In the summer of 2022, ReFi Spring emerged as a movement bringing web3, blockchain, and cryptoeconomic tooling to ecological restoration, and regenerative cultures. With initial funding from Celo, small grants were given to communities to host events around these themes planting the seed for our global network of nodes today. 

We started this adventure because after years of study, theory and training, we decided to put the concept of bioregionalism into practice. After three years of hard work, dedication, experimentation, and sacrifice, Rifai Sicilia is finally starting to see the fruits of our labor rewarded. What started off in 2023 as a series of mutual aid tree planting events has now grown into a burgeoning food forest at Butterfly Hill in Castellammare del Golfo and a global mycelium network of support.

Heading into spring 2026, we are poised to grow, and with the help from the community we can continue to show how to act as a model for other projects in the cosmo-local network.

Never has there been more need for a different system, one that respects life, people, and planet. If we look at the world today there seems to be very little hope for an alternative future, but that depends on if you know where to look.

This publication was started as a place for me to organize my ideas and details and inspire and educate others in designing bioregional regeneration strategies, with sustainable business models, using functional coordination systems that map and connect disparate yet interconnected points within the watershed.

But planning and talking are different from doing. To get to where we want to go we need to compost our legacy financial capital and nation state governance institutions into something both ancient, and new; a planetary society. There has never been a better time to plant a tree and grow a village.

We are exploring a range of funding options, platforms, and methods, including:

• Crowd loans

• Donations

• Community Supported Regenerative Agriculture

We are also diversifying our income streams:

• In-person: Educational workshops, tourism experiences, and food products

• Digital: Online courses, eco-credits, and design consultations

The short version: we are ready to grow, and we are looking to generate €50K in donations and gifts across multiple platforms to help us grow to our potential in 2026. We will be flexible in how we get there. That said, it is important to keep this economy sacred as we step into this new regenerative paradigm. As an association, we accept donations and return gifts. This keeps the relationship honest, building trust as we grow, and when the harvest comes, it is a blessing we can share freely and with great gratitude. 

We currently have two crowdfuding campaigns live right now with a third on the way.

1. 🌱 Artizen: ​​ €16K in matching available. Every $10 donated earns $20+ in matching

2. 💸 GoFundMe: Ongoing and always available

Another feature of operating as an Italian legal association is that our bank account must be zeroed out at the end of each year, meaning anything left over must be reinvested and returned to the community. This is a powerful mechanism to prevent hoarding and ensure nothing stagnates.

Rifai Sicilia Has Never Been Stronger

Here is where we stand today:

• A legal association with a new president, Claudia Patricolo, who brings extensive experience managing associations

• An engaged and dedicated core team spread across multiple provinces

• A multi-sig wallet, bank account, and IBAN

• 1,000 trees blooming and synergizing at Butterfly Hill

• Actively adding trees at Silvi across multiple sites all around the island

• Trading mutual credits on Sarafu

• Contributing to the global ReFi movement through bioregional coordination and the Bloom Network

We have a packed lineup of activities and programs ahead, including:

• Community organizing

• Land restoration

• Regenerative Tourism

• DAO governance development

• IoT/AI/mesh network experiments

We are also on the verge of signing closing documents for a new piece of land collectively owned by the association: Sharewood Forest, a 1-acre wooded plot in Scopello, which will serve as a bioregional regenerative commons bridging the cosmo-local.

Funding raised this spring will go directly toward investing in regenerating the land and making it a commons hub for the local community and for our visiting friends and family.

This land was purchased for 25,000 euros and is conveniently located next to a beautiful coastline with pristine beaches. However, the area is suffering from its own success as mass tourism degrades the land and prices locals out. There is also the backdrop of large-scale fires that devastated the nature preserves of Monte Cofano and Lo Zingaro last year. That is why Sharewood Forest will act as a place where we can relearn to regenerate the larger territory.

This is history in the making: Rifai Sicilia is the first legal DAO association in Italy, and now the first Italian DAO to hold title to land. This is a huge step forward in our long-term bioregional regeneration strategy, as stewarding land in common and taking it out of the speculative market is foundational.

You can read our Spring 2026 progress report courtesy of Bloom Network here.

1. Grow as a community — through mutual aid activities (name TBD!), social gatherings, and assemblies

2. Grow as sector experts — through permaculture courses, agroforestry, consulting, and design

3. Grow as a DAO — community governance on-chain, tokenized member voting, transparent proposal process

4. Grow economically — through paid tourism activities and products

Growing as a Community: RIFAI INSIEME (both at Sharewood Forest and Butterfly Hill)

• Mutual aid days (land clearing, trail building, gazebo construction, composting toilet construction, planting, maintenance, etc.)

