Strengthening West Sussex as a place for rural and coastal resilience

A group of bioregionalists gathered from as far afield as Colombia and the Netherlands, Gloucestershire and Hereford and from Sussex and Kent to explore key projects from the Rother Valley to Chichester Harbour – projects that are diversely regenerating land, soil, biodiversity, water flows and local food systems.

Organised by Midhurst-based regenerative design specialists Really Regenerative, on day one, the group began their journey in Chichester Harbour learning about the bottom of our region where what is going on in the chalk downs and the greensand to the north percolates out into the waters of our dendritic harbours.

Really Regenerative founder Jenny Andersson said: “Aboard the Solar Heritage they learned about salt marsh restoration, new oyster beds filtering the waters, returning birdlife but also ongoing challenges of pollution – from sewage to run-off to microplastics and more.

“On the second day this intrepid group moved to the top of our bioregion where they studied the double acquifer that helps to manage the flow of water across the greensand and clay of the Rother Valley and the chalk of the Downs and learned about the challenge posed by compacted land from decades of intensive agriculture to the natural management of water flow through this landscape.

“The group met with Bianca Pitt of Lavington Estate where walks and talks about the on-going work to renature this former equine stud that is transforming what looks on the surface like a green paradise to more thriving biodiversity full of wildflower meadows, insect and bird life.

“At Westerlands the group explored how nature, wellbeing and wild practice combine to create a haven of wild health and a way of living where community can be grounded in soil, community, movement, and the quiet wisdom of the natural world.

“Over a delicious lunch cooked by Wild Roots’ Heather, they heard from practitioner Joe Brewer, on a tour of bioregional projects in Europe about the growing movement’s work in Tunisia, France Belgium and the Netherlands. In the afternoon at River Farm, George and Charlotte Gregory hope to begin a syntropic food forest learning centre to revitalise soil that has been compacted and degraded over decades of intensive farming.”

Jenny added: “We spent two days tracking the flows of water, wildlife and people from the greensand at Graffham to the waters of Chichester Harbour. The lower Rother Valley has a unique role to play in the health of a much wider region. What we do here matters to the harbour in Chichester and the chalk streams of the lower downs. By gathering and connecting farms, projects and landowners doing this work, we hope to establish a thriving network of place-based regenerators that will help build much more ecological and community resilience in our rural and coastal landscapes in the face of climate change. Often the people doing this wonderful work don’t have the time to connect to each other or share the collective story of what is emerging here so we try to act as champion and chief weaver of those critical relationships to build a narrative that we believe strengthens the appeal of West Sussex as a place for rural and coastal resilience.”

Jenny explained: “Bioregioning is the active, hands-on practice of living, working, and governing in alignment with a natural bioregion—a geographic area defined by ecological and physical boundaries like watersheds, soils, climate, and mountain ranges rather than political or national borders. It helps to create regenerative place-based economies and community-sourced wealth and is increasingly seen as an effective response to inter-connected climate, biodiversity, food, economic and social crisis.”

To find out more, contact Jenny Andersson at www.reallyregenerative.org or [email protected].