model transformative agriculture and food systems, preserve water sources, and connect contemplative people for prayer, shared expertise and resources, and support.

Click below to read B-002, the foundational legislation of the Eco-Region Network Initiative

With one year of the triennium under our belt, we are excited for the future of the Eco-Region Network Initiative. This past year saw the formation of four Eco-Region Networks: The Appalachain, Chesapeake Bay, Grasslands, and Province I. Each of them has named a fellow and is actively undertaking the work of building deep relationships across their member dioceses. This second year of the Triennium is very exciting, as many Eco-Regions are hosting their inaugural in-person gathering! In this middle year of the Triennium, we hope to add more Eco-Regions across the Episcopal Church and are actively in conversations with many prospective Eco-Regions.