• Fire prevention (courses, debates, firebreaks, exhibitions, etc.)

• Sharewood Forest as a community meeting space to discuss urgent issues related to the (mis)management of common goods — e.g. illegal construction, wildfire meetings, water issues, etc.

• Harvest days (olives, etc.)

• Community and student engagement

Growing as Sector Experts: RIFAI LAB (both at Sharewood Forest and Butterfly Hill)

• Paid courses on topics related to syntropic agroforestry, permaculture, and regenerative finance

• RIFAI IN CAMPO Project: an intensive apprenticeship program from 3 days to 3 months focused on syntropic agroforestry and regenerative finance (primarily at Butterfly Hill); or shorter formats: 5-day retreats or weekend workshops

Growing as a DAO

• Creation of the DAO treasury and definition of proposals

• Monetized digital content for premium members and subscribers

• Monthly online meetings for members

• Forum and Wiki (possibly behind a paywall?)

• Event listing page (members can publish their own events)

Growing Economically: RIFAI ESPERIENZE

• Paid days/events/workshops for International and/or Italian tourists

RIFAI ESPERIENZE Offerings:

1. A Picnic in Sicily: Where Food Meets the Land A curated picnic featuring local products, set in nature, where food becomes a gateway to understanding the territory. This is not a food festival or a tasting event — it's an experience designed for tourists who want to truly understand where they are, not just eat well.

2. As the Light Fades: Local Wine Tasting at Sunset A simple yet carefully curated sunset wine tasting in a non-touristy natural setting. This is not a technical sommelier tasting, a thrown-together aperitivo, or a crowded event.

3. Farm to Table: From the Earth to the Plate An immersive experience that tells the story of food from soil to table. We visit Sharewood Forest and Butterfly Hill to explore the connection between agriculture, land, and community, then finish with an aperitivo or lunch on a terrace in Castellammare, featuring local products and traditional recipes. This is not a simple food tour — it's a complete journey combining nature, storytelling, and shared conviviality.

4. Quaderni di Terra: Guided Creative Writing Workshop (led by Claudia, subject to availability) A creative writing workshop in nature, held outdoors, where participants work on short texts through structured exercises.

How You Can Support Us

🌱 Artizen ​​

• Live across two funds with €16K in matching available

• Every $10 donated earns $20+ in matching

• Campaign runs for a few more months, so payouts will be delayed — but we need capital today

Link https://artizen.fund/index/p/rifai-sicilia-bioregional-commons?season=6

💸 GoFundMe

• Accessible to local and traditional finance friends and family

• Ongoing and always available

Link https://gofund.me/87ad7c24c

🤝 P2P Crowd Loan

• Loans in €1K increments, up to €5K total

• Interest paid in 5 liters of olive oil per year for every €1K outstanding per year

• Financing agreement available.

Juicebox Campaign

• Funding our 2026 programs, including irrigation upgrades, tool library infrastructure at Butterfly Hill, and setting up Sharewood Forest for guests and the local community.

• Tokens available on Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Mainnet

• Funds go directly to the Rifai Sicilia multi-sig

• Contributions are treated as donations, but we will honor tokens as the harvest comes in — redeem them for in-person and online experiences

• Functions like a CSA, but instead of vegetables, the "product" is a full regenerative business model: tourism, education, and artisanal production

• Continue to push the frontier of financing regeneration onchain

Direct Deposit

• Name: DAO RiFai Sicilia

• IBAN: BE14 9679 7311 5783

• Swift/BIC: TRWIBEB1XXX

• Use when sending money from outside SEPA

• Bank name and address: Wise, Rue du Trône 100, 3rd floor, Brussels, 1050, Belgium

Looking Ahead

• ReFi Italia is running design sprints with on-the-ground communities in Rome and Verona and we are sharing our learnings and growing our network of mutual support

• ReFi Mediterranean is growing, with a presence planned at EthCC in Cannes in collaboration with ReFi Provence, to better organize as a bioregion and attract investment from the web3 community

• Deeper integration with Silvi as we continue our bioregional reforestation efforts.

• If we have a successful season, we plan to organize a Fall Rifai Week for the olive harvest in October

Spread the Word

We are doing something unique, and the world needs to know about it. If you know anyone in a position to support us financially, Claudia or I would love to connect, we are happy to schedule a one-on-one video call. You can reach out to us on telegram and remember to visit our website www.rifaisicilia.com

In the summer of 2022, ReFi Spring emerged as a movement bringing web3, blockchain, and cryptoeconomic tooling to ecological restoration, and regenerative cultures. With initial funding from Celo, small grants were given to communities to host events around these themes planting the seed for our global network of nodes today. 

