ROOTS & RESILIENCE: REGENERATIVE Toursim (R³) FRAMEWORK

The Roots & Resilience (R³) Framework is a community-led approach to regenerative tourism that supports communities to use tourism as a catalyst of care. For place, people, and the living systems that sustain them. It starts from the understanding that regeneration must grow from local roots and be shaped by those who live with the consequences of decisions over time.

R³ recognises that every place is different, shaped by its history, culture, landscapes, ecosystems, biodiversity, and relationships between people and nature. Rather than offering one-size-fits-all solutions, the framework empowers communities to lead, work with diverse viewpoints, and clarify what truly matters in their place.

Through six connected phases, R³ supports bottom-up participatory governance, shared understanding, and collective decision-making, where communities lead and diverse voices are actively engaged in shaping priorities, innovations, and collective futures. It helps communities co-design actions, reflect on impact, and strengthen the social, ecological, and governance systems needed to care, adapt, and flourish over time.

1. Grounding in Place (Scope & Scale Analysis)

Helps communities define regenerative goals by evaluating the ecological, cultural, and spatial dimensions of their local context, and clarifying their shared understanding and appetite for regenerative tourism initiatives and vision.

2. Scanning Horizons (Megatrend Analysis)

Supports communities to anticipate external drivers and emerging risks that may impact tourism, building foresight, adaptability, and systems-thinking capacity to respond to change with resilience.

3. Weaving Connections (Stakeholder Analysis)

Engages the full tourism and place system — residents, visitors, custodians, businesses, institutions, nature, and wildlife— to strengthen relationships, foster trust, and build the foundations for inclusive governance and regenerative stewardship.

4. Imagining Possibilities (Scenario Planning)

Enables communities to co-create preferred futures by exploring diverse scenarios, surfacing shared aspirations, and forming a compelling vision aligned with local values, resilience goals, and regenerative potential.

5. Co-Designing Futures (Design Thinking and Q Methodology)

Supports communities to translate bold ideas into tangible solutions through participatory design, experimentation, and collective learning, ensuring initiatives remain grounded in lived experience and shared priorities by revealing areas of alignment, tension, and divergence

This phase is guided by Planet-Centric Design, keeping ecological limits, more-than-human wellbeing, and long-term care for place at the centre of innovation.

6. Revealing What Regenerates (VVE-5 Index)

Supports communities to reflect on and evaluate regenerative initiatives through the lens of Vitality, Viability, and Evolution, ensuring alignment with ecological, cultural, and social priorities while guiding long-term direction.

This phase is guided by the VVE-5 Regenerative Potential Index — a systems-based evaluative tool developed through doctoral research that supports communities to assess what is genuinely regenerating in their place, across ecological, cultural, and socio-economic dimensions. Rather than applying fixed benchmarks, VVE-5 adapts to local values and conditions, enabling place-specific reflection and learning over time.

R³ in Practice - BRUNY island, TASMANIA

The Bruny 2044 initiative is a living example of the Roots & Resilience (R³) Framework in action on Lunawanna-alonnah/Bruny Island, Lutruwita/Tasmania.

Developed through a series of community workshops and deliberative processes, Bruny 2044 supported residents to explore the future of tourism, land, and livelihoods on their own terms. Using R³ as a guiding structure, the process prioritised listening across difference, acknowledging ecological limits, and strengthening shared responsibility.

Rather than producing a single plan, the work resulted in clearly articulated community priorities and pathways and, importantly, renewed trust, reduced polarisation, and the formation of an independent community committee "Imagine Bruny' to carry initiatives forward. Bruny 2044 demonstrates how R³ supports regeneration not as an outcome, but as an ongoing practice of stewardship and care.