Make regenerative living work in practice.
SYFERS is an open framework for working and learning in regenerative communities and cooperatives. It connects shared decisions, people's involvement, records of practice, economic continuity and learning from change. Agreements disappear into chats, knowledge rests with a few people and newcomers miss the context. SYFERS helps you retain what you do together, why you make decisions and what you learn. This makes it easier to carry the work forward and pass useful experience on to others.
As of October 2026: the framework and documentation are available; the tools are being developed further and tested in practice. Sulitânia is winding down work at the previous site and seeking a new location.
§ Where do you want to begin
SYFERS is an open framework for putting regenerative living into practice and learning from it. Start with what you or your group need to organise, record or explore. You do not have to form a Lab first.
For individuals and groups
Make decisions together, keep work and sources easy to find, and reflect on what changes. Looking for land in Portugal? RRL helps you explore a place and develop a well-grounded plan for living and land restoration.
Explore the practical options →For researchers and public partners
Practical experience can lead to research questions. Agree on methods, data use and sharing with the people involved. Available sources and their context determine what you can conclude.
Explore the research route →For people who want to form a Lab
Want your group to take part in the federation? Discover how a Lab can join and which agreements and practices that involves. You do not have to join a Lab to use the framework.
Read about forming a Lab →SYFERS
A framework for working and learning together towards regenerative living.
For working together
For your own plans, too
Land and your home in Portugal
Explore a place, substantiate your home plan and follow what changes.
You don’t need to form a Lab.
§ Compass
Discuss your own practice through sixteen conditions and follow changes from your own starting point. The reflection guides learning and does not award certification.
A group describes its own situation and discusses differences in perception. What is going well, what needs attention and which next step is achievable?
Shared terms make it possible to exchange experiences. The value lies in the conversation and the evidence behind an assessment. A level guides learning; it does not award certification.
§ 01, How it works together
Begin with what you want to change. Record what you do and observe. Discuss what you learn from it and adjust the work.
The method
A working rhythm that builds understanding.
You make agreements, carry out the work, record observations and reflect together. Which assumption held up? What needs changing? The method connects everyday work with reflection and a next step.
The framework
Connections between people, place and work.
The framework connects the different parts of an initiative. The sixteen conditions help a group discuss its development. Shared terms make agreements, experiences and research easier to carry into other settings.
The digital tools
Records that support the work.
Cooperation, record-keeping and learning start with practice. Choose the instrument that helps; access, features and sharing agreements differ between instruments. Most instruments support shared work. RRL can also start with a personal question: which land in Portugal suits your plans for a home, what needs checking and how will you follow its restoration? You do not need to form a Lab to begin.
A group might decide to create more shade and water storage. It records the baseline, plan and work carried out. After a dry period, it looks back: what stayed moist, which plants survived, what needed more maintenance? This illustrates the learning cycle SYFERS supports.
The records give the conversation a foundation. Technology can highlight recurring patterns, missing data or differences between expectations and observations. People investigate what those signals mean and decide what to adjust. The next cycle shows whether the adjustment helps. Plan, act, observe, reflect, adjust and share.
What one group learns can help another move forward.
Shared terms make experiences comparable. The place, method and circumstances remain visible. A record is a source for research; a conclusion also requires sufficient data, an appropriate method and scrutiny. We share what did not work too, so others do not have to discover it all over again.
§ 03, Who it is for
Residents, land managers, cooperatives, project teams, researchers and public partners have different questions. A carefully documented practice can connect them.
For communities and cooperatives
Agreements disappear into chats, knowledge rests with a few people and newcomers miss the context. SYFERS helps you retain what you do together, why you make decisions and what you learn. This makes it easier to carry the work forward and pass useful experience on to others.
SYFERS is an open framework for working and learning in regenerative communities and cooperatives. It connects shared decisions, people's involvement, records of practice, economic continuity and learning from change.
§ Sharing with care
When sharing data from practice, names may be replaced with roles, for example facilitator, member. This is pseudonymisation when people remain identifiable through additional information. Careful handling of personal data is therefore still required.
Open record-keeping describes an approach to learning and accountability. Each publication requires a decision on which information is suitable to share, on what basis and with which protection. Access and security depend on the tool and agreements.
Restricted information
Potentially shareable
Record in advance
For researchers and public partners
A researcher can help sharpen questions, collect data carefully and test conclusions. A public authority or funder can better understand how an initiative works and where support is needed.
Sources, methods, context and limitations must be visible. Suitable information can be published with permission and after review. Research across several Labs is a direction for development; this page does not present an already validated dataset from multiple Labs.
Further reading · Practice and research
People who care for a place have practical knowledge. Researchers and public partners bring other questions and methods. Both need one another to understand what works.
Shared maps, agreements and records can connect these kinds of knowledge. Research literature calls such tools boundary objects. They are useful to different readers while retaining the context of the work.
The Two Cultures explores how differences in language, experience and responsibility can help us cooperate better.
Read The Two Cultures →§ 04, The analytical perspective
The Lens describes Syntrociety’s perspective on living systems and human cooperation. Patterns translates parts of this into criteria for examining recorded information. These include the distribution of responsibility, reciprocity and the circulation of resources.
A group chooses criteria that fit its question and gathers the relevant information. Together, you examine where responsibility is concentrated, which agreements remain unresolved and what has changed. The perspective, sources and choices form part of the explanation of the analysis.
The criteria are being developed further. An analysis produces material for conversation and research. People weigh the context, recognise what is missing and decide which conclusions are justified.
§ 05, Where to begin
Cooperation, record-keeping and learning start with practice. Choose the instrument that helps; access, features and sharing agreements differ between instruments. Most instruments support shared work. RRL can also start with a personal question: which land in Portugal suits your plans for a home, what needs checking and how will you follow its restoration? You do not need to form a Lab to begin.
Shared practice
Keep what you do, decide and learn together within reach.
Record activities, proposals and decisions, with the reasons and considerations behind them. Help others understand how the work develops.
Contact and involvement
Stay in touch on terms people choose for themselves.
Keep relationships, contact preferences and follow-up together. People can manage their own details and preferences; being a contact does not automatically mean consenting to a newsletter.
Funding and accountability
From funding opportunity to a report you can substantiate.
Explore funding opportunities, record your shared assessment and develop an application with traceable reporting. A promising opportunity still needs its own assessment and decision.
Shared self-reflection
See what sustains your cooperation and what needs attention.
Discuss your own practice through sixteen conditions and follow changes from your own starting point. The reflection guides learning and does not award certification.
Shared organisational memory
Find what your organisation knows and understand its sources.
Organise, translate and search documents in a shared archive. Ask questions with the sources alongside, so you can check answers and translations.
Land and living in Portugal
Explore your place. Substantiate your home plan. Follow change.
Save and compare places before buying. Develop housing, water, energy and land restoration in one dossier, with sources, open questions and observations. Individuals can also use it without joining a Lab.
Syntrociety connects independent Labs. SYFERS helps make their work practical, open to learning and transferable. Initiatives outside the federation can also start with their own question.
§ 06, The next step
Want to know how SYFERS fits your work? Begin with the framework. If you want to contribute as a researcher, discuss the question, data and method needed. To form a Lab, read how cooperation within the federation works.
The public documentation is a starting point. Contact us about cooperation, access to tools or a concrete research question.
§ Within the broader methodology
A record can help different people: those doing the work, those reflecting on it and those researching it. Boundary work describes how we connect these worlds.
Read boundary work →§ Citation form
SYFERS is an open framework for working and learning in regenerative communities and cooperatives. It connects shared decisions, people's involvement, records of practice, economic continuity and learning from change. Syntrociety connects independent Labs. SYFERS helps make their work practical, open to learning and transferable. Initiatives outside the federation can also start with their own question.
Summary · edited October 2026.
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§ Frequently asked questions for this page
The Charter calls for openness about the work and limits the publication of personal data and sensitive information. An internal record is therefore not automatically a public publication.
What is recorded, who has access and what can be shared must be clear in advance. Using roles rather than names does not guarantee that a person cannot be identified. Discuss your questions before contributing.
→ See this answer on the central FAQ pageThat depends on the work, the tools chosen and the group’s agreements. We do not give a general number of minutes per day here.
Begin with the information you need to work together and learn. Review the record-keeping burden and keep it useful to the people working with it.
→ See this answer on the central FAQ pageThat depends on the data, the reason for storing it, and the applicable agreements and legal obligations. No general retention period for all Lab data is stated here.
Ask which information about you is retained and whom you can contact with a request. Open record-keeping does not replace careful handling of personal data.
Read more at /charter, or /research/syfers
→ See this answer on the central FAQ pageUse the document’s title, author or organisation, date or version, and location. State when you accessed it.
For a dataset, also ask about the method, context and conditions of use. Not every record is available as public research data.
→ See this answer on the central FAQ pageCheck the licence with the document or dataset concerned. Public access does not automatically mean every use is permitted.
Is the licence or provenance unclear? Contact us before republishing material or using it commercially.
→ See this answer on the central FAQ pageProgrammes for soil health, research, the social economy and area development can provide starting points for exploring opportunities. The Support page gives examples.
Relevant themes do not create a right to a grant. Check the current call, eligible applicants, legal conditions, partners and co-financing.
Read more at /research/syfers, or /implementation-gap
→ See this answer on the central FAQ pageBecause practical experience can help us understand larger questions, and knowledge or resources from elsewhere can strengthen everyday work.
We want to make the substance understandable to different participants without overstating results. Social and ecological value are central, alongside financial care.
Read more at /research/two-cultures
→ See this answer on the central FAQ page