We started this adventure because after years of study, theory and training, we decided to put the concept of bioregionalism into practice. After three years of hard work, dedication, experimentation, and sacrifice, Rifai Sicilia is finally starting to see the fruits of our labor rewarded. What started off in 2023 as a series of mutual aid tree planting events has now grown into a burgeoning food forest at Butterfly Hill in Castellammare del Golfo and a global mycelium network of support.

Heading into spring 2026, we are poised to grow, and with the help from the community we can continue to show how to act as a model for other projects in the cosmo-local network.

Never has there been more need for a different system, one that respects life, people, and planet. If we look at the world today there seems to be very little hope for an alternative future, but that depends on if you know where to look.

This publication was started as a place for me to organize my ideas and details and inspire and educate others in designing bioregional regeneration strategies, with sustainable business models, using functional coordination systems that map and connect disparate yet interconnected points within the watershed.

But planning and talking are different from doing. To get to where we want to go we need to compost our legacy financial capital and nation state governance institutions into something both ancient, and new; a planetary society. There has never been a better time to plant a tree and grow a village.

We are exploring a range of funding options, platforms, and methods, including:

• Crowd loans

• Donations

• Community Supported Regenerative Agriculture

We are also diversifying our income streams:

• In-person: Educational workshops, tourism experiences, and food products

• Digital: Online courses, eco-credits, and design consultations

The short version: we are ready to grow, and we are looking to generate €50K in donations and gifts across multiple platforms to help us grow to our potential in 2026. We will be flexible in how we get there. That said, it is important to keep this economy sacred as we step into this new regenerative paradigm. As an association, we accept donations and return gifts. This keeps the relationship honest, building trust as we grow, and when the harvest comes, it is a blessing we can share freely and with great gratitude. 

We currently have two crowdfuding campaigns live right now with a third on the way.

1. 🌱 Artizen: ​​ €16K in matching available. Every $10 donated earns $20+ in matching

2. 💸 GoFundMe: Ongoing and always available

Another feature of operating as an Italian legal association is that our bank account must be zeroed out at the end of each year, meaning anything left over must be reinvested and returned to the community. This is a powerful mechanism to prevent hoarding and ensure nothing stagnates.

Rifai Sicilia Has Never Been Stronger

Here is where we stand today:

• A legal association with a new president, Claudia Patricolo, who brings extensive experience managing associations

• An engaged and dedicated core team spread across multiple provinces

• A multi-sig wallet, bank account, and IBAN

• 1,000 trees blooming and synergizing at Butterfly Hill

• Actively adding trees at Silvi across multiple sites all around the island

• Trading mutual credits on Sarafu

• Contributing to the global ReFi movement through bioregional coordination and the Bloom Network

We have a packed lineup of activities and programs ahead, including:

• Community organizing

• Land restoration

• Regenerative Tourism

• DAO governance development

• IoT/AI/mesh network experiments

We are also on the verge of signing closing documents for a new piece of land collectively owned by the association: Sharewood Forest, a 1-acre wooded plot in Scopello, which will serve as a bioregional regenerative commons bridging the cosmo-local.

Funding raised this spring will go directly toward investing in regenerating the land and making it a commons hub for the local community and for our visiting friends and family.

This land was purchased for 25,000 euros and is conveniently located next to a beautiful coastline with pristine beaches. However, the area is suffering from its own success as mass tourism degrades the land and prices locals out. There is also the backdrop of large-scale fires that devastated the nature preserves of Monte Cofano and Lo Zingaro last year. That is why Sharewood Forest will act as a place where we can relearn to regenerate the larger territory.

This is history in the making: Rifai Sicilia is the first legal DAO association in Italy, and now the first Italian DAO to hold title to land. This is a huge step forward in our long-term bioregional regeneration strategy, as stewarding land in common and taking it out of the speculative market is foundational.

You can read our Spring 2026 progress report courtesy of Bloom Network here.

1. Grow as a community — through mutual aid activities (name TBD!), social gatherings, and assemblies

2. Grow as sector experts — through permaculture courses, agroforestry, consulting, and design

3. Grow as a DAO — community governance on-chain, tokenized member voting, transparent proposal process

4. Grow economically — through paid tourism activities and products

Growing as a Community: RIFAI INSIEME (both at Sharewood Forest and Butterfly Hill)

• Mutual aid days (land clearing, trail building, gazebo construction, composting toilet construction, planting, maintenance, etc.)

