Lapa do Beijo - Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Posted by Rieki Cordon (Rieki) in the ReGen Civics community forum.

**Lapa do Beijo** is a early-stage regenerative land project based in Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Colombia.

**Vision**
Nationally recognized regenerative nature sanctuary, EcoLiving and Healing Center

**Land status:** owned
**Scale:** 1 hectares

**Regenerative practices**
Our project is currently in an early stewardship and design phase. The land is privately held and contains significant natural, geological, ecological, and cultural value, including limestone formations, caves, native habitat, biodiversity, and connections to the broader protected landscape of Lagoa Santa.
Our regenerative approach begins with preservation before development. Rather than maximizing construction or extractive land use, we intend to design around the existing ecosystem, allowing the land itself to determine what activities and infrastructure are appropriate.
Our long-term vision is to evolve the property into a nationally recognized regenerative nature sanctuary integrating ecological restoration, conservation, EcoLiving, environmental education, research, and holistic well-being. Potential practices include native habitat restoration, biodiversity monitoring, soil and water regeneration, low-impact trails, regenerative food systems, composting, rainwater capture, renewable energy, bioconstruction, waste reduction, and restoration of degraded areas where appropriate.
Because the property includes sensitive cave and karst environments, we also envision working with biologists, geologists, speleologists, archaeologists, conservation agencies, and local knowledge holders to ensure that human activity strengthens rather than compromises the ecological integrity of the site.
Our guiding principle is simple: the project should leave the land more biologically diverse, resilient, understood, protected, and cared for than we found it.

**Governance approach**
The property is currently privately owned and does not yet have a formal regenerative governance structure. As the project develops, we intend to move from a traditional owner-led model toward a participatory stewardship model that includes ecological expertise, community voices, educators, practitioners, researchers, and long-term collaborators.
We envision governance organized around a clear ecological and social mission, with major decisions evaluated through multiple lenses: impact on the land, impact on biodiversity, benefit to the surrounding community, cultural integrity, financial sustainability, and long-term regenerative value.
Rather than growing through centralized decision-making alone, we are interested in exploring models such as stewardship councils, advisory circles, sociocratic or consent-based processes, working groups, and potentially a nonprofit or institutional conservation arm alongside the operating project.
The land itself will also be treated as a stakeholder. Decisions about construction, visitor capacity, programming, or commercial activity should therefore be constrained by the ecological carrying capacity of the site rather than solely by economic opportunity.
We are particularly interested in Regens Unite/Civics because we see this next phase as an opportunity to design the governance correctly from the beginning, learning from communities already experimenting with regenerative, participatory, and place-based governance rather than simply reproducing conventional organizational structures.

**Community engagement**
Community engagement is one of the areas we are most excited to develop. Although the property is currently private and the broader project is still emerging, our vision is for it to become a shared place of learning, conservation, connection, and regeneration rather than an isolated private retreat.
The land has the potential to serve local residents, children, schools, universities, researchers, environmental organizations, regenerative practitioners, visitors, and the wider Lagoa Santa/Lapinha community.
We envision programs such as environmental education, guided ecological and geological experiences, school visits, citizen science and biodiversity monitoring, conservation initiatives, cultural and oral-history documentation, regenerative living workshops, wellness and healing experiences, nature-based gatherings, volunteer restoration days, and collaborations with local guides, artisans, farmers, educators, and small businesses.
An important part of our approach will be preserving and sharing the cultural memory of the territory alongside its ecological history. Local stories, legends, traditional knowledge, and the history of the Lapa do Beijo can become part of the educational experience rather than being lost as the project evolves.
Over time, we hope the sanctuary can function as a living laboratory and community hub for regenerative culture—a place where people do not only visit nature, but learn how to participate in its restoration and understand themselves as part of the ecosystem.
Our intention is to create value that extends beyond the property boundaries: supporting local livelihoods, strengthening ecological awareness, contributing to conservation, creating educational opportunities, and building relationships between people who are actively imagining and practicing more regenerative ways of living.

**Team:** Daniela: Land Owner, Designer, Visionary
Wellington: Land Owner
Michael: LandOwner, Entrepreneur, and Biologist (2 people)

**Current funding:** The project is currently primarily supported through private resources associated with the property and its owners. The land itself is our most significant existing asset and provides the physical foundation upon which the regenerative project can be developed.
At this stage, we do not have dedicated institutional funding, grants, impact investment, or a significant restoration/development fund in place. This is intentionally an early-stage project, and one of our priorities is to develop an appropriate financial model before pursuing larger-scale funding.
Our existing resources include the land and its natural assets, existing basic infrastructure, the Lapa do Beijo identity and history, an existing public-facing ecotourism presence, local knowledge and relationships, and the willingness to dedicate time and stewardship toward developing the project.
We are interested in building a diversified and regenerative financial model rather than depending upon a single source of capital.
**Funding needs:** Our greatest immediate need is not simply capital, but the knowledge, partnerships, technical expertise, governance structures, and regenerative development framework required to responsibly determine what should—and should not—be created on this land.
We are seeking support to develop a comprehensive regenerative master plan that integrates ecological restoration, conservation, EcoLiving, education, research, community participation, wellness and healing, and financially sustainable nature-based experiences.
Priority resources include ecological and biodiversity assessments; regenerative land-use planning; speleological, geological and archaeological expertise; water and soil assessment; native habitat restoration; low-impact infrastructure and renewable systems; legal and conservation guidance; participatory governance design; educational program development; and impact measurement.
Financial resources will eventually be needed for restoration, research, safety and accessibility improvements, trails and interpretation, regenerative infrastructure, educational facilities, demonstration EcoLiving systems, and carefully designed spaces for community, learning and healing activities.
We are also seeking relationships with universities, conservation organizations, regenerative practitioners, local communities, aligned investors, philanthropists, grantmakers and other land-based projects.
Ultimately, we are interested in developing a blended funding ecosystem that could include grants, philanthropic and conservation funding, mission-aligned investment, sponsorship, research partnerships, earned revenue from responsible ecotourism and educational programs, and potentially a nonprofit or stewardship organization working alongside the operating project.
Our goal is not to raise capital simply to develop the property. It is to mobilize the right combination of capital, knowledge, community and stewardship to regenerate and protect the land for generations while creating a living demonstration of what a regenerative relationship between people and place can look like.

**Time commitment:** We are prepared to commit a minimum of one dedicated day per week throughout the season, with additional time available for workshops, collaborative sessions, project development, and implementation as needed.
We are entering Regen Civics at an important formative stage: the land already exists and is privately stewarded, while the regenerative sanctuary, governance model, community programs, and long-term organizational structure are still being designed. This means we have both the flexibility and the motivation to actively apply what we learn during the season rather than participating only theoretically.
We see the program as an opportunity to develop a real-world roadmap for transforming Lapa do Beijo into a regenerative nature sanctuary, EcoLiving, educational, research, and healing center, and we are committed to contributing actively to the cohort while learning from other regenerative projects.
**Website:** instagram.com/lapadobeijo

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