Index Features

4 Overcoming Inner Barriers to the Creation of an 23 Bridging the past and the present in Yoff (Senegal) Ecovillage, Suzanna Maxen Marian Zeitlin 5 Ecovillages: Bridges to the Future, Jeff Grossberg 26 Shoulder to Shoulder, Heart to Heart ... Experiences of a Work camp in Sri Lanka, Agni Komoch 6 The Living and Learning Paradigm in Sustainability Education, Hildur Jackson 27 Contacts, Courses, Places to Go (pp. 27-30) 7 Ecovillage Education: A Proposed Curriculum 31 Visiting Ecovillages: Educational Tourism May East Lucilla Borio 24 Living Routes: Ecovillage Education Consortium Daniel Greenberg 32 GEN International News 25 Rootzones: Education Meets Business Interview with Danish Jørgen Løgstrup 34 Global News 38 GEN Regional News (p. 38-53) Sustainability Education in Practice 54 Books and Videos Ecology ÿ ÿ 8 Teaching Permaculture at Crystal Waters (Australia) GEN is a grassroots non-profi t organization that links together Max Lindegger a highly diverse worldwide movement of Ecovillages and related projects. The Network supports models of sustainable 9 Ecovillage Training Center at the Farm (USA) living globally, in order to inspire and encourage the creation Albert Bates of more viable lifestyles on this planet. 10 Creating One’s own Education: How I became What are Ecovillages? Intentional ecovillages are sustainable an Ecological Builder, Kolja Hejgaard communities where people strive to achieve more viable lifestyles. Ecovillages are based on social, ecological and 12 Folkecenter for Alternative Energy (DK) spiritual motivations. Traditional villages (mostly in the Interview with Preben Maegaard by Hildur Jackson Southern Hemisphere) have often kept a social and ecological 13 Earth Restoration, Peter Engberg structure, and may choose to become intentional ecovillages to maintain and strengthen their original sustainability. 14 Ecology in Argentina, Silvia Balado Ecovillages embody a coherent, systemic, holistic approach 15 Ecology in South Africa, Guinea and Senegal to sustainable living, integrating elements such as: Alternative energy, green technologies, ecological building, permaculture, Community/Social community building, mediation, confl ict resolution, mind and body work, spiritual/cultural practices, complementary healthcare, and creative activities (see back cover for elements 16 Social Integration at Ecovillages, Hildur Jackson of sustainability at ecovillages). 17 Mediation: Creating Harmony, Declan Kennedy Mission: to play a catalytic role, through living examples and educational outreach, in the worldwide transformation 18 Patch Adams: Teaching Friendship for Health, towards sustainability. Karen Svensson ÿ

Spirituality Editors: Hildur Jackson [email protected] Karen Svensson [email protected] 20 A Scientist Teaches Spirituality Layout/design: Karen Svensson DTP, Cover design: Kolja Hejgaard. Cover composition: Photos Interview with Will Keepin by Hildur Jackson by A. Lynam and K. Hejgaard. In profi le: Kate O’Donnell 21 Nourishing the Soul: Education at Auroville, India meditating (Fall 98 Geo Program, PLum Village, France) Marti Mueller Circulation: 6,000 Distribution: GEN Regional Offi ces and partners 22 How to Resist Globalization Printer: Holte Bogtrykkeri, Holte, Denmark Interview with Helena Norberg-Hodge by Hildur Jackson Thanks: To contributing authors around the world! Welcome ...

... to the Spring 2001 Issue of Ecovillage Living. This issue focuses on Education for Sustainability.

At ecovillages, the chosen paradigm for sustainability education is one of learning through personal experience: Students visit and live in ecovillages to learn about the social, ecological and cultural/spiritual aspects of sustainable living. Increasingly, people are choosing to attend short seminars or also semester-long programs at ecovillages, for an “ecovillage immersion” which gives them more knowledge about sustainable lifestyles than any theoretical course could bring them.

The fi rst section of this magazine introduces the experiential learning approach for ecovillage education as the “Living and Learning” paradigm (see pages 5-6: ‘The Living and Learning Paradigm”; ‘Ecovillages: Bridges to the Future’).

Some ecovillages are already teaching an all-round sustainability curriculum using the Living and Learning principles, such as the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland (see page 7, May East’s article on Ecovillage Training). It is also possible to compose an educational curriculum by combining courses and experiences from stays at various ecovillages. We have compiled a list of contacts, addresses and course descriptions (detachable center pages, pp.27-30) for ecovillages and related initiatives around the world, including contact information for all the places and people mentioned in the magazine. On the back cover, you will fi nd the editors’ proposal for a curriculum, which includes the fi fteen modules corresponding to the aspects of sustainable living in ecovillages. The curriculum modules have been divided into three categories: ecological, social and cultural/spiritual. This issue of Ecovillage Living refl ects the same subdivision in its outline:

Ecological Articles from The Farm (USA), Crystal Waters (Australia), Argentina and Africa highlight the topic of permaculture, which many ecovillages teach and use, and which can serve as an introduction to a full curriculum. A young Danish ecological builder writes about how he “built” his own education. An interview with the founder of the Folkecenter in Thy (DK) describes one of the places where renewable energy and green technology are taught and demonstrated. On page 25 we introduce Jørgen Løgstrup, who successfully combines education and business through the worldwide implementation of water treatment systems.

Social Ecovillages are striving to achieve a higher level of social welfare and unity than we are able to fi nd in today’s society, building communities where everybody can be seen and heard. A section on modernizing welfare describes several projects where children, the elderly and the handicapped are cared for and integrated in communities respecting all individuals for their input in daily life. Declan Kennedy from Lebensgarten, Germany, describes the technique of Mediation (page 17) for resolving confl icts. An interview with Patch Adams reminds us of the importance of Joy and Friendship as critical factors in maintaining and regaining health.

Cultural/spiritual Under this heading we are bringing an interview with Will Keepin, a Scientist teaching Spirituality (page 20). Auroville (India) is represented with a piece on Education as Nourishment for the Soul, and research on Indigo Children, more and more present in our society, who have special talents and educational needs.

News Ecovillage Living brings news from the expanding Global Ecovillage Network (GEN). The GEN regions have collected news items and sent them to us. The News pages in Ecovillage Living serve as GEN Europe & Africa’s newsletter, while The Americas and Oceania/Asia have their own regional newsletters.

Enjoy!

Hildur Jackson Karen Svensson Overcoming Inner Barriers to the creation of an Ecovillage

Suzanna Maxen knew what she things really started moving. The seminar was about crea- wanted: To create an ecovillage ting breakthrough results. We spent a lot of time fi nding where she and her children could out what the driving forces were toward achieving results, live. But something kept her from and what the barriers were to reaching these results. Results taking the necessary steps. She ranged from getting up in the morning to exams, career and learned to explore and overcome much larger projects. We found out that we achieved results the inner barriers to achieving her vision through courses in simply to survive! For me it was all about deciding as a little Landmark Education. Her story girl that my twin sister could “have” my mother to herself, Suzanna Maxen is inspiring to those who have the and that “I could manage by myself.” That was what I had same dream . spent my life convincing my surroundings of ever since. I have achieved many results in my life just to justify my Six years ago, I took time to evaluate my life: how I wanted existence. to live and where. One clear sketch I drew up for myself resulted in what now is called “Village 2000”, an initiative During the seminar on Velocity we were asked to fi nd another towards an ecospiritual community to be built in Zealand, angle on creating results. My neighbor in classes suggested Denmark. At the time I tucked it away in my mind as that one could create results for fun. For fun! When he said an impossible dream. Two years later I took a course that, I understood deep in my soul how I had looked upoj in communication and personal development (Landmark results so far: I had created lots of them, and also fun ones. Education). It started up a process in me which persuaded But I had never done it for fun, always out of bare necessity. me to act on my earlier desires to build up the kind of life I Together with my classmate I worked out the following wanted for myself. statement: “I am creating results for the fun of it - without pomp and decorum, like a bumblebee.” I wrote these words I freed myself up fi nancially by selling my house with a in large letters and stuck them on my kitchen wall. profi t. It took another half year for me to start up the “Village 2000” project in 1999. I was wondering at that Since then my way of looking at results has changed: I am time why I couldn’t just start as soon as I had sold my no longer a slave to the results I have to achieve. Today I house. I enrolled in a leadership study course, but it didn’t am involved in the process of establishing a new ecovillage help then (though it has since). It was only when I enrolled in Denmark. When things don’t go the way I have planned for a seminar on Velocity (Landmark Education again) that them, I remind myself that it’s all for fun.

Janto Evans (third from left), the wizzard of cob, teaching a cob building course at The Farm, USA. Photo: Courtesy Albert bates Jan De Bang from the Green Kibbutz National Move- ment (left) works in Israel and Palestine to establish ecovillages as examples of peaceful coha- bitation.

Ecovillages: Bridges to the Future

Joanna Macy, the renow ned Buddhist teacher Though most people of the world will and deep eco lo gist, has des cribed our current likely never live in an ecovillage, as they era as the “Great Turning.” On all levels, are now conceived, they can be informed our world is in transfor ma tion. However and inspired by these models. People you choose to defi ne it, in terms of spiritual who spend time at ecovillages come away renewal, so cial crisis or eco logical awareness, with new knowledge of ecological and change is everywhere. community relationships, but even more importantly, they come away encouraged One of the great strengths of the eco- to fi nd ways to live more sustainably in village movement is its foundation in their own lives. the understanding that sustainability is not only an environmental issue. True Ecovillages are ideally suited to serve Jeff Grossberg sustainability arises from the balanced as educational centers for the wider interdependence of the physical, social and personal communities they are a part of. There are already exciting worlds. Ecovillage life is every bit as much about how examples of this occurring. Living Routes, in cooperation we cooperate, make decisions, resolve confl icts, measure with some of America’s leading universities, is bringing and distribute wealth and build community, and about how college students to Findhorn in Scotland, Auroville in we fi nd our individual purpose and worldview, as it is India, Crystal Waters in Australia, Sirius in the United about permaculture, appropriate technology and organic States, and other ecovillages to learn about sustainability farming. In fact, they cannot ultimately be separated from by living it, as well as studying it. each other. For years, these ecovillages and many others have been Humankind will never be able to redefi ne our relationship developing educational programs as a bridge to the wider with our planet, without coming to a new sense of why culture. An example of other educational opportunities we are here and how we interact with each other. As more is the ecovillage tourism program being initiated at Torri people confront a culture in the developed world that all Superiore in Italy. too often seems out of touch with our real needs, others are creating new lifestyles, discovering new solutions and Ecovillages are not about leaving the world behind in order experimenting with new structures. Over the last several to create an idyllic life for their members. They are inher- decades, ecovillages have been unfolding models for how ently about interacting with others in the world to build a people can live in harmony with each other and with the better future. Earth. Jeff Grossberg is a consultant to progressive organizations While ecovillages are really works in progress, they worldwide. He lives at Sirius Community in Massachusetts and still have a great deal to offer to this Great Turning. is President of the Board of Living Routes. [email protected] The Living and Learning Paradigm in Sustainability Education Hildur Jackson

The old paradigm within education has for centuries been ecovillages offer introductory modules like ecovillage design one of competition, hierarchy, separation of theory and or permaculture courses (see pages 8 and 9). The stories practice, institutionalization, and obliteration of our sense in the following pages show how ecovillages and related of interdependency with nature. It has built on fear, on places around the world are specializing in different parts of control and suppression of the body and the independent the curriculum. By following courses at various ecovillages mind. The content of this education has correspondingly you can already now put together your own curriculum. This been geared toward making pupils fi t for continuing a is in the process of being formalized (see Living Routes, competitive, Western, industrialized, extractive society. This page 24) so that young people can get certifi cation for their system has been exported to most of the world and been an sustainability training, and can make ecovillage design and integrated part of cultural imperialism. An understanding is Earth restoration their future. emerging all over the planet that we need a revolution in education based on a different philosophy. Living and Learning Pedagogy

Fifty-fi ve educators from ecovillages and related projects The Living and Learning principle was the rule rather than around the world agreed upon the following statement at a the exception all during human history, until the hierarchical, 1998 meeting on “Education, Sustainability and Spirituality domination school system took over. In Europe teachers like in the 21st Century” at Gaia Fjordvang in Denmark: Steiner, Montessori, Grundtvig and Freinet have inspired new paths in education. In India, Ghandi, Tagore and Sri “Learning needs to return to its roots in the whole Aurobindo and the Mother have done the same. In Brazil community of people and no longer exist in separate Paolo Freire has inspired a pedagogy of the oppressed. The institutions. In this way, context, methods and personal Living and Learning pedagogy is the educational vehicle development will happen all at the same time for all ages. used for programs at many ecovillages. This is a living, evolving, learning system that embraces global considerations alongside local concerns. This system Living and Learning Structure is geared to plant seeds for the next 7 generations.” A Living and Learning Pedagogy means that student and Since the meeting, GEN has coined the term “Living and teacher together defi ne what is going to be learned, and Learning” to refer to an education paradigm whereby lear- how. They work together to carry out what is decided. A ning is not separated from living, as students learn by sharp distinction between the two roles is neither possible experiencing and implementing the elements of a sustainable nor necessary. Learning by doing is the old way being lifestyle in ecovillages. re-introduced. As an example, many of the strawbale (and other) houses in ecovillages have been built by students and The Living and Learning Paradigm has three dimensions: teachers together. All the elements of ecovillage living can and should be learned this way. That is why an ecovillage, full of • The content of what you learn: the curriculum variety and life, is an ideal place to learn about sustainability • The way in which you learn: the pedagogy with a Living and Learning Pedagogy. Learning becomes fun, • The way the curriculum and the pedagogy are organized: productive and creative. The necessary theoretical knowledge the structure can be communicated on the spot or in short classes introducing the practical work. Traditional universities and An Ecovillage Curriculum schools are unable to offer this combination of curriculum, An ou sustainability curriculum is shown on the back of pedagogy and structure for sustainability education. But they this magazine. See also May East’s article on the next can offer credit for training in ecovillages as part of their page. Intentional Ecovillages and spiritual communities mainstream curriculum. This is our hope for the future, and have developed the ecological, spiritual and social/cultural for the students of today, who will be the builders of our elements of this curriculum for the past 40 years. Many tomorrow.