• Fire prevention (courses, debates, firebreaks, exhibitions, etc.)

• Sharewood Forest as a community meeting space to discuss urgent issues related to the (mis)management of common goods — e.g. illegal construction, wildfire meetings, water issues, etc.

• Harvest days (olives, etc.)

• Community and student engagement

Growing as Sector Experts: RIFAI LAB (both at Sharewood Forest and Butterfly Hill)

• Paid courses on topics related to syntropic agroforestry, permaculture, and regenerative finance

• RIFAI IN CAMPO Project: an intensive apprenticeship program from 3 days to 3 months focused on syntropic agroforestry and regenerative finance (primarily at Butterfly Hill); or shorter formats: 5-day retreats or weekend workshops

Growing as a DAO

• Creation of the DAO treasury and definition of proposals

• Monetized digital content for premium members and subscribers

• Monthly online meetings for members

• Forum and Wiki (possibly behind a paywall?)

• Event listing page (members can publish their own events)

Growing Economically: RIFAI ESPERIENZE

• Paid days/events/workshops for International and/or Italian tourists

RIFAI ESPERIENZE Offerings:

1. A Picnic in Sicily: Where Food Meets the Land A curated picnic featuring local products, set in nature, where food becomes a gateway to understanding the territory. This is not a food festival or a tasting event — it's an experience designed for tourists who want to truly understand where they are, not just eat well.

2. As the Light Fades: Local Wine Tasting at Sunset A simple yet carefully curated sunset wine tasting in a non-touristy natural setting. This is not a technical sommelier tasting, a thrown-together aperitivo, or a crowded event.

3. Farm to Table: From the Earth to the Plate An immersive experience that tells the story of food from soil to table. We visit Sharewood Forest and Butterfly Hill to explore the connection between agriculture, land, and community, then finish with an aperitivo or lunch on a terrace in Castellammare, featuring local products and traditional recipes. This is not a simple food tour — it's a complete journey combining nature, storytelling, and shared conviviality.

4. Quaderni di Terra: Guided Creative Writing Workshop (led by Claudia, subject to availability) A creative writing workshop in nature, held outdoors, where participants work on short texts through structured exercises.

How You Can Support Us

🌱 Artizen ​​

• Live across two funds with €16K in matching available

• Every $10 donated earns $20+ in matching

• Campaign runs for a few more months, so payouts will be delayed — but we need capital today

Link https://artizen.fund/index/p/rifai-sicilia-bioregional-commons?season=6

💸 GoFundMe

• Accessible to local and traditional finance friends and family

• Ongoing and always available

Link https://gofund.me/87ad7c24c

🤝 P2P Crowd Loan

• Loans in €1K increments, up to €5K total

• Interest paid in 5 liters of olive oil per year for every €1K outstanding per year

• Financing agreement available.

Juicebox Campaign

• Funding our 2026 programs, including irrigation upgrades, tool library infrastructure at Butterfly Hill, and setting up Sharewood Forest for guests and the local community.

• Tokens available on Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Mainnet

• Funds go directly to the Rifai Sicilia multi-sig

• Contributions are treated as donations, but we will honor tokens as the harvest comes in — redeem them for in-person and online experiences

• Functions like a CSA, but instead of vegetables, the "product" is a full regenerative business model: tourism, education, and artisanal production

• Continue to push the frontier of financing regeneration onchain

Direct Deposit

• Name: DAO RiFai Sicilia

• IBAN: BE14 9679 7311 5783

• Swift/BIC: TRWIBEB1XXX

• Use when sending money from outside SEPA

• Bank name and address: Wise, Rue du Trône 100, 3rd floor, Brussels, 1050, Belgium

Looking Ahead

• ReFi Italia is running design sprints with on-the-ground communities in Rome and Verona and we are sharing our learnings and growing our network of mutual support

• ReFi Mediterranean is growing, with a presence planned at EthCC in Cannes in collaboration with ReFi Provence, to better organize as a bioregion and attract investment from the web3 community

• Deeper integration with Silvi as we continue our bioregional reforestation efforts.

• If we have a successful season, we plan to organize a Fall Rifai Week for the olive harvest in October

Spread the Word

We are doing something unique, and the world needs to know about it. If you know anyone in a position to support us financially, Claudia or I would love to connect, we are happy to schedule a one-on-one video call. You can reach out to us on telegram and remember to visit our website www.rifaisicilia.com