A surrounding area or region (8)
I believe the answer is:
environs
I believe this is a double definition.
'a surrounding area' is the first definition.
(I've seen this before)
'region' is the second definition.
(I know that environs is a type of region)
(Other definitions for environs that I've seen before include "Surroundings" , "Surrounding district" , "Districts around a town" , "neighbourhood" , "What's about" .)