A Day In the Life of a Living and Learning Center Increasing numbers of people are visiting ecovillages to immerse The day may start with a meditation or a walk in nature. After medi- themselves in the lifestyles of sustainable communities. Many ecovil- tating students might meet to share thoughts for the day. Circle dan- lages are becoming real Living and Learning Centers for these stu- cing or singing are options, or also feeding the animals in some places. dents to learn about sustainability by living it. Students cook their own meals and clean up. After breakfast the day’s work is planned. Theoretical problems and solutions are discussed and To make this tangible, we can sketch a possible day in a Living and designs can be worked out. Work teams are put together to carry out Learning Center. Every day will contain 3 aspects of this pedagogy the practical work in cooperation with the teacher (building, planting, of the 21 century: harvesting, food processing etc.) Dinner is prepared together with • Personal unfolding: meditation, dancing, music, dreams, creativity, people from the hosting ecovillage. The day may end with talks and writing and rituals in whatever combination fi ts the local village. debates, videos and slides, discussions with the local community, artis- • Theoretical knowledge of all the different elements of sustainability tic activities, decision making or whatever is agreed. In one day, stu- and its philosophy. dents will have experienced a whole array of social, ecological and • Practical skills: implementing the above, living the new paradigm. spiritual aspects of sustainable living. Ecovillage Education: A Curriculum for Sustainability May East

Learning about food and farming in the comunity context: Student and teacher out in the cabbage fi elds at Findhorn during an Ecovillage Training.

May East is Brazilian and has worked with music, indige- Module 1 Ecovillage and the Emerging Paradigm. nous people and the environmental movement in her home This introductory module intends to give an overview of country for more than two decades. She lives at the Find- the ecovillage model within the context of a planetary horn Foundation ommunity, where she currently is the movement towards sustainable human settlements. Ecovillage Project Education Coordinator, the liaison offi - cer between the Foundation and the United Nations, and Module 2 Building Effective Groups a resident trustee. May is a teacher at the International Democracy, empowerment and creativity. This module is Holistic University in Brazil and an eco-feminist working designed to develop the skills needed to work effectively internationally with transcultural artistic events and the with both large and small groups. women’s spirituality movement. Module 3 Permaculture - Design for Sustainability Although the nature of our times is characterized by a divi- This module introduces the principles of permaculture for sion of the entire world into its component parts, for many the conscious design of a sustainable future. contemporary thinkers this century will be holistic or it won’t be. Different ecovillage curriculums are emerging Module 4 Earthshare: Food, Farming and Community as a clear response to the crises of fragmentation, and their This module explores food production and the role of food in community, from the way we relate to the land on pedagogy is based in the consciousness of the fundamental which it is produced, to the celebration of life that is eating interdependence of all there is. together.

Based on our experience of developing and running the Module 5 Towards a Social Economy Findhorn Foundation Ecovillage Training for two and a An exploration into the emerging rainbow economies, while half years, I would like to propose some elements for an holding an awareness of the current macroeconomic model. ecovillage training curriculum. This curriculum compares Cooperative ownership, voluntary simplicity, fair trading etc and contrasts the holistic approach with the mechanistic 6 Fundraising and Networking approach in terms of land use, the environment, political Module This module trains participants in manifesting dreams to structures, social economics, food production, health care, fi nancial reality. Identifying visions and goals and training communication, and spiritual practice. It promotes a sys- in the preparation for fundraising from individuals, trusts tems perception, seeing the connections between activi- and Foundations. ties, and developing a broader understanding of sustainable community. Module 7 Building for the Next Millennium Looking at how to build ecologically as well as beautifully, The following modules for ecovillage education are using the best of natural building materials and methods. inspired by the Findhorn Foundation Ecovillage Training: Module 8 The Healing Power of Community The principles of community-centered health service.

Module 9 Deep Ecology, Wilderness & Ecological Restoration Weaving together the biocentric perspective of Deep Ecol- ogy, the importance of wilderness for the planet and humanity, and the role of people in helping to heal the Earth’s degraded ecosystems. Teaching Permaculture at Crystal Waters Max Lindegger [email protected]

Max Lindegger, co-founder of the Crystal Waters October 2000 marks the start of the construction of Permaculture Village in Queensland, Australia, has our new Education building. The building, constructed lived and taught Permaculture for over 20 years mainly in rammed earth and timber, will itself become across the globe. At Crystal Waters, he has started a Student Comments part of the teaching curriculum. It will feature the comprehensive educational program for students from latest in biolytic waste water technology (supplied by overseas, offering experiential training in sustainable ‘I have learned Dowmus Resource Recovery Pty Ltd) and will collect and retained more living. In 1998, Crystal waters was included in the in these 2 ½ United Nations’ top100 listing of Best Practices for rainwater off the metal roof. We have received a grant weeks than I have from the Queensland Government Department of Mines in many of my improving the living environment. semester long & Energy, which will pay for part of the cost of courses. I feel as A few years ago a visiting Professor from the United installing photovoltaic panels on the roof. An interactive if I have learned about States called on us at Crystal Waters. She had been computer system will provide update information on the Permaculture and visiting universities in New Zealand and Australia, input of solar energy and consumption in the building. about life. This experience was a assessing them for suitability for students to do some life changing overseas study. Her conclusion was that the universities As much as the infrastructure contributes to our stu- activity.’ were not much different from those in the USA once dents’ learning experience, perhaps the real strength of you were inside their famous walls. So why bother our facility lies in our people. Many of our 200+ resi- with the travel and the cost? dents are actively involved in our courses. At Crystal Waters, some residents initially voiced concerns related Her university (The Pacifi c Lutheran University) now to possible noise, loss of privacy. Such issues should sends us a group of students every year to do a never be dismissed, as courses like ours can only suc- sustainability/permaculture course at Crystal Waters. ceed with the support of the community. We have been Why? We have a huge classroom! It is 640 acres (259 adamant that students respect the needs of the residents ha) - the whole of Crystal Waters. Even more if you at all times, and we have not been disappointed. “This is an include our bioregion, which forms an integral part of experience of a our course and outdoor work. We follow the principle Now residents enjoy the trainings, and students always lifetime, one I could never that students have to be immersed in the subject matter comment about how quickly they are made to feel at forget. I am sad if we want them to be excited about it. There is no home. It is the people here who help the students to not to leave but glad to have so much substitute for actually ‘doing it’ when learning. We only learn about many aspects related to their physical to take with me. strongly believe in the balance of theory and practice. environment, but indeed to discover things about them- I will spread all I learned” Crystal Waters is more than just a learning centre. selves. The short weeks of training here are an oppor- This is a living and learning centre where students tunity for community living and a cultural experience. experience the crispness of clean water, the freshness For quite a number of the participants they have been and fl avours of locally grown food and where they life changing, opening their minds to new opportuni- become part of a community for a few unforgettable ties. weeks. There is a vast difference between reading about appropriate technology (waste water, photovoltaics, In the last two years we have conducted courses for stu- construction techniques, buildings….) and actually dents from Japan. We plan to offer the programme to experiencing it. other universities and are considering a longer, semester- length, programme. Some universities are still relatively reluctant to offer credits to students for participating in Crystal Waters courses. However, slowly the respon- sible staff are realising that such courses do produce measurable academic results, and their concerns are lessening.

Organising and conducting courses on a regular basis can be tiring and easily over extend the capacity of a small group. It is important to constantly not only extend the programme but also to provide training for new facilitators, indeed the full team of helpers.

Experiential learning is not just a catchphrase. Our experience has proved that learning can also be great fun. Indeed, we feel that experiential learning may in fact be the most effective method of education of all.

Students from Kyushu Lutheran College get acquainted with Ecovillage Training Center at The Farm Albert Bates

Albert Bates is a retired public interest attorney and author of nine books on law, energy, and the environment. He has lived at The Farm (TN, USA) for 28 years. He co-founded the Ecovillage Training Center there. Albert works at the International Offi ce of the Ecovillage Network of the Americas (ENA). Contact [email protected]

Right: Cob building worshop at The Farm. Photo: Courtesy Albert Bates.

In conceiving the Ecovillage Training Center in the early chicken pens, rabbit runs, water features and greenhouses. Nineties, I made visits to as many similar places as I could, We inoculated storm damaged native oaks and poplars for to learn from their experience: the Folkecenter, Denmark; continuous production of forest mushrooms. We used a Findhorn, Scotland; the Centre for Alternative Techno- nearby Amish mill to make decking and timbers and build logy, Wales; Arcosante, New Mexico; Lebensgarten, a separate offi ce building. We insulated our buildings with Germany; many Kibbutzim in Israel; Tlholego, South blown cellulose made from recycled dollar bills. Africa; Earthhaven, North Carolina; Earthlands and Sirius in New England; several Camphill communities; Twin We designed and built a 20-foot-diameter yurt and hosted Oaks, Virginia; the Great Smoky Mountain Institute, and a two-day yurt workshop. We designed and constructed a many other groundbreaking educational centers. In 1994, 600-square-foot strawbale cabin and hosted several straw- we convened a design charette with architects, town bale workshops. We built an 800-square-foot visitors’ planners, educators, agronomists, biologists, midwives, center and two other buildings from cob, hosting numer- and sustainable development activists from 5 continents. ous cob workshops. We constructed a 5,000-gallon water Over 8 days, we wrote the strategic plan that has guided our tank with a cistern-building workshop. We also built four fi rst six years. Our mission: a whole systems immersion more strawbale buildings, a geodesic dome, an earthbag experience of ecovillage living, together with classes of building and garden walls, and a cob chicken coop, and instruction, access to information, tools and resources, installed a 2,000 cubic foot root cellar under the Inn. All and on-site and off-site consulting and outreach experi- parts of the site were made wheelchair accessible and ences. Since 1994, we have reached over 5,000 students safe for the chemically sensitive. We tested and adjusted from more than 50 countries, instructed university classes, for ionizing radiation, non-ionizing radiation, geomag- hosted 6 summer camps for underprivileged urban school- netic fi elds, and Feng Shui. We added gutters to all roofs, children, and received 150 apprentices for 30 days to 2 directing rainwater to storage systems. Cistern water is years. When aspiring communitarians ask, “How can I channeled to the organic garden and to a rooftop fi re- start an ecovillage?” we have an answer - start with a suppression system. Overfl ow from the cistern and solar course at the Ecovillage Training Center. showers is channeled to swales and orchards above the garden and into more than 12,000 square feet of water To strengthen our immersion experience, we refurbished features. We designed, sited, and constructed the fi rst and painted our old farmhouse, called the “Inn”, putting two kilowatts of an eventual 5-Kw solar electric system in 30 beds, renovating plumbing, heating, and electrical to power lights and appliances, intertie-ing to the local systems, and constructing large decks on two sides. We utility grid. We installed solar water heaters on the Inn replaced aging refrigerators and other appliances with roof. And, yes, we hosted workshops on photovoltaics and energy-saving devices, installed fans and insulation, and solar water heater construction. downsized our total energy draw by 50 percent, while increasing population load fi vefold. We created a four-acre Beside the Training Center, we created a one-acre living edible landscape, established twelve ponds and four reed laboratory with students from the Farm school helping beds and transplanted water plants from nearby threatened to inventory our biota, and will study that space as the wetlands. center develops, to see how our activities affect it. Our goal is to increase biodiversity as we integrate our culti- We designed and built a large organic garden, enclosed and vated ecosystem into the natural surroundings. Our grad- protected from deer, with integrated trellises, fruit trees, (continued page 11) by Kolja Creating One’s Own Education: Hejgaard How I became an Ecovillage Builder More and more people are composing their own curricula for sustainability. Chris Mare (US) was featured in the Fall 2000 issue of Comnunities magazine, where he described his self- created PhD program in ecovillage design. Danish Kolja Hejgaard answered his calling in eco- logical building fi fteen years ago, at the age of seventeen: Instead of attending a mainstream university, he trained with ecological building masters, and traveled around the world (especially in the Southern Hemisphere) to learn about natural building techniques. Today he is a skilled ecological builder, who designs and builds ecological homes using natural materials, alternative energy techniques and holistic architecture. Email: [email protected]

refuse to build homes which slowly fascinating, as well as the recycling of kill their inhabitants, and instead sludge for fertilizer. In China, one also would offer people constructions learns patience (have you tried waiting which improved their health and fi ve days for a train?). Malaysia offered happiness, and which, once levelled, learnings about rubber plantations and would make good soil for growing sustainable forestry. Bangladesh was tomatoes. I would be an architect a proof that poverty does not mean who understands the whole picture unhappiness, but pollution does. India of architecture, and who works on was the wildest place I’ve been to, the building site, not only behind the and a truly spiritual experience. The I knew at a very early age that I drawing table. discovery of Exnora (picture) there, wanted to build houses for people an organization which involves local to live good lives in. I come from At the age of fi fteen I wanted to quit businesses and inhabitants in a family of artisans, architects and school and start working toward my neighborhood sanitation and community engineers. My mind was stimulated goal. To me, school did not offer the building, was an inspiration. by designs, geometrics, logistics and qualifi cations I needed. Teachers were three-dimensional construction, and I far from knowing the “truth” I seeked, At home in between travels, I had loved the atmosphere of studios and and I felt they fi lled my head with lies to defend my case as a conscientious construction sites. My concern was about the reality of things. By the time objector, after which I turned my with our society and the way it I was kicked out for low attendance attention to retrofi tting houses and was falling apart, the way people rates in Biology, I had already started learning technical design with the were living lives separate from nature my own landscaping fi rm using the appropriate computer programs. I met and from a sense of higher purpose, principles of Bill Mollison’s book: and worked with people who had without a notion of their own good. As “Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual”. been in the building business for a child I visited Svanholm, and I grew Later I attended a School for years, and they are still my friends up in communities. I wanted to make Transcendental Meditation and studied and occasional colleagues, depending a connection between housing, well- Vastu Sastra (Indian Architectural upon the work I am doing. People being and ultimately community. Theory). Travels took me to The Soviet started asking me for advice in Union with the Transsiberian railroad, ecological building, and I was called I heard and saw how many problems where environmental sanitation up by the Danish Ecological Initiators, are caused by rejecting 5000 years projects were taking place parallel to a new organization starting up of building experience in favor of the clearcut of the boral forests and the ecological projects in Denmark. They “more modern” substitute methods gradual drying up of the Baikal lake. needed a teacher in landscaping which are today being used globally. In China the dam systems based on and masonry. Together, we built My mind was made up that I would the use of geese, carps and crabs were Denmark’s fi rst ecological city garden (Copenhagen) after which we took an expanded Permaculture course in Kolding (DK).

I traveled to Senegal, where exposure to clay building was a turning point, as well as seeing how many places in this country were practising and re-integrating ecological culture and water treatment systems. I would go back at a later stage to attend the third Ecocity conference at Yoff- Dakar, now the home of the EcoYoff organization (see page 23). Upon my return I sought out all the information I could fi nd about clay building, and

Left: Exnora (India) during neighborhood cleanup. Kolja on the bicycle. why they ensured such confortable indoors climate and air (one of the reasons is, that the structure of clay resembles the human DNA!). This is how I got into contact with Fleming Abrahamsen, one of the most respected ecological building masters in Denmark, founder of “Renewed Energy”. I was nervous about asking to work for him, and tried to make my case. In the end he said “you talk so much there must be something there.” My best and most complete learning experience was about to start. With Fleming, The Big Man, I learned about straw roofs, mass ovens and building with clay. Here, I was instructed about solar energy, heat storage, compost toilets and much more. Most of all, I Below: Building compost toilets and parabolic houses (background) in Bolivia. Photo: Kolja Hejgaard learned that new thinking was good, indeed a necessary part of this work. extra pair of hands.) In Bolivia, I destiny. And that the most satisfying taught at the University of La Paz path for this is the one which helps to Since then, I have attended the Habitat in General ecological principles, and make a difference. II conference in Istanbul, as a built compost toilets, a permaculture representative for Permaculture garden and parabolic clay houses I am happy with my life and work. Denmark and the Ecological Initiators in the highlands. Closer to home, Every day I enjoy the music of of Denmark. I have helped design and shape a my instruments, and the feel of the ‘I believe that people can decide demonstration permaculture garden materials I use. individually what kind of education in Reerslev (DK), and designed and helped build a strawbale house in My next challenge, and my desire, is they want to create for themselves Torup Ecovillage. to implement what I have learned in to • t their chosen destiny•’ an ecovillage where I can live with Based on my life so far, I believe that my friends and family, and create (Coincidentally, I assisted GEN in people can decide individually what another example of how a sustainable the preparation of their offi cial kind of education they want to create community can look and function. inauguration there, as they needed an for themselves to fi t their chosen uates include an impressive roster of The Farm forum for exceptional teachers, and ters will number in the hundreds and (continued) movers and shakers in the sustainable offer opportunities to experiment in offer access to information, tools and community movement - people who teaching technique and content. But, resources within the reach of every have started ecovillages, who teach, we are still a few years ahead of our population. who organize mainstream communi- time, and have fallen short of expecta- ties to become more ecological. Some tions in generating income. The $600 have written books, some have made cost of a week-long course puts atten- Agnieszka Komoch building with cob at The Farm documentary fi lms, and many have dance out of the reach of many begin- started doing what we do, teaching a ning ecovillagers, particularly those more frugal, elegant lifestyle. For every from the two-thirds world, so we try workshop we’ve taught, our graduates to fi nd ways to subsidize their partici- as a group have taught more than 10. pation. Our present solution is to seek donations - fi nancial support from those Our master plan is still unfolding in who appreciate the value of what we many ways - permaculture courses, eco- are doing and want to see it progress construction workshops, village design further. Still, we have created a model, seminars, midwife conferences, Native and from this model others are learn- American spiritual gatherings, envi- ing, adapting, and evolving the form. ronmental activist retreats. Hosting 12 We see a day in the not-to-distant to 20 events per year, we provide a future when Ecovillage Training Cen- The Folkecenter for Renewable Energy in Thy (DK)

Above: The Folkecenter’s 700 m2 underground educational facility, during the celebration of Preben Maegaard’s 65th birthday, which gathered politicians an leading grassroots activists from around the world, September 2000. Photo and interview: Hildur Jackson.

Preben Maegaard is the founder and Jane, his beloved and co-worker, to Q: Where do you get funding? director of the Folkecenter for tell me about the trainings over brunch Alternative Technology in Thy, DK. He the day after his 65th birthday on a Preben: The Danish Energy Agency and is well known for his tireless lobbying beautiful late summer morning, sitting Danida. Jane adds: Students have to pay to introduce wind energy in Denmark. with my camera in a strong wind . travelling costs. We give them a room On a windy day, 150% of the energy in for free. They get $20 per day. They the Thy area is produced by windmills. Preben: We started here 1970 with the have to pay $9 for food. They have to It is very profi table and allows small Nordenfjord University (later Gaia cook once a week. We all eat together. farmers to stay on their farms. On Fjordvang). The students were young In the evenings they often go into the a drive to Thy, the closer you get people from the USA and Canada during offi ces and use the computers. Our main to the Folkecenter, the more windmills the Vietnam war. Now we usually have purpose is to develop work for small you see. The Folkecenter experiments, about 10-15 trainees from all over the or medium size enterprises. People go consults and teaches in many areas world. They are highly motivated people, home to their countries and get leading related to natural energy and lifestyles, similarly to centers like CAT in Wales who envision a professional career within positions. and The Rocky Mountain Institue in the renewable energy. The change from USA. At the Folkecenter, you will fi nd centralized to renewable energy requires Q: What about the Folkecenter in Mali? a windmill park, testing 10 windmills a new kind of human resources. There is for electricity and water production, a real need for developing people with Preben: It started with Ibrahim Togola 12 solar cell panels, 10 solar heating knowledge and competence within this from Mali being a trainee here. Later I devices and a hydrogen plant, biological fi eld. After a training here, people with was invited to Mali to express my opinion water treatment systems and an energy a suffi cient theoretical background can on what could be done for energy supply forest; there is also an almost fi nished establish themselves successfully in their in rural areas in Mali. The vision of the strawbale house, and fi nally the own countries. We have seen that in many President was the same as our goal Folkecenter’s new underground cases. We constantly have 100 applications for development. The education minister education center. In between all this there are vegetable fi elds and fl ocks of in process. We select people carefully. If of Mali came here for a visit. Then sheep and ducks. Students and visitors we are involved in a biogas project - it we received a grant from Danida for from all corners of the Earth meet, learn, could be a new kind of digester or a new the solar electrifi cation of institutions live and eat together at the center, and co-generator prototype, we will select a in 3 villages (school, water-pump and 20 people work here permanently. The trainee with a special background in that. marketplace). In addition we will make Folkecenter is fi nanced by the Danish He or she will be assigned a supervisor. a school in Mali for educating solar Parliament and has lately augmented Trainees stay for 3 months, and can be electricians. its support basis by DKK 3 million prolonged up to 11 months. We offer them Jane: With that project we managed to a year for the running of hydrogen the opportunity to use their theoretical install electricity in 20 schools. So people power and wave and tidal energy background on a concrete example. Their could have light in the evenings, after testing. International meetings in 2000 ability to adapt their knowledge is crucial. work. One lightbulb has already given 40 included late July’s Nordic People’s women the opportunity to learn reading Assembly and a conference on Q: Where do students come from? where previously only three could read. “Renewable Energy - A vehicle for local development.” I asked Preben and Preben: You’d better ask me where they Q: What about burnout? do not come from. We have 30 trainees passing through every year. Last year they Jane (puts her hand on to her heart): came from Japan, Africa, Mali, Uganda, We’re all very motivated. It’s a win-win Lithuania and Brazil among others. situation. We receive a lot in return.

L ft P b M d d J K (i th i d d b i th F lk t ’ Earth Restoration Peter Engberg

Earth Restoration is one of many ecovillages’ activities as it is needed almost everywhere. It is certainly a part of the ecovillage curriculum. Hanne Marstrand Strong, well-known environmental activist and founder of the Manitou Foundation in Colorado, USA, has proposed this as an alternative to military service. Peter Engberg is a Danish fi lmmaker, who went to Colorado to shoot a video on the ERC program. He wrote this article about his experience.

The goal of the ERC program in Colorado is to help a wide range of sustainability skills, as well as an participants learn and apply leadership quali ties and skills introduction to Natural Law and a chance to experience through a variety of environmental assignments and fi eld a deeper communion with nature through solos in the activities; explore different philosophies and practical wilderness. We recorded the main ingredients of this course approaches to land use, construction, agriculture, and the on video, and interviewed many of the participants about management of waste, energy, water, and health; practice, their experiences and learning. Only one of the 40 or through hands-on fi eld experience utilizing materials, so young people had ever spent time alone in nature, methods and technologies in each of the above areas. and the experience moved them deeply. Many of them wanted to seriously commit themselves to working with Broadly stated, much of today’s education is aimed at cre- Earth Restoration in the future. The time I spent with the ating consumers who will live by the values of the indus- ERC group and Hanne Strong was a deep and inspiring trial age. When millions of young people grow up to face a experience, showing that it is possible to bring out the seriously polluted environment, they will not have learned highest in people and to let that part of us that is nature skills through their education with which to restore what manifest throughout our life. has been destroyed, or with which to create a sustainable future. Modern education does not incorporate the respect It is hard to fi nd a more important issue than the education of nature or a sense of spirituality on any serious level. for the future and Earth Restoration. The subject needs to The consequences of this are generations of young people be brought into the media and into the hearts of people growing up without an experience of real meaning, with- around the world. This is the time for it, if we are to have out the sense of being part of a living universe. Instead, a future on this planet, and new generations of beings that they try to fi ll the void of the heart with increased unsus- can understand nature and our part in it. tainable consumption, and increased speed of living, caus- Top: Earth Restoration starts with self-restoration. Meditation is one of ing them stress. the ways toward inner harmony. Below: Japanese students learning to be in contact with nature. In other words, there is a dramatic and urgent need for a new foundation for education. The Earth Restoration Corps is about that need. About the possibility of educat- ing young people to empower them to not only create a fulfi lling career within sustainable life skills and a spiri- tual foundation, but also to make a real difference in the world, to restore the Earth, bringing compassion, dignity and meaning into their lives.

The Earth Restoration Corps was founded by Hanne Strong in order to address the urgent need for sustainability in the future, and Summer 2000 saw a group of young people from Japan attend an introductory course in Earth Restoration in Crestone, Colorado. The course covered Living Sustainable Education in Argentina Silvia Balado [email protected]

A work team discusses aspects of Permaculture design at the Latin American Permaculture Conference organized by Gaia Argentina in Spring 2000.

In 1996, Asociación Gaia started an Ecovillage project in the Pampas bioregion of Argentina. One of our main A celebration of life: objectives being education, we began offering courses on The First Latin-American Permaculture Conference Permaculture, Natural Building, Ecovillage design, Sacred Skye, Director, Permaculture Institute of Mexico Dances, etc., and have received volunteers and students from 14 countries. From March 27 to April 2, 2000, some 43 permaculturists from various countries throughout South and Central We are now beginning to organize our activities as a Living America gathered at the Gaia Ecovillage project in Argen- and Learning Center based on permaculture, within the tina to hold the First Latin American Permaculture Con- framework of a pioneer ecovillage project. In November ference. The event rapidly turned into a celebration of 2000 we were 4 permanent residents. Students have an information, inspiration and sharing. opportunity to share the deep experience of a simple, sustainable way of life. Intercultural exchange is itself a During this happening, we did not just talk Permaculture, way to explore biodiversity, and permaculture is studied we lived it: Much of the food we ate came from Gaia’s gar- through intuitive knowledge based on direct living experi- dens, beautifully prepared in stoves powered by the sun or ences, with a library and faculty’s practical experience to from wood grown at Gaia. We bathed in water warmed by support studies. the sun. At night we talked and watched slide presentations powered by Gaia’s small wind farm. And rested happy in Participants eat organic food which they cultivate in the the knowledge that our wastes were being recycled on-site gardens; cook with solar ovens and highly effi cient mud to feed the soil that will grow the next rotation of crops and stoves, using wood gathered on site; shower with water fruit. heated by the sun; participate in natural building, and have an experience of all the electricity being off the grid, gen- I believe that this conference had a beautiful blend of erated by windmills. formal information sharing, practical demonstrations and free time for participants to share and exchange ideas/ Students live intimately with the earth, valuing the daily inspiration. work that creates our deep connection to the planet. Group activities create a sense of cooperation and inter-depen- On the last day, with the wonderful facilitation of Bea dence and encourage critical thinking. This motivates stu- Briggs, we decided to form a network of support, in part as dents to actively participate in decision making that fosters a way of holding the sense of family we now all felt. A net- responsible attitudes towards our living planet. We also work founded on openness, trust and free interchange of encourage students to develop their personal interests. Stu- ideas and information that characterized the whole event. dents become teachers and inspire us with their enthu- And so, RAPEL - Red de Apoyo de Permacultura Latino- siasm and joy, giving us good feedback so we continue americana was born! For me, this was more than a suc- growing as individuals and as an organization. cessful conference, it was a truly life-changing event. Not We offer courses in Permaculture and Sustainable Life just a conference - a celebration of what can be, of what we Principles. can design and create. A celebration of Life. Kuthumba: Grass Roots in South Africa Patti Ovenstone [email protected]

Kuthumba Ecovillage was established seven years ago from mud and dung near the Tsisikamma mountains and Nature’s Valley in fl oors to reverse osmosis South Africa. Kuthumba currently has approximately two water treatment systems. dozen members. The ecovillage offers permaculture and We’ve just completed our ecovillage design courses, and is involved in a continuous teenage spring holiday building process. volunteer program which was an inspiration to Down on the Southern tip of Africa, the First World is participants to review dancing a tricky tango with the Third World. On the one what it is they really hand, we have the head-educated city dweller searching need from edu ca tion, and for a more integrated lifestyle; on the other, we have tribal realiz ing that “Happiness people rooted out of a lifebased form of education. The is Hands- On” latter are sadly undervalued, and rural people are lured to the consumer traps of the city abandoning their localised ancestral wisdom. Lauriane aged 15:

At Kuthumba ecovillage, we acknowledge and value tra- “We are starting a major new wave of growth with regard ditional building methods and tribal knowledge in terms to our learning programs in January. We have taken of plants, medicines and culture. We honor our position at on a project to co-create a viable organic agricultural this dynamic edge and marry traditional knowledge with co-operative with the local indigenous township. This Western sustainable technology. As we plant our seeds involves a hundred hectares of land to be developed and and build our buildings, we experiment with techniques we are looking for volunteers to be trained to work with and workshop learning methodologies creating a two way this project as trainers. Applicants need to be interested in learning and teaching fl ow. Learning is perpetual and all aspects of healthy living. outcomes are full of surprises. Our skills-learning is This is a phenomenal opportunity to work with the people as diverse as lifestyle dictates, requiring applications of Africa at a grassroots level.”

season, starting a plant nursery, composting were some of the Permaculture in Guinea activities we lear ned about. Every thing was blessed by the Elise Guldagger [email protected] elders and praised by all of us.

On a personal level we shared the death of a young woman In March 2000, Colufi fa (Committee for Ending Hunger), The tradi tional griot (ceremo nial story teller, dancer and master hosted a Permaculture Course in Madina, Guinea Conakry of ceremony) said: “It is the fi rst time we share our grief with as part of their ongoing educational efforts in Senegal and white people, and we do see and honor your presence. It brings Guinea. In this article, Danish Elise Guldagger, wife of Colu- us hope for a solidarity both ways between rich and poor.” fi fa founder Demba Mansaré describes the experience. Demba Mansaré and I went on a networking tour to Europe We started by traveling together from Gambia and Senegal after this, to build frienship ties between Ecovillages in the to Guinea. We were young and old, rich and poor, muslims, North and South. In December 2000, representatives from animists and christians, government people and analpha- the Ecovillage of Torri Superiore are coming to Madina bets, all committed to fi nding in Permaculture a way out to build sun-driers for fruit. The community of Damanhur of poverty for the rural villages of West Africa, knowing has agreed to import Colufi fa products such as sesame that we do have enough if we dare to share. On our oil, tahin and honey. We way we became friends sharing our experiences and dif- are encouraged by the fi culties with each other. Graham Bell from Scotland was evolution of things, and our trainer. Colufi fa Guinea was our host in Madina. The hope that initiatives such women had built and education house and guest houses for as these will continue to the fi rst course ever to take place in a small village there. expand. The impact of the course was manifold. Representatives from villages all around the area came to participate. They decided upon the topics to be covered and the work to be done: building green showers, planting fruit trees around Top: Colufi fa’s sesame oil press at Faoune, Senegal the washing area, making a water barrage for the rainy Photo: Elise Guldagger Social Ecology: Modernization of the Welfare State Hildur Jackson

Over the past 30 years traditional Women’s work has been integrated in the formal economy: caring for infants and children, tending the weak and old, and the handicapped have become professionalized activities. Women have become “liberated” economically - they are now being paid wages for the work they once did for free- only to see that the quality of life for those cared for has deteriorated. Several intentional communities have already taken on a reintegration of those who need care in their midst. This process could justly be called a modernization of the welfare state. To learn about this, you can visit the following ecovillages.

Hertha Jutland, Denmark Skovsgaard Hotel in Northern Jutland The anthroposophical community of In a village close to the Northsea in Hertha in Jutland, Denmark, is an Denmark you will fi nd an old rather cheap ecovillage of 75 persons. They have hotel. What is special about it is that it is run built beautifully colorful wooden houses by disabled people as part of an ecovillage according to the techniques of Rudolf project. You get excellent service by very Steiner, founder of Anthroposophy. They friendly waiters. This is another possibility run a biodynamic farm supplying the local for visiting a social ecology project. The area with fresh foods; a bakery which disabled interact in this project also have produces organic bread and cakes, an architect fi rm building organic houses; their own band and perform whenever and arts and crafts workshops. An asked. They have a theater where they play octagonal community house is used for Heino Karlson from Hertha. for the local schools and institutions. Carl daily meetings and singing/storytelling. Christensen is the project’s leader. LØS, the Danish Association of Ecovillages, has its offi ce here. In 1995, Hertha won the second prize in a national contest for the best Danish ecovillage. Solheimar by Grimsnes, Iceland

What is special about Hertha is that some 15 of the inhabit- Sólheimar is a village in southern Iceland, located ants seem slightly more cordial and warm, maybe a little about 80 km from the country’s capital, Reykjavík. At bit more naïve at times than the rest. They are “different”, the beginning of the 20th Century, a young woman, or mentally disabled as offi cial Denmark calls them. At Sesselja Sigmundsdóttir, had a vision on the Thingvellir Hertha, they are called the “young people”. plain, where people have met for 1000 years to resolve problems. She traveled to Germany and Switzerland The ecovillage of Hertha calls their process of living and was inspired by Rudolf Steiner. On July 5, 1930 together with these young people “reversed integration”, she founded Sólheimar with money borrowed from her as the disabled are the norm here, and the others, the “able” father. It is the oldest community of its kind in the world, have to adjust. where so called able and disabled people live and work together, where all have their own homes and are paid for The village receives many visitors and may soon start an their work. Sólheimar was also the fi rst community educational program on how to establish “reversed inte- in Scandinavia to practice organic cultivation. Hot gration” in society. (Contact: page 28) Springs heat the place and allow for plants you would not otherwise fi nd in this part of the world. Today, Inhabitants of Hertha, Denmark on their biodynamic farm. Blue Sólheimar is a village with 100 inhabitants, 40 of whom wooden Steiner houses in the back. Photo: Courtesy LØS are disabled. The grounds cover about 250 hectares. Sólheimar residents have just planted a forest there.

Sólheimar prides itself in its varied cultural, social and sport activities. The premises include a childcare centre, swimming pool, Jacuzzi, Sauna, convenience store, gallery and gymnasium. A theatre group, founded in 1932, is also active along with a choir, sports club and Scout troop. Several businesses provide jobs and revenue: a plant nursery; a greenhouse; a shop; a gallery and several protected workshops. Everything produced is organic.

A visitors’ center, “Brekkukot” welcomes individual visitors and hosts conferences all year round. To see social ecology at work, visit Solheimar (contact: page 28). Mediation: Creating Harmony Declan Kennedy [email protected]

Declan Kennedy, co-founder of the Global Ecovillage Network and ecological architect, lives and works at the Lebensgarten Ecovillage in Germany. He has a long standing experience in teaching courses related to sustainable living. We asked him to tell us about mediation, an important part of any sustainability curriculum, and one of Lebensgarten’s areas of curricular specialization. In 2000, the ecovillage celebrated 10 years of mediation.

In our community meetings, before ing. Resolving confl icts where both taking a vote on a proposal, a sides win is one way of creating trial vote is called for. Those more lasting mutual learning pro- against the proposal are asked: cesses. It adds to clarity, openness “Why?” or invited to offer an alter- and happiness on all levels of rela- native or revised proposal. New tionships. It is necessary within this or revised proposals are suggested type of mediation to see the con- until former opponents can give fl icting partners as the experts. The their okay or at least feel that they mediators (always one female and can live with the new proposal. one male) are just facilitators, who This is what we call qualifi ed con- make sure that both parties are sensus. actively listening to each other. The mediators, through their clari- The result of qualifi ed consensus is fying questions, proceed to help the that no minorities or split are cre- individuals involved express their ated within the community in the needs. long run, and that implementation of the proposal can be carried out Confl icts usually are a cover for without blocking. unfulfi lled needs. Through an under- standing of one another’s needs, the After all, eco-villages are not only solution arises of its own accord. striving for harmony between In our experience, this never takes humankind and nature - but more than four sessions. Indeed, we between people amongst them- Declan Kennedy with the model which served to plan consciously discontinue if a solu- selves as well. This process takes Lebensgarten Ecovillage in Germany. tion has not been arrived at by that time at fi rst, but practice makes per- time, as we do not want the process fect. After a few years it becomes to become a sort of psycho-therapy. a regular and relatively quick procedure. Out of our qual- This would disempower the parties. For the aim of media- ifi ed consensus system, Lebensgarten developed a new tion from the heart is to empower both sides. Only then are type of mediation: mediation from the heart. In contrast lasting solutions possible. to arbitration or manipulation (which is often wrongfully labelled mediation), we went on striving for win-win solu- tions. These are possible in strife situations between splin- Creating Harmony: Con• i•t Resolution in ter groups within a community, as well as between partners Communities involved in long-term relationships such as a marriage or a Editor: Hildur Jackson business. This book provides a collection of case studies from In 1990 four members of Lebensgarten Steyerberg founded eco villages and GEN members around the world. Arti- the Streit-Light School of Mediation, to offer assistance cles have been written by leading professionals in the in mediation within and outside the community (in the fi elds of decision-making and confl ict resolution. Declan immediate region and abroad, as far as Croatia and Bosnia). and Margrit Kennedy contributed an article on “Confl ict Nowadays, the school runs 3 to 4 parallel 5-week courses Resolution in an Ecovillage” (p. 139) Publisher: Per- per year - educating people to become mediators. Many manent Publications [email protected] ISBN members of Lebensgarten have taken this one-year train- 1-85623-014-7

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w pera d li d a y s d s an a th s ree ree su li s e i s f niver i one onl h e o e n a ea h nterview by by nterview o o Patch Adams: Patch I “Any misery or unhappiness held on to for a long period “Any Through Adams. says Patch your health,” of time affects relationship and research on the his years of experience has found that positive and healing, Patch between Joy do can’t emotions dramatically increase health. “You better for your health than being happy.” anything accor in o “Y u t t h m w d p never never o care d h h u h A d T About the clowning tours: ‘The very • rst •orning, I take [the clowns] to a hospital where all the children are dying ... By the ti•e they get back on the bus, they can’t believe they relieved suffering.’

“What do I do? I put them in a costume. It’s obviously a clown costume. So, no hiding! I also put them in a profes- sion where there’s no mistake. Some clowns are standing there, nervous, not able to do anything, and that’s a clown archetype. So those persons are doing, really well, some- thing that they don’t even know is one of the ways of being a clown.”

“The very fi rst morning, I take them to a hospital where every child is dying. You’re not going to fail, are you? Why? Because your eyes are tender, there are children, and parents who are crying, and what are you going to do? There’s a good chance you won’t be funny, but you’ll be in a clown costume ... On that fi rst morning you may see that someone is playing with a balloon, so you play with the balloon, Patch traveling in Latin America and Wow: They’re laughing. I don’t give (my companions) any classes; I just take them where the children are dying. By the time they get back on the bus, they can’t believe not alone, and yes, they want to be happy and friendly for they relieved suffering,” says Patch. From that moment, the the rest of their lives. apprentice clowns are ready for a trip which involves ten to twelve hour days of loving service, for two weeks. “Of When he is not out traveling, Patch stays at his ecovillage course the diffi culty for people is how to sustain this.” says in Virginia, home of the future Gesundheit! Hospital: A Patch. “To be universally friendly and love life every day, forty-bed, no malpractice insurance, loving, creative, joyful which is what the workshop is about.” He is referring to “health village”, where people with no insurance coverage the Joy Workshop which he will be giving on the day of can be treated. To this project, Patch Adams devotes all of our interview, in Aarhus, Denmark. Tomorrow he will be his resources. “No one in the Joy paradigm hoards money,” in Italy. Then he will travel back to Virginia for a day and Patch bursts out. “They know it impedes happiness. Thirty a half, and then it’s off to Canada. At the moment Patch years and I put every bit of money into the project. If I leave, Adams travels 280 days a year. During his talks and work- I take nothing with me.” Except thousands of friends, and a shops, he makes hundreds of people in as many different river of love from all those he has helped and cared for, and halls and towns dance with Joy, roar with laughter, embrace who could most likely fi nd it in their hearts to share their in friendship clusters, and take back a sense that no, they are roof with him if he ever came to lack one.

More on, by and fro• Patch Ada•s

Fil• “Patch Ada•s” by Universal Pictures 1998, starring Robin Williams as Patch. Books “Gesundheit” (Healing Arts Press) House Calls Robert D. Reed Publishers ISBN 1-885003-18-8

Patch Ada•s: Thoughts on Joy, Friendship and Health

‘The Joy paradigm is a choice: what shirt to wear, what attitude to put on.’ ‘My experience with psychiatrists is, that if you tell them you are happy, they tell you you are repressing your pain. I say people who are in pain are repressing their happiness.’ ‘No wonder people are depressed. They look like everybody else who looks depressed, and they don’t want to stick out. ‘ ‘Every day you’re miserable, you don’t contribute to world peace ... Any misery you hold on to for a longer period of time affects your health. Positive emotions dramatically increase health. You can’t do anything better for your health than being happy. I affects everyone around you. The entire planet is affected by you deciding to be happy.’ ‘I want to be a doctor, not give people Prozac.’ ‘In my hospital, I consider boredom to be a medical emergency ... If you get bored, you can sit and wonder what the world would look like if chlorophyl were red. That should take up at least 15 minutes of your time ...’ ‘If you say you want to be happy, and you are miserable, either you can say that your intentions are crap, or your performance needs to change.’ A Scientist Teaches Spirituality Interview with Will Keepin from the Shavano Institute, Colorado, USA by Hildur Jackson

Q: Can you describe the different draws people together in the teaching techniques you are using in community. A purpose of service your work at the Shavano Institute? or a purpose of self-realization. My purpose at this time would be a Will: We combine cutting edge intel- community that supported each other Teaching personal development and spi rituality is on the program of most lectual and scientifi c material with in realizing their divinity. That to me eco villages. Will is a longtime friend experiential and contemplative prac- is the true purpose of life. of GEN. He was in Istanbul at the tices: new paradigm science; inauguration of GEN and at the meditation and intensive group Q: What spiritual practice would you Fjordvang education meeting. With processes; holotropic breathing work; envision in your community? his profound knowledge of science he ritual processes, music and dance. The is able to bridge the old and new emphasis is on integral education to That each person would be supported worldviews. balance head and heart; body and in a deep surrender to their own divine spirit. guidance. Q: You started out as a physicist, and worked for many years as an environ- Q: Do you work with communities? mentalist before you started teaching Q: You have been involved in setting spirituality. How did this evolve? up a spiritual community, which did not become a reality because of local Will: Yes, we work with spiritual communities to deepen the Will: My interest was always to apply protests. How do you feel about not communication on sensitive topics science for the benefi t of humanity. being involved in a community? such as relations between men and I naïvely believed that scientifi c truth women. We also train social change was somehow ultimate, but I realized Will: At this time in my life solitude is leaders to incorporate spiritual that science does not address the deep- important for my own spiritual evolu- practices into their work. We have est human yearnings and questioning. tion. This feels essential. However my worked with, among others, Zen We in the Western culture have lost interest in community is longstanding communities in California, San Diego a deep respect for spiritual wisdom (20 years) and I am expecting to be in and Los Angeles, and with the (small) because of our emphasis on science, one some day. I do not know whether Redwood intentional Community. We and now we are realizing that we it is a community I would form or are also working with the Unitarian need to return to those well springs of join. ministry, a spiritual organization with wisdom. Q: What are your thoughts around 1300 ministers, half of them women. The Shavano Institute (founded by Will spirituality in communities? Creating a safe forum for community Keepin) is one of many new attempts healing about diffi cult issues helps to synthezise spi ritual wisdom into Will: Communities only work when to strengthen the glue of the education. there is … a unifying purpose that community.

Will Keepin (center) teaching with Spirit before the 1998 Education Seminar, Fjordvang, Denmark. Top: Will Keepin. Photos: Hildur Jackson Auroville: Nourishing the Soul Marti Mueller

Auroville is an ecovillage of about 1500 people in Tamil Nadu, India. It is based upon the visions of The Mother (philosopher and partner of Sri Aurobindo). Over the past three decades, Aurovilians have turned 2,500 acres of barren land into a lush green area. Here, they research and implement water and soil conservation, organic farming, ecological building, alternative health care and renewable energy systems. One of the areas of activity is education, which takes place through outreach programmes, practical training in the fi eld and in schools with both traditional and innovative educational systems. Indigo Children One of Auroville’s research topics within education is the sub- In Auroville, the emphasis on educational values is strong ject of “Indigo Children” or children with a highly developed and continues to evolve. The Auroville Charter speaks of intuition and wisdom which seems beyond their years. the principle of “unending education”, meaning that our entire life process should be a continual path of learning Children are being born who have a startling awareness that and deepening our relationship with the universe and each they are part of a new consciousness. These children, referred to other. as “Indigo children” by some, or “new kids” by others, have a keen sense of self-identity. They respond to the heart rather than We have more than a dozen schools in Auroville. They the mind. They demand honesty and do not conform to what range from traditional village schools, to Montessori-style does not nourish their souls. They tend to live in the present and experimental centers, to schools that prepare for the Inter- command self-respect. Some of these children say that they are national baccalauréat. All of these schools function on the divine’s gift to us in a time of great need, that they are here the basis of experiential learning, fostering unity through to help us raise the vibrations on Earth, and to help us heal our diversity, creating a context for better community living, minds and our planet. deepening knowledge on a broad multi-cultural level, fostering individual spiritual development, and seeing While these new kids may not be any more intelligent than learning as an experimental and open-ended process. those who came before, they have layers of highly developed intuition and wisdom beyond their years. It is as if they draw Of course the writings of the great Indian philosopher Sri from some ancient source of wisdom. This does not mean Aurobindo and the Mother (founders of Auroville) have that Indigo children are easy kids, perfect kids, or confi dent had a major impact on Auroville’s educational trust. Sri kids. On the contrary they often have problems getting along Aurobindo higlighted the importance of the development in today’s world, and respond quite negatively to disrespect, of discipline, courage, good morale, and sound strong neglect and over-parenting. They are often ill-equipped to deal character through the perfection of the body, mind and with the dysfunctional and competitive socitey in which they spirit. The mother emphasized that every life should live. They have to be acknowledged for what they are. have a true prupose based on four major attributes: love, knowledge, power and beauty. She said: The children of the 21st Century require a new vision that offers hope and inspiration and allows them to develop into respon- “The psyche will be the vehicle of true and pure love, the sible resourceful individuals. Indigo children need a highly nur- mind that of the infallible knowledge, the vital will mani- turing living context, where people live by example and where fest an invincible power and strength and the body will be boundaries are clearly set to assure mutual caring and respect the expression of a perfect beauty and a perfect harmony.” for others and for nature. Intentional communities can provide a lifestyle that gives these children real creative choices, wel- It’s a big challenge to realize all of this in a community like coming them into a new and more conscious world. Auroville because it is such a diverse mix of East, West, North and South. And yet, living in community is a mar- velous opportunity to maintain a childlike curiosity for life throughout one’s existence, and to succeed in truly nour- ishing our souls and being who we are.

Right: Children at Auroville, India. Top: Indigo Chilren need a highly nurturing living context, where they can learn mutual caring and respect for others and for nature, as here in Crystal Waters, Australia. Photo: Courtesy Agnieszka Komoch. How to Resist Globalization Interview with Helena Norberg-Hodge, by Hildur Jackson

Above: Unspoilt nature in Ladakh. Photo: John Page. Below: Concrete houses and electricity poles. The price of globalization.

Q: What led you to start teaching resistence to globalization? to rekindle their spiritual foundations. We brought Western- ers to Ladakh to explain reasons why they had developed Helena: I arrived as one of the fi rst outsiders in Ladakh, an an interest in organic agriculture, permaculture and ecovil- area which had been closed off to the infl uence of colonial- lages. We also took Ladakhis on reality tours to the west, to ism and development. Economic activity was in the Lada- learn about the increasing interest in ecological architecture, khi’s own control, and they had deep cultural self-respect. renewable energy, natural childbirth, whole foods, yoga, and As Ladakh was thrown open to the outside world in 1975, meditation. I witnessed how economic pressures rapidly threatened to destroy the local economy. At the same time all the images Q: What has been the reaction to this in Ladakh? and limited information that people received from the west- ern world led young Ladakhis to develop a sense of infe- Helena: People in Ladakh have turned from being receptive, riority. It became obvious to me that people needed much in the beginning, to being enormously enthusiastic by the vast more information of the outside world, to prevent them from majority, even in the modern sector. This year the head Lama believing that the global economy was some kind of inev- of Ladakh honoured us with a reward praising our work in itable evolutionary force. I started providing facts of how front of a huge public gallery. in other cultures, including the western world, people were striving to rebuild community and contact with nature and Q: Do you have ideas of a more formalized education in how to resist globalization?

Helena: Our intention is to set up an institute where we will do more formal training, in resistance and renewal, since both are needed and indeed reinforce each other.

Q: How about educating people in the North?

Helena: We now run “The Farm project” for people from the North to live on a farm with a Ladakhi family for a month. They also learn about Globalization, and about the profound importance of community, spiritual awareness and a deeper communion with nature. This program almost always leads to people wanting to build communities back home. One of our important programs in the West is encouraging and strength- ening local food movements (LSA= locally supported agri- culture) bringing back farmers’ markets and other ways of shortening the distance between farmers and consumers. It also helps to rebuild community in both North and South. In the UK, people like Hugh Grant, Jerry Hall and Annie Lennox have all supported our campaign. Sustainable Development in Senegal

Through EcoYoff ‘s Sustainable Development Course, action research teams combine Western youth who idealize African culture and Yoff youth dreaming of Mercedes.

Above: Meeting during the Third Ecocity Conference for Sustainable Development held in 1996 at Yoff, Dakar, which sparked off the creation of EcoYoff. Photo: Courtesy Richard Register

Marian Zeitlin

EcoYoff in Dakar, Senegal, is a sustainable development pro- Through EcoYoff‘s Sustainable Development Course, gram united around the classic defi nition from the Bruntland action research teams combine Western youth who idealize Commission in 1987 -- “Development that meets the needs African culture and Yoff youth dreaming of Mercedes. of the present without compromising the ability of future gen- These differences fuel discovery and action. American erations to meet their own needs.” The program is associated and Senegalese partners in the course carried out fi ve mini- with Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. We are currently projects. One of the most exciting projects involved a planning and designing a Cité Ecologique, a modern ecologi- study of the traditional “bush school” education given ical neighborhood, recreating the ecological past in modern through age set membership and rites of passage up until form. Our development method is action research. Since 1996 we have had more than 50 long term (1 month - 3 about 30 years ago. This traditional education, or Mbotaye, years) international volunteers come to work with Senega- system was very much like an ancestor to the scouting lese partners on EcoYoff projects, while living with Yoff fami- movement. There was a den mother, ndeye mbotaye, who lies. Counting members of our annual three week sustainable supervised and taught the children. The children had roles development course, and other shorter visits and internships - boy leader, girl leader, events organizer, griot child in the numbers rise over 100. charge of communications, etc. Traditional games taught moral values. There were small economic projects, tests of At EcoYoff we believe it is a greater challenge for global valor and skill, and minor rites of passage. But as the hous- citizens to create community together with indigenous ing changed from thatch, to wood, to cement block, and peoples whose lifestyles and livelihoods are vanishing, the children started school, Mbotaye melted away. than to reinvent what has already disappeared. At EcoYoff, global citizens come to join forces with an urbanizing The sustainable development group students - under guid- indigenous African community. ance of mentors in the traditional village - began the prepa- ration of a proposal to bring back the Mbotaye in a new In 1999, and again in October 2000, EcoYoff hosted students form, drawing on the organizational methods of the scout- from the Kalamazoo College Study Abroad Program for a ing movement, which is adapted to modern urban living. three-week intensive course in “Sustainable Development - This is something neither the Senegalese nor the Ameri- Theory and Practice.” Like most US exchange students to Sen- cans would likely have been able to achieve without work- egal, this group (10 in 1999, 21 in 2000) came through the ing together. Both groups benefi ted - the Senegalese with auspices of Africa Consultants International (ACI), who run the preservation of social values, the Americans with the the ACI in Dakar, offering cultural orientation, logistic support discovery of the authenticity of an indigenous ancestor to and courses in French, Wolof and other national languages. modern education. The 21 American and Senegalese stu- Each American stu dent has a course partner of equivalent aca- dents who have just graduated from our second annual sus- demic level from the Yoff Student Association. Each American/ tainable development course unanimously recommended Senegalese student pair identify and carry out a mini-fi eld pro- that this three-week intensive theory and practice course ject in one of the fi ve EcoYoff program components of sustai- be extended to a four-month or nine-month degree pro- nable deve lopment. gram. Living Routes Ecovillage Education Consortium Daniel Greenberg [email protected]

Living Routes works close ly with the Global Ecovil lage Network and a growing consor tium of ecovillages, academic insti tu tions, and other or ga ni za tions to create globally con nec ted yet regi onal ly and locally developed programs for Ecovillage Education. While based in the U.S. (at the Sirius Community in Western Massachusetts) and primarily attracting U.S. and Canadian college students, Living Routes programs are open to anyone (18 and older) from anywhere. This past year, three established programs have moved under the Living Routes umbrella. First, the Geo Communities Semester (formerly Geocommons College Program which has run for 10 years in cooperation with the University of New Hampshire). The Geo Communities program brings students to the communities of Plum Village (France), Auroville and Mitraniketan (India) and Sirius (USA). Second, the Findhorn Community Semester (formerly the Community Studies Program which has run for 14 years in cooperation with Pacifi c Lutheran We are living in the most challenging, yet also the most University) brings students to the Findhorn Community promising era of human history. Our dominant global in northern Scotland. And third, the Crystal Waters culture seems very much like the Titanic -- a gigantic, January-Term Program (which also runs through Pacifi c human-made enterprise headed for certain disaster unless Lutheran University) which brings students to Crystal its course is signifi cantly altered. Fortunately, we have Waters Permaculture Village in Australia. already embarked on a new course. Like lifeboats that have “jumped ship” in search of verdant lands, thousands New Living Routes programs include the Summer Insti- of ecovillages all around the world are discovering and tute in Sustainable Living which took place this past July/ pioneering social and ecological systems that offer positive August at Sirius Community and EcoVillage at Ithaca visions for humanity and the planet. Together, these and ran through Greenfi eld Community College, and the communities are truly part of an emerging sustainable Green Kibbutz Semester which is still looking for a host culture. institution and hopes to run in the Spring or Fall of 2002. It is also the vision of Living Routes to include students in We now need to create new models of education that the research and development of community-scale appro- support the emerging sustainable culture. This is the priate technologies and to facilitate linkages between ecov- vision behind Living Routes* - Ecovillage Education Con- villages and their neighboring academic institutions and sortium: to develop ecovillage-based educational programs communities. For example, EcoVillage at Ithaca has been that empower participants to help build a sustainable future. creating strong ties with Cornell University and Ithaca Living Routes began in 1999 and is based on the following College and Sirius Community is beginning to develop three premises: relationships within the Five College Consortium. • Humans must learn to live sustainably. • It is not enough just to read about it. We must live it! In all Living Routes programs, students create their own • Ecovillages are ideal places to educate for sustaina bility. “learning communities” within “living communities” as they blend experiential and academic activities into an integrated whole. What emerges in these settings, and what participants primarily experience, are new relation- ships, paradigms, and “stories” about what it means to be in right relationship with each other, the world, and our- selves. This certainly seems to be the kind of education we need for the 21st century, and beyond.

Daniel Greenberg, Jeff Grossberg (p. 5) and Philip Snyder (p. 32) are on the board of Living Routes. Left: Student work camp in India. Here at the Kottakarai village near Auroville. Top: Kathy Kandziolka, here during the Fall 1998 Geocom- mons Program at Mitraniketan, a Gandhian community in Kerala. India. Education Meets Business

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Above: A date plantation in the desert in Israel exemplifi es the re-use of waste water to irrigate these salt tolerant fruit trees. Interview with Jørgen Løgstrup, by Hildur Jackson

Many Ecovillages teach how to esta- treatment system. So I had to do people want them. blish small local water treatment sys- it myself. I set up the fi rst Danish Q: How many people work with you? tems. Jørgen Løgstrup has turned the business in the fi eld. The fi rm became art into a business, where establishing international in a funny way. In 1986 I Jørgen: Here in Denmark between water treatment systems becomes both was requested by a unranium mine in 8 and 20 at any given time. In educational and profi table. Løgstrup Namibia to evaluate what to do with is a Danish expert in biological sister companies we employ 70 to 90 wastewater treatment plants and the wastewater from hospitals and schools. people. founder of “Rootzone” and “Trans- The South African government was Q: How big is your largest project? form”. [email protected] against implementing waste water treatment, but the Lutheran Church Jørgen: We have one 50-100 ha project Q: How and when did you start up your gave the go ahead, and so I constructed in Oman, which was designed to solve biological wastewater treatment fi rm? in Namibia and Botswana. After this, the problem of oil explorations spills. Dan Church aid had me carry out All the waste water is now being Jørgen: I am originally a farmer. similar projects in schools, hospitals re-used for a 1000 ha oasis on which My interest in waste water treatment and at the same time set up human to grow dates - dates have a high salt started twenty years ago because I had rights centers and helped organize tolerance. a farm near Hjarbæk fjord, an area with those things against apartheid. high water contamination. Although Q: How about other waste water society calls the contamination in Q: What is the status today? systems, like the ones built in water “waste”, for farmers it can be Jørgen: Since then my business has ecovillages? used as a fertilizer. We can reuse spread worldwide. I have projects in Jørgen: The Folkecenter is doing nitrogen and phosphate. I thought 18 countries. In India, Coloumbia, interesting experiments with the reuse about how to convert waste to fertilizer, Australia, and Arab countries. We of ressources present in waste water. and what the value of this would have set up more than 900 projects in Making water run through soil is as be. I started studying the question Columbia. and visited universities and other effective as a chemical cleaning. In all places in Europe where I could gather Q: How do you teach about rootzones cases it is important to test the systems more knowledge. I found a professor and reedbeds? carefully, so as not to spread disease. Any system that reuses resources is a Kickuth near Kassel in Germany at an Jørgen: Within three days we can teach good thing. old agricultural school. In the 80s, he people how to make a one-family had started experiments with treating rootzone while constructing it. It is Q: At a Danish meeting of many wastewater in an open fi eld using the easier to teach in Africa than in Europe. different national organizations you led wastewater as a fertilizer on the farm. They are still farmers. They know about a workshop on how building wastewater This represented a good possibility and are connected to nature. treatment systems could lead to a more for waste water treatment. I talked local development ... to people in Denmark, among others Q: Where can people learn to construct Hedeselskabet (a forestation fi rm), but rootzones and reedbeds? Jørgen: Take the case of any village nobody wanted to contruct a water Jørgen: We set up courses wherever in the West: All infrastructure activities (continued page 25) Education Meets Business (continued from page 25)

can be localized by local heating plants. If you take a village with 100 households (300 people), this village pays 10.000 DKK per person a year to the central system instead of setting up local systems and have activity and work where the people live. This costs the village 3 jobs per 100 households and DDK 3 million ($500.000). The main cost factor is transportation, which stand for 85% of the total amount. It is crazy and totally unecological.

Q: Do you also work in Eastern Europe? Jørgen: Yes, we just received funding from the Environmental Investment Project, a bank which invests in environmental projects in Eastern Europe, (DKK 60 million) for waste water treatment systems in Eastern European countries. We Jørgen Løgstrup and Bengt Pedersen (Danish Ministry of the Environment), at a build and operate according to the the BOT system, where recent seminar on “New Habitat Forms and their Relationship to the Envronment” maintenance is included so that systems can be soundly established. are connected to the cities and their big systems. We are Q: How about public support from Danida and Danced? draining capital out of the village. Thirty thousand DDK ($4.000) per household per year are being used for the Jørgen: We do not get any public support from them as they transportation of waste water to centralized sytems. One can believe in centralized systems. They have given DKK 600 easily do all this locally. One can treat one’s wastewater, clean million to centralized systems. Environmental technology still grey water, take care of one’s own composting. Even heating means technique for them, and not eco logy.

Shoulder to Shoulder, Heart to Heart At a Sarvodaya Shramadana Workcamp by Agnieszka Komoch ([email protected])

During more than 40 years of activity, the Sarvodaya international Sarvodaya Shramadana workcamp organized movement has created a community building formula, that in the village of Samagipura in the District of Kandy. seems to be almost universal in its approach and genial in Together with a group from the Western hemisphere (15 its simplicity: identifying basic needs of a community and persons coming from ecovillages like The Farm, Nature´s working together for the good of all. Spirit, both USA, university teachers and NGO activists) we plunged into the beginnings of a transformation of During the Shramadana workcamps the hands-on part is an average Sri Lankan village. However, very quickly it sometimes just a pretext for inhabitants of a village to became clear to us that the power of organized 250 villa- get together and start the transformation of their village gers was much greater than whatever we were bringing and themselves. The spiritual and philosophical Buddhist- with us from the West.Well guided by the Sarvodaya work- oriented input that Sarvodaya provides makes such an ers the camp was a mixture of entertainment, spiritual event an extraordinary mixture of practical, educational teachings and practical work. Every day started and ended and transformational value. with meditation and chanting of Buddhist sutras.

It is about fi nding new and old values, teaching tolerance The energy was focused on the work that was set for the and giving people tools to self-help. It is about village day: building another kilometer of the road that would re-awakening. I had the opportunity to participate in an give Samagipura a better access. In other words, the approach of Sarvodaya is twofold: the individual and the community are simultaneously in focus. The villagers are being empowered to discover their talents, become leaders and explore the true essence of the Buddhist teachings (e.g. loving kindness, compassionate action, joy in serving others, tolerance) and offer it to the village. The cultural, poli tical and spiritual go hand in hand and result in a unique community development. The work camp offered for each one of us an opportunity for learning, refl ection and transformation. The best thing that happened to me was the feeling of a unity with men and women of all ages from Samagipura, all digging in the dirt, shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart... Opening Day of the Sarvodaya Shramadana International Work Camp which Agnieszka Komoch took part in Photo: Visiting Ecovillages and Related Initiatives

The following pages list ecovillages and related initiatives which you may visit as a guest, tourist, volunteer or student. There are many more ecovillages than just these and also more ecovillages with national education programs. In the list we distinguish between ecovillages and related projects. Related projects can be institutes, research centers, new initiatives on their way. Ecovillages have been listed by continents and nations. GEN regional offi ces and national network offi ces are printed in color. They are the primary places to contact for help and advice. We have tried to list educational content for ecovillages offering programs. The list is not exhaustive. For more information, please visit our internet pages or contact the individual projects. Corrections and improvements are welcome. Visiting categories: 1: Education: university accredited courses like the Living Routes program or part of a curriculum for building sustainable communities:Ed 2: Seminars, workshops: S 3: Retreats(spiritual retreats,a place to write a book or relax): R 4: Ecovillage tourism/ Experience weeks: Ex 5: Willing workers in Villages. You work a number of hours for free room and board.: WWV

Ecovillages and Network Of• ces •in green)

GEN International GEN South Asia (Subregional Node) The French Network Offi ce Global learning. spirituality, ecology, Philip Snyder Vinya Ariyaratne, c/o Sarvodaya Reseau Francais des Eco-Villages community Skodsborgvej 189 Peace Movement, Damsak Mandira, Murielle Gehlen [email protected] 2850 Nærum 98 Rawatawatta Road, Moratuwa, Jean Michel Pochat, “L’Herbe au The Romanian Network Offi ce Denmark Sri Lanka Vent”, Bessins, 38160 St. Marcellin, Teodora Anastasoaei, OP 12 CP 986, Tel: +45 45 56 01 30 Fax: 60 30 Tel: +94 7552 5335 Fax: +94 1 64 65 12 France.Tel/fax +33 0476 641 320, 1900 Timisoara, Romania. Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Tel +40 5622 1470, Fax +40 5622 1469 Web: http://www.gaia.org Web: http://www.sarvodaya.org Email: [email protected] Living and Learning Center The German Network Offi ce Come Together Netzwerk The Russian Network Offi ce Africa Auroville Dieter Federlein, Okodorf Sieben Vasudeva Kirbatiev, Basseinaya st Marti Müller, Repos, Auroville 605 101, Linden, 38486 Poppau, Germany. 59-106, 196235 St Petersburg, Russia. GEN Europe and Africa Tamil Nadu, India. Tel +49 39 000 51231, Fax +49 39 000 51232 Tel +7 812 2944189, Fax +7 812 1135896 Lucilla Borio, Via Torri Superiore 5, Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] 18039 Ventimiglia, Italy Web: http://www.auroville.org Tel: +39 0184 215 504, Fax: +39 0184 215 914 ED, S, R (1700 pers. - 21 nationalities). The Hungarian Network Offi ce The Scottish Network Offi ce Email: [email protected] Green technology, natural building, health, Robert Gerszany, 23 Csendes Street, Sustainable Communities Net- Web: http://www.gen-europe.org agriculture, ecology H-5900 Oroshaza, Hungary. work Scotland ED, S, R, (8 pers.). Workcamps - Tel +36 6841 6239 Greig Robertson, 53 Dublin Street, permaculture. Ladakh Ecological Development Email: [email protected] Edinburgh EH3 6NL, Scotland. Group.Ex, S (1 month with a Tel +44 131 557 8611 EcoYoff Ladakhi family) The Italian Network Offi ce Email: [email protected] Network Offi ce, Marian Zeitlin, c/o Contact BeckyTarbotten, Ladakh Rete Italiana dei Villagi Ecologici CRESP, BP 8873 Dakar-Yoff, Sene- Lucia Fantacci, La Comune di Bagnaia, The Spanish Network Offi ce egal. Email:[email protected]. project co-ordinatorApple Barn, Red Espanola de Ecoaldeas Permaculture, ecovillage design Week Dartinton Localita Ancaiano, 53018 Sovicille (SI), Devon TQ9 6JP Italia. Tel/fax +39 0577 311 014 Ulysses, Asociacion La Carrucha Email: [email protected] Cultural, Artosilla, 22600 Sabi- COLUFIFA Network Tel: +44 1803 868651 nanigo (Huesca), Spain. Demba Mansare, Elise Guldagger [email protected] The Dutch Network Offi ce Tel +34 974 33 71 33 PO BOX 15, Sedhiou, Senegal Netwerk Ecologische Landelijke Kernen Email: [email protected] Tel: +22 1 9951279, +45 4752 9513 (DK) Mitraniketan People’s College Kyra Kuitert, Pesthulslaan 80, 1054 Fax: +22 1 9951280 S Permaculture Mitraniketan P O Vellanad, RM Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Swedish Network Offi ce Thiruvananthapuram - 695 543, Kerala, Tel +31 2061 22802 NJORD Kuthumba Ecovillage India. Tel: +91 (0)472 882680, Email: [email protected] Gunlaug Ostbye, Gebers veg 26, S Patti Ovenstone, PO Box 42, The Crags, Fax: +91 (0)472 882015. S Ed. 128 65 Stockholm-Skondal, Sweden. 602 Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. Community, health, agriculture EVNUK- Eco-Village Network UK Tel +46 8 6054 0 92, Fax +46 8 60540 92 Tel:+27 8094 4574 8727, Populating the Rhetoric of Rural Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]. S, R, WWV, Sustainability, PO Box 1410, Bristol (24 pers.). Permaculture Europe BS99 3JP, UK. The Turkish Network Offi ce Tel: +44 117 953 1256, Ekilat Mali-Folkecenter for Renewable GEN Europe and Africa Email [email protected], Mete Hacaloglu, Kircicegi sok. 5/2, Energy Lucilla Borio, Via Torri Superiore 5, www.ecovillages.org/uk/network/ 06700 Ankara / G.O.P. Turkey Ibrahim Togola, B.P. E4211, Bamako, 18039 Ventimiglia, Italy Tel +90 312 446 7356, Republic of Mali. Tel: +223 200617, Fax: Tel: +39 0184 215 504, Fax: +39 0184 215 914 The Norwegian Network Offi ce Fax +90 312 436 0568 +223 200618. S Renewable energy Email: [email protected] Alternativt Nettverk Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.gen-europe.org Oyvind Solum, Haravagen 4, 3520 Tlholego Development Project ED, S, R, (8 pers.). Permaculture, work Jevnaker, Norway. Bagni di Lucca (Global Village) PO Box 1668, Rustenburg 300, South camps. Tel +47 6131 1016, Fax +47 6131 1046 Amala Montecucco, Villa Demidoff, Africa, Email: [email protected], Email: [email protected] Bagni di Lucca, 55021 Lucca, Italy, Web: http://www.gaia.org/secretariats/ The Danish Network Offi ce Tel/Fax: +39 0583 86404, genoceania/countries/southafr/tdphome.html. Landforeningen for ØkoSamfund (LØS) The Polish Network Offi ce Email: info @globalvillage-it.com, EV (25 pers.). S. Ecovillage design Allan Elm and Troels Dilling Hansen. Nicole Grospierre Web: http:// www.globalvillage-it.com. S, Landsbyvaenget 10, Herskind, 8464 Dabrowka 30, 21134 Starocin, ED, Health, culture, spirituality (Buddhism) Galten. Denmark. Poland. Tel +48 8175 67012, Asia Tel +45 8754 6020, Email :[email protected] Casa Cares Fax +45 8754 6021 Email: 56 Via Pietrapiana, 50066 Reggello, Italy. GEN Oceania and Asia [email protected] The Portuguese Network Offi ce Tel: +39 055 8652001, Fax: +39 055 8652900 Max Lindegger, 59 Crystal Waters Tamera Centre for Human Ecology Email: [email protected], Village, MS 16, Maleny, Queensland The Finnish Network Offi ce Tamera, Monte do Cerro, P-7630 Web: http://www.geocities.com/ casacares. 4552, Australia Katajamaki Colos, Portugal. S, R, Ex, WWV, (9 pers.) Tel. +61 7 5494 4741, Fax: +61 7 5494 4578 Kai Vara, Katajamaki, 35700 Tel: +351-283-6353-06, Email: [email protected] Vilppula, Finland. Fax: +351-283-6353-74 Ces Web: http://oceania.ecovillages.org. Tel: +358 34 71 80 40, Email: tamera@ mail.telepac.pt 6747 Chironico, Switzerland ED, S, R, WWV, LETS, (180). Email: atkava@uta.fi . S, WWV, (7 Web: http://www. tamera.org. Tel: +41 91 865 14 14, Email: [email protected] Community, permaculture pers.) Crafts, ecology, health ED, S, EX, (25 pers.). Youth School/ WWV, (4 pers.) Christiania Tel: +45 86 74 21 88, Email: [email protected] Sólheimar Lois Arkin Ditlev Nissen, 1407-K Copenhagen, (78 pers.) Gudmundir Peterson, Sólheimar at 3551 White House Pl, Los Angeles Denmark, Tel: +45 3254 6536, Grímsnes, 801 Selfoss, Iceland CA 90004, Tel: +1 213 738 1254 Email: [email protected]. Holma College of Holistic Studies Tel: +354 486 4430, Fax: +354 486 4483 Email: [email protected] S Confl ict resolution (2000 pers.) Holma 4101, S-243 93 Höör, Sweden Email: [email protected] Web: http://alumni.caltech.edu/ Tel/Fax: +46 413 225 50. Web: http://www.smart.is/solheimar ~mignon/laev.html. Damanhur/ Olami Damanhur HOPE project: Healing of Planet Earth EX, WWV, S (100 pers) Ecology, art, University Email: can [email protected], crafts East Coast ENA Offi ce Lepre Viola, 10080 Baldissero C, Web: http://www. ugwb.org. Sirius community South East (TO), Italy, ED, S. Spirituality, holistic science Svanholm Jeff Clearwater, Jeff Grossberg Tel: +39 0124 512236, Fax: +39 0124 512205 Part of the University for Global Well- Hanne Wegge, Svanholm Allé 2, Den- 72 Baker Road, Shutesbury, MA Email: [email protected], Being Project mark, Tel: +45 4756 6670, 100 per- 1072, USA. Tel: +1 413 259 1251, Web: http://www.damanhur. org . S, sons. Organic farming. Fax: +1 413 259 1255, EX, (400 pers.). Spirituality, art, com- Katajamaki Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected], munity building, rituals, alt. economics WWV. [email protected]. Kai Vara, Katajamaki, 35700 Web: http://www. siriuscommunity.org/ Vilppula, Finland. Tel: +358 34 71 80 Dyssekilde Terre d’Enneille/ Eden Network LR, (35 pers.) Courses - spiritual- 40, Email: atkava@uta.fi . S, WWV, (7 ity, community Haagendrupvej 6, Torup, 3390 Hun- pers.). Crafts, ecology, health Benoit Ladaron, Grande-Enneille 102 dested, Denmark B, 6940 Durbuy, Belgium. Tel/Fax: +45 47987026, Tel/Fax. 32 (0) 86-32 34 56 Ecovillage Network of Canada Email: [email protected]. Keuruun Ekokylä E-mail: [email protected]. John Davies (85 pers.), WWV. Liisa Jaaskelainen, Kivijarventie 300, Web: http://www.ecovillages.org/ Email:[email protected] 42700 Keuruu, Finland. belgium/enneille. (10 pers.). Web: http://ena.gaia.org/enc/ The Findhorn Bay Community Tel: +35 8 1473 6571, Fax: +35 8 1473 6553 The Park, Findhorn, Forres IV36 3TZ, Email: ekokyla@sci.fi . S, WWV, (20 Tingvall Centre for Applied Abundant Dawn Community Scotland. Tel: +44-(0)1309 690 311, pers.). Permaculture, ecology, spirituality Ecology P.O. Box 433-N, Floyd, VA 24091, Fax: +44-(0)1309 691 301, Tingvall, SE-450 84 Bullaren, Sweden USA. Email: [email protected] Email: accomms@fi ndhorn.org, Kibbutz Lotan Tel: +46 525 402 20, Fax: +46 525 400 61 Web:http://www.abundantdawn.org/ Web: http:// www.fi ndhorn.org . D.N. Hevel Eilot 88855, Israel Email: [email protected]. S Environ- S Ecology, natural building ED, S, EX, LETS, EV (350 pers.). Tel: +972 7 6356888, Fax: +972 7 6356827 ment, organic farming, health. Personal development, confl ict resolution, Email: lotan-offi [email protected] Alpha Institute spirituality, permaculture, Ecovillage Web: http://www.geo cities.com/RainForest/ Vrads Sande 92819 Deadwood Creek Rd, Dead- Training (May East). Living Routes Vines/8979. S, R, WWV, (154 pers.). Ashram/Snabegård wood, OR 97430, USA. Spirituality, ecology, natural building Vrads Sandevej 4, 8654 Bryrup, Den- Tel: +1 (541) 964-5102, Fax: +1 (541) Ecovillage at Burdautien mark. Tel:+45 75 75 71 01.(30 pers) 964-3102. Email: [email protected]. Clones, Co Monaghan, Eire Kitezh Community/ Email: [email protected]. R, WWV, S, EV (10 Web: http://www. pioneer.net/~alpha/ Tel: +353 47 52295, Fax +353 4752049 Ecologia Trust pers.). S spirituality (Sahaj Marg) S Facilitation, spirituality, women Email: [email protected] , Childrens Ecovillage Community, Web: http://www.ecovillages.org/ Kaluga, Kaluzhskaya Oblast, Baryat- Zegg.Zentrum für Experiment- All Peoples College ireland/burdautien (11 pers.). S Natural tino Rayon 249650, Russia. elle Gesellschafts Gestaltung Bob Luitweiler, 409 York St. #510, building, permaculture, spirituality, green Tel: +7 08454 23224 or +44 (0) 1309690995 Laila Dregger, Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. Bellingham, WA 98225-4837, USA, technology. Email: [email protected], 89, Belzig 14806, Germany. Tel: +1 360-714 1043, Web: http://www.eco villages.org/russia/kitezh. Tel: +49 (0) 33841 59510, Fax: +49 (0) 33841 59512. Email: owl@ steadi.org. Holistic Fjordvang WWV, (20 pers.). Ecology, culture, Email: [email protected], education, art, community, business, Jane M. Yde , Birgit Pedersen languages Web: http://www.eco village.org/germany/zegg. agriculture Skyumvej101, 7752 Snedsted, Denmark (75 pers.). S,Work camps - community, Tel +45 9793 6919, Fax: +45 9793 5550 Lebensgarten Steyerberg women, spiritual, personal development Arcosanti Email: [email protected], Agnieszka Komoch, Declan and HC 74 Box 4136, Mayer, AZ. 86333 Web: http://www.fjordvang-thy.dk. Margrit Kennedy Zentrum Waldegg Tel: +1 (520) 632-7135. S, R, WWV (11 pers.). Ecology, spiri- Ginsterweg 3, 31595 Steyerberg, Ger- International Kurs und Gemeinschafts Email: [email protected]. tuality. many. Tel: +49 5764 2370, Fax: +49 5764 2578. zentrum.CH-3823 Wengen, Web: http://www. arcosanti.org. S, Ex, Email: [email protected], Switzerland. Spirituality, health WWV. Natural building, art. Folkecenter for Renewable Energy Web: http://www.lebens garten-steyerberg.de Tel: +41 33 855 44 22, Fax: +41 33 855 50 68 Jane Kruse, Preben Maegaard, Kammer- S, R, EX, WWV, (150 pers). The Black Range Lodge gaardsvej 16, 7760 Sdr Ydby, Thy, Denmark. Spirituality, confl ict resolution, natural Ökodorf-Institut Star Rt. 2, Box 119, Kingston, NM Tel: +45 9795 6600, Fax: +45 9795 6565 building, permaculture, health, alternative Karl-Heinz Meyer, D-79688 Hausen im 88042, USA. Email: energy@ folkecenter.dk economics. Wiesental,Bergwerkstrasse 33, Germany Tel: +1 (505) 895-5652, Fax: +1 (505) 895-3326. Web: http://www.folke center.dk Tel: +49(0)7622 - 671 322, Fax +49(0)7622 - 671 322. Email: black [email protected]. ED, S, visits. Green technology, natural Munach E-mail: [email protected] http://www. zianet.com/blackrange/lodge building, renewable energy Thomas Seiersen, Vestervej 4, 8751 Web: http://www.gemein schaften.de. S Strawbale construction Gedved, Denmark, Seminars, festivals - community, spirituality. The Green Kibbutz National Tel: +45 75664111, Email: [email protected] Dancing Rabbit Movement 100 persons. Art, therapies Ökodorf Sieben Linden 1 Dancing Rabbit Lane, Rutledge, MO Jan de Bang, Kibbutz Gezer, D.N. Silke Hagmeier, Dorfstr.4, 38486 63563, USA. Tel: +1 (660) 883-5511, Shimshon 99786, Israel. Munkesøgaard Popau, Germany. Email: [email protected]. Tel: +972 8 9270 464, Fax: +972 8 9270 736 http://www.munkesoegaard.dk Web: http://www.dancingrabbit.org Email: [email protected] , Tel: +49 (0)39 000 51235, Fax: +49 (0)39 000 51232. S, EX, WWV, Natural building [email protected] (70 pers.) S, Workcamps - community, Web: http://www.ecovillages.org/israel ecology, spirituality /greenkibbutz/. ED, S, WWV. Permac- [email protected] Dreamtime Village ulture. Living Routes 100 new built houses in 5 clusters. Rt 1 Box 131, LaFarge, WI 54639, North America USA, Tel: +1 608 625 4619, Gyurufu Alapitvany Nevo Ecoville/ Sortevala Email: [email protected], Arany Janos utca 16, Ibafa 7935, Hun- Ivan S. Goncharov, Central Post Web: http://www.net22.com/dreamtime. gary, Email: [email protected] Offi ce General Delivery, Ryuskula ENA International S, Internships, Permaculture, natural Web:http://www.ecovillages.org/ Village, Karelia 186750, Russia. The Farm/Ecovillage Training Center building, art hungary/gyurufu/. WWV, Workcamps Fax: +7 812 113 5896 Albert Bates, Mike Breland, - natural building, farming Email: [email protected] P.O. Box 90, Summertown, TN Earthhaven/Cultures Edge Web: http://www.ecovillages.org/ russia/nevo. 38483-0090 USA 1025 Camp Elliott Rd, Black Moun- Hasandede Turkey Harman Centre EX,WWV, (12 pers.). Courses - green Tel: +1 931-964-4475, Fax: +1 931-964-2200 tain, NC 28711, USA. Mete Hacaloglu, Hocamkoy, Kircicegi technology, self-suffi ency Email: [email protected] Tel: +1 828 669 3937 sok. 5/2, 06700 G.O.P. Ankara, Turkey Web: http://www.thefarm.org. Email: [email protected] Tel: +90 31 2436 8378, Fax: +90 31 2419 6592. Rysovo Village S, R, EX, WWV, Courses, workshops - Web: http:// www.earthhaven.org. Email: hocamkoy@metu. edu.tr, Andrej O. Leontiev, P.O. Yakovishchy, crafts, ecovillage design, green technology, S Permaculture, village design Web: http://hocamkoy.metu.edu. tr /get.html. Moshenskoy District, 17443 permaculture, natural building WWV, S. Natural building Novgorod Region, Russia. Earthlands Tel: +7 812 513 3019, Fax: +7 812 235 7183 ENA Central Offi ce 39 Glasheen Road, Petersham, USA Hertha Levefællesskab Web: http://www.eco villages.org/ Earth Art Village/ EarthArt Institute Email: [email protected], Landsbyvænget 14, 8464 Galten, russia/rysovo. WWV, S (5 pers.). Linda Joseph, 64001 County Road Web: http:// www.tiac.com/users/elandspc Denmark, Tel/Fax: +45 86 95 45 20 Workcamps - art, ecology DD, Moffat, CO 81143, USA. S Spirituality, ecology, green technology Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Web: EX, WWV, (63 pers.). S, Spirituality. Integra- Skovsgaards Hotel Web: http://www.earthart.org Earth Matters tion of mentally handicapped (“different”) Carl Christensen.Hovedgaden 26, WWV, (2). Workcamps - natural Box 746 Nelson, BC V1L 9460 Brovst, building 5R4,Canada Hjortshøj Denmark, Tel: +45 9823 0400 Tel: + 1 (250) 352-2140, Ulla Traedmark Jensen, Integration of “different people” West Coast ENA Offi ce Email: earth@ netidea.com, Møllevej 188, Denmark Hotel near coast Los Angeles Ecovillage Web: http://www.kics.bc. ca/earthmatters Workshops - organic agriculture, Tel: +64 3525 7003, Fax: +64 3525 8653 green technology, alternative econom- Email: [email protected]. Institutes - Research Centers ics, permaculture, ecodesign WWV, S,R,Ex (36 pers.) Personal development, permaculture, Fellowship for ecovillage design Central Rocky Mountain Living Routes Intentional Community (FIC) Permaculture Institute Education Program, Dan Greenberg Laird Schaub, RR 1 Box 156-W, Rut- Living Waters Permaculture Cob Cottage Company, Cerro Gordo 72 Baker Road, Shutesbury, MA 1072, ledge MO 63563-9720, USA. Foundation Box 123, Cottage Grove, OR 97424, USA USA. Tel: +1 413 259 1251, Tel/Fax: (660) 883-5545, David Coleman, RMB 1495, Denmark Tel/Fax: +1 (541) 942-2005 Fax: +1 413 259 1255, Email: fi [email protected], Web: http://fi c.ic.org. WA 6333, Australia, Web: http://www.deatech.com/ cobcottage. Email: [email protected] S Community, ecovillage, confl ict reso- Tel/Fax: +61 8 9848 2171. WWV, S S, Cob, natural building www. siriuscommunity.org olution, business (11 pers.). Permaculture, green technology Centre for Alternative Manitou Foundation/ Gesundheit! Institute Rosneath Farm Technology/ CAT Earth Restoration Corps Patch Adams, 6865 Washington Bou- PO Box 250, Dunsborough 6281, Australia Machynlleth, Powys, SY20 AZ, Hanne Marstrand-Strong, PO Box 118, levard, Arlington, VA 22213, USA Email: [email protected] Wales, UK. Tel: +44 1654 702400, Crestone, CO 81131, USA Tel: +1 (703)525-8169, Web: http://www.rosneath.com. au. Fax: +44 1654 702782 Tel: +1 719 256 4265 Fax: +1 719 256 4266 Email: oma [email protected] WWV, S (3 pers.). Natural building, Email: [email protected]. uk, Email: [email protected], S, ED. Web: http:// www.patchadams.org/. permaculture Web: http://www.cat.org.uk EX, WWV ED, S, WWV Alternative technology/ Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Ctr. energy Rural Route 2, Box 125, Washburn, Ithaca (Ecovillage at) South- TN 37888, USA. Liz Walker, Cornell University, Cross Timbers Permaculture Tel: +1(865) 497-2753, Anabel Taylor Hall, Ithaca NY 14853, and Mesoamerica Center Email: [email protected]. USA, Tel: +1 6072725149, Web: http://www.KORRnet.org/narrowr Email:ecovillage @cornell.edu, La Caravana Inger Myhre & Kirby Fry, 1483 WWV. S Spirituality, agriculture, Web: http://www.ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us/ County Road 311, McDade, Texas green technology On the road in South America 78650, USA, Tel: +1 512- 273-9538 Email: [email protected] Email: peace@ totalaccess.net Lama Foundation Web: http://www.lacaravana.org NASCO North American Stu- csf.colorado.edu/perma/ctpi/cross_t.htm dents of Cooperation Taos, NM, USA. S Permaculture S Permaculture Tel: +1 (505) 586-1269, Fax: +1 (505) 586-1964 Email: [email protected], E-mail: [email protected] Gaia Associacion www.umich.edu/~nasco/ain_info.html Web: http://lamafoundation.org/ Argentina Network Offi ce DUS Internships, Volunteer program - Summer Programs - sustainable con- Almafuerte 1732, San Martín, Ecovillage Training and Resource cooperative education and training, struction and infrastructure Buenos Aires 1650, Argentina. Develop ment, Centre ,Central Offi ce cooperative development. Tel / Fax: +54 11 4752-2197. Road No.11 Bailtul Aman Housing Madre Grande Monastery Society, Adabor, Shamoli Dhaka 1207 Permaculture Center of Japan Email: [email protected] Bangladesh John H. Drais, P.O.B. 102, Dulzura, www.gaia.org/asocgaia/ Koji Itonaga, Magino 1653, Tsukui, Tel: +880 9119060, Fax: +880 2 819 460 199-0206. Kanagawa, Japan CA 91917-0102, USA. S Permaculture S Permaculture Tel: +1(619) 468-3006. Tel/Fax: +81 0426 892088, Email: [email protected]. E-mail: [email protected] , IPEC The Permaculture and Econet Web: http://www.madregrande.com Ecovillages Institute of Cerrado S Permaculture /seminars/christianity.html. Brasil Network Offi ce Lars Myrthu-Nielsen R, S, Spirituality Svendborgvej 9, 5762 Vester Rosa Mira Center Andre Soares Skerninge, Denmark, ede Global de Ecovilas Yuri Kapten and Tatyana Tretuakova Pangaia Tel: +45 6224 4324, Fax: +45 6224 4323 Savodaya Street, St. Petersburg, CX Postal 07 Email: [email protected], RR2 #3311, Pahoa, HI, 96778, USA Pirenopolis 72980 Russia, Tel: +7 812 443 35 17. S, R, www.eco-net.dk. Spirituality, ecology Tel: +1 808-965-6069 Brasil S Natural building, green technology Email: pangaia @pangaia.cc. Email: [email protected] The Schumacher College Web: http://www.pangaia.cc. S Permaculture, Living & Learning International Institute Permaculture. center Dartlington, Devon TQ9 6EA, UK for Ecological Agriculture Tel: +44 (0) 1803 865934, Sandhill Farm 834 West California Way Woodside, Fax: +44 (0) 1803 866899. Red de Ecoaldeas de México CA 94062, USA. Route 1, Box 155-FB8, Rutledge, MO Mexico Network Offi ce Email: schumcoll@gn. apc.org. Tel: +1 650-365-2993 www.gn.apc.org /schumachercollege. 63563, USA. Tel: +1 660 883-5543, Huehuecoyotl, Apartado 111, Fax: +1 650-366-2241 E-mail: [email protected]. S, Ed, Holistic science, spirituality, Tepoztlan 62520, Mexico Email: dblume@ igc.org. ecology, business www.thefec.org/sandhill/sandhill.htm www.permaculture-institute.org S Gardening, agriculture, construction. Email: [email protected] Web: http://ena.gaia.org/huehue/ S Permaculture, ecological agriculture Shavano Institute Twin Oaks Community (20 pers.). R, S Spiritual, healing, Will Keepin, P.O.Box 17904, Boulder, sustainable lifestyles IISF International Institute for CO 80308, USA. Tel: +1 (303) 440 138-W Twin Oaks Road, Louisa, VA Sustainable Future 23093, USA. 4153, Email: [email protected] Reserve Integral Sasardí Rashmi Mayur, 73A Mittal Tower, Nar- Web: www.shavano.org. S, R Spiritual Tel: +1 (540) 894-5126, Fax: +1 (540) 894-4112 riman Point, 400 021 Mumbai, India. Email: twin [email protected] Columbia Network Offi ce leadership, gender reconsiliation, com- Claudio Madaun Tel: +91-22-204 5758, munity Web:http://www.twinoaks. org. S, R, Fax: +91-22-287 1250 EX, WWV, (83 pers.). Visits, intern- Darien Project, Email: iisf@giasbm ships - business, women, transport, A.A.700 Turbo Sun Run Ctr. for Sustainable Living community Antioquia, Colombia. 459 Country Lane, RR 2, Cameron, Tel: +57 4 - 8243610, ISEC/The International Society Ontario K0M 1G0, Canada. Web: http://ena. ecovillage.org/ for Ecology and Culture Tel: +1 705-887-1553, Oceania newsletter/nov00/Claudio.html. Helena Norberg-Hodge, Foxhole, Email: sunrun@lindsay comp.on.ca. WWV, S workcamps - rainforest, Dartington, Devon TQ9 6JP, UK. Web: http://www. lindsaynet.com/sunrun GEN Oceania and Asia nature, crafts Tel: +44 1803-868650, WWV, S Cob, spirituality, nature, Crystal Waters. Max Lindegger, 59 Email: [email protected] Fax: +44 1803-868651. health MS 16, Maleny, Queensland 4552, Email: [email protected] Australia Venezuela Network Offi ce Web: http://www.isec.org.uk. Three Rock Institute Daniel Zahalka, Caracas, Venezuela S, Ecology, community, economy. Rosedale, Quinns Road, Shankill, Tel. +61 75494 4741, Fax: +61 75494 4578 Ladakh Ecological Development Group Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Co.Dublin, Ireland. Tel: +353 (0)1 (Cashmere). See also Ladakh. 282 7331, Email: [email protected]. S Web: http://oceania.ecovillages.org Armenia Permaculture, natural building, ED, S, R, WWV, LETS, (180 pers) Kortright Centre for Conservation alternative technology/energy, Community, permaculture Liora Adler, Colombia, Email: [email protected]. 9550 Pine Valley Drive, Woodbridge, personal development www.lacaravana.org/armeneng.htm Ontario L4L 1A6, Canada Sustainable Futures (Education S Permaculture, ecodesign, agriculture Tel: +1 (905) 832-2289, at Crystal Waters). green technology, culture, community Fax. +1 (905) 832-8238 The GEN Board Morag Gamble, Evan Raymond Email: [email protected], Lucilla Borio [email protected] 50 Crystal Waters, Qld 4552, Australia Montaña Magica Web: http://www.kortright.org. Workshops - green energy. Agnieszka Komoch [email protected] S Permaculture, ecovillage design AA 53110, Medellin Albert Bates [email protected] Colombia Liora Adler [email protected] Tui Community Tel: +57 4-538-0089, Life-expansion University Max Lindegger Earthcare Education Email: bearjona @epm.net.co. (Cyberspace) Jens Jerndal, Appartado [email protected] 248 Arrecife, Lanzarote, 35500 Spain Robina McCurdy ena.eco village.org/Region/ Vinya Ariyaratne [email protected] Kaya Weinman Tel: +34 92 817 3017, Ross Jackson [email protected] [email protected] SudamericaNorte/Ecovillage/ Fax: +34 928 52 14 49. Montana_Magica/images.html. WWV, Hildur Jackson [email protected] Wainui Bay, Takaka, Golden Bay Email: paradocs@ intercom.es. Philip Snyder [email protected] RD1, New Zealand. S Volunteer programs, Permaculture Holistic paradigm, health, business Eco-villages and Communities Ecovillage News GEN Oceania/Asia in Australia and New Zealand Newsletter. Email copy available. Events in 2001 Ed. GEN-OA, Australia, 2000, pag. 112 Subscribe to: GEN Offi ce, Crystal Waters: [email protected] February 2-4, 2001 June 7 and 10 Eco-villages and Sustainable God, Humanity and Nature Money - One Problem - Many Communities, Models for 21st Ecovillages With Dorothy Maclean Solutions Century Living (Atti del Newsletter for the Americas in Eng- Weekend course at Sirius Communty, Creating Understanding and Co-opera- Convegno) Ed. Findhorn Press, lish, Spanish and Portuguese. Subscribe: Massachusetts, USA ation between Different Concepts for Scotland, 1996, pag. 95 Kailash, [email protected] Organized by: Sirius Community, 72 a Sustainable Monetary System. A ENA Electronic News Baker Road, Shutesbury, MA 01072 workshops at Lebensgarten Ecovillage Ecovillaggi Una soluzione per il Free subscription: ena-news@ecovillage USA, Tel: +1 413 259 1251,Email: Ginsterweg 3, 31595 Steyerberg, Ger- futuro del pianeta? Indicate wheter you want the English, [email protected] many. Tel: +49 5764 2370, Fax: +49 5764 2578. Barbara Narici e Gigi Capriolo, Spanish or Portuguese version. Email: [email protected], Edizioni GB, 1999, pag. 174 February 3 -May 16, 2001 Web: http://www.lebens garten-steyerberg.de Forum Ambiente Geo-Communities Spring Semester Eurotopia Verzeichnis Europäischer Subscribe: Rue Nossa Sra. de F·tima Semester at New Hampshire (USA), June 25-27, 2001 Gemeinschafte & Okodàrfer 1777, 3, Edifi cio Palmiera, 4050-427 Plum Village (France), Auroville Communal Living on the Ed. Eurotopia, Germany, 2000, pag. 424 Porto, Portugal (India) and Sirius Community (USA). Threshold of a New Millennium Email: [email protected] Organized by: Living Routes, 72 Conference at ZEGG, Belzig, Ger- From Utopian dreaming to Baker Road, Shutesbury, MA 01072 many Communal reality: co-operative Frauenstimme USA, Email: [email protected] Organized by: ICSA, Yad Tabenkin lifestyles in Australia German women’s magazine recom- Web: http://www.unh.edu/geocommons/ Kibbutz Research Centre, Ramat Efal, Bill Metcalf, Ed. UNSW, Australia, mending ecovillages as a strategy. 52960, Israel, 1995, pag. 198 Email: [email protected] February 3 - May 19, 2001 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.weiblichestimme.de Findhorn Community Semester Web: http://www.ic.org/icsa Global Challenges for Sustainable Semester at the Findhorn Foundation, Energy in the New Millenium Global Futures Bulletin Scotland June 28, 2001 Rashmi Mayur, The International Email newsletter by Institute for Organized by: The Findhorn Foun- Building Bridges with Institute for Sustainable Future, Global Futures Research, PO Box dation, Forres IV36 3TZ, Scotland, Traditional Knowledge II Mumbai, India 263E, Earlville, Qld 4870, Australia Email: accomms@fi ndhorn.org, Honolulu, Hawaii Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.fi ndhorn.org Organized by: Building Bridges Con- God’s Last Offer: Negotiating ference, Fax: +1 808 956 3923, for a Sustainable Future Living Lightly/Positive News February 17 - March 17, 2001 Email: [email protected] Ed Ayres, Four Walls Eight Windows, Ecovillage Training 2000. ISBN: 1568581742. 358 pages. Email: [email protected] The Findhorn Foundation July 15, 2001 - July 15, 2002 Web:http://www.positivenews.org.uk Cluny Hill College Permaculture, Low-impact The Last hours of Ancient Forres IV 36 2RD, Scotland, UK Agriculture & Natural Ecology Sunlight: Waking Up to Personal LOSNET +44 0 1309 673655/fax: 113 Training/PLANET and Global Transformation Newsletter of danish network email: accomms@fi ndhorn.org The Community Gardens in Takaka, Thom Hartman, Subscribe to:Landsforeningen for www.fi ndhorn.org/ecovillage/training Golden Bay, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Neale Donald Walsch, OekoSamfund, Landsbyvaenget 11, Organized by: Tui Community, Wainui Joseph Chilton Pearce. Three Rivers 8464 Galten, Denmark February 28 - March 2, 2001 Bay, Takaka, Golden Bay RD1, New Pr., 2000. ISBN: 0609805290. 336 Email: [email protected]/losdanish Cleaner Production for Zealand. pages. Web: http://www.gaia.org/losdanish Sustainable Growth Tel: +64-3-5258488, Fax: +64-3-5258659. The Third Asia Pacifi c Roundtable for Email: [email protected] Shared Visions, Shared Lives Low-impact News Cleaner Production Communal living around the globe The bi-monthly magazine on UK Conference in Mandaluyong City, September 2001 Bill Metcalf, ed. Findhorn Press, Scot- ecovillages Subscribe to: Philippines Soul Journey into Service land, 1998, pag. 192 Middlewood, Roeburndale, Lancaster, Organized by: APRCP, College of A year-long programme at the Find- LA2, 8QX, UK , Tel: 01324-222479 Business Administration University of horn Foundation. Web: http://www.lowimpactnews.org.uk the Philippines, Quezon City, Phil- Organized by: Spiritual and Personal Magazines ippines, Fax: +63 (63-2) 9297991, Development Department, The Park, La Nuova Ecologia Email: [email protected] Findhorn, Forres IV36 3TZ, Scotland AAM Terra Nuova, Mensile di legambiente Email: accomms@fi ndhorn.org, Rivista Ecoalternativa Subscribe to: Via Salaria 403 Roma, Italy March 2 - 11, 2001 Web: http://www.fi ndhorn.org Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Global Responsibility Subscribe to: Web: http://www.lanuovaecologia.it Festival and conference at ISFIT, October 20 - November 3, 2001 Via Ponte di Mezzo 1, 50127 Italy Tronheim, Norway Permaculture Design Course Email: [email protected] Permaculture Magazine Organized by: ISFiT-01, Posttermi- Crystal Waters Ecovillage, 50 Crystal Web: http://www.aamterranuova.it Solutions for sustainable living. nalen NTNU, N-7491 Trondheim, Waters MS16 Maleny, Queensland Editor: Maddy Harland, Norway, Phone: +47 73 59 53 20, 4552, Australia. Bugday Email: [email protected] Fax: +47 73 59 53 23, email: Organized by: Sustainable Futures, Subscribe to:Portelas Mah. Perizat Web: http://www.permaculture.co.uk isfi t@isfi t.ntnu.no , website: http:// 50 Crystal Waters MS16 Maleny, Cikmazi 2/1 Daire:3 Cihangir-Istanbul www.isfi t.ntnu.no/ Queensland 4552, Australia. Turkey, Email: [email protected] Resurgence Tel/fax +61 (0) 7 5494 4833 Web: http://www.bugday.tripod.com Subscribe to: Resurgence, Rocksea March 10 - 17, 2001 Email: [email protected] Farmhouse, St. Mabyn, Bodmin, Life Purpose Web: http://www.permaculture.au.com C.A.L.L. Communes At Large Letter Cornwall PL30 3BR, UK Course at the Findhorn Foundation. Subscribe to: Kibbutz Gezer, D.N. Email: [email protected] Organized by: The Findhorn Foun- Shimshon, 99786 Israel dation, Forres IV36 3TZ, Scotland, Books Email: [email protected] Global Village News Email: accomms@fi ndhorn.org, Bringing the Food Economy Home www.gezernet.co.il/ecowork Subscribe: Social Venture Network Web: http://www.fi ndhorn.org The Social, Ecological and Economic www.svneurope.com Benefi ts of Local Foods. ISEC (see p. 29) Co-Existence Chronicle March 25-April 12, 2001 Email: [email protected] Newsletter for the co-existence initia- Sustainable Energy News Shadows of the Earth Web: http://www.isec.org.uk. tive, a global network and newsletter Newsletter for INFORSE International Course at the Schumacher College, UK based on confl ict resolution. USA Network for Sustainable Energy Organized by: Schumacher College, Communities Directory a guide Email: [email protected] Subscribe to: Gl. Kirkevej 56, DK The Old Postern, Dartington, Devon to Intentional Communities and Web: http://www.coexistence.net 8530 Hjortshoej Denmark TQ9 6EA, UK Cooperative living [email protected] www.inforse.org Tel: +44 (0)1803 865934, Ed. Fellowship of Intentional Commu- Fax: +44 (0)1803 866899, Communities Magazine nities, USA, 2000, pag. 456 4 times a year. Editor Diana Christian, Yes, A journal of positive futures, USA. Email: [email protected] Email: yes@futurenet,org Web: http://www.messe-duesseldorf.de Fellowship for Intentional Composting Toilet System Book Community, USA. Web: http://www.yes.magazine.org David Del Porot & Carol Steinfeld, June 3-15, 2001 Email: [email protected]. ISBN 0966678303, Chelsea Green Special issue on Ecovillages available. Designing with Ecology in Mind Publishing Co. (with David Orr) Videos Eco Earth Crystal Waters Ecovillage, 50 Crystal Directory of Ecovillages in Europe Waters MS16 Maleny, Queensland Editor Rashmi Mayur, International ZEGG - Ein Kulturmodell stellt sich vor 4552, Australia. 57 ecovillages in 22 countries, Ed. Institute for Sustainable Future (IISF), 31 min., by Heidi Snel and Malcom Organized by: GEN-Europe, Germany, 1998, pag. 194 Mumbai, India. St. Julian Bown, Amsterdam 1997 Sustainable Futures, 50 Crystal Waters Subscribe to: [email protected] MS16 Maleny, Queensland 4552, Economic Democracy: The Future of Paradise Australia. The Political Struggle of the Ecocity Builder 48 min, By David Kanaley, Light Tel/Fax +61 (0) 7 5494 4833 Twenty-fi rst Century Subscribe to: Ecocity Builder, 1678 Source Films, Byron Bay Australia Email: [email protected] J.W. Smith, M.E. Sharpe, 2000. $99 Shattuck Ave. #66, berkeley, CA 2000. Available at Crystal Waters, Web: http://www.permaculture.au.com [email protected], [email protected] 94709, USA Lebensgarten, Auroville (see p. 27-30) Visiting Ecovillages: Educational Tourism Lucilla Borio [email protected]

Work Camp crew at the Torri Superiore Ecovillage, Italy. Photo: Courtesy Lucilla Borio.

One way of living the ecovillage Especially in the summer, quite a few Legambiente Italia. experience and learning from it is ecovillages offer seminars and courses www.legambiente.com/canale8; to opt for ecovillage tourism. The which can make the visit even more Alliance International Network:http:/ GEN-Europe “Ecovillage Experience” lively and enriching. /www.alliance-network.org/ project is a response to a demand for “intelligent holidays” which bring On our website you can fi nd a list of EVS - European Voluntary Service visitors closer to nature and create ecovillages already open to tourism: programme of the European an understanding for more sustainable Commission can fund youngsters ways of life. It is presently evolving www.gaia.org/activities/ (18/25) willing to reside and work for into three separate but related branches: ecotourism.asp for all GEN regions. 3/6 months in ecovillages and other Ecovillage Tourism, summer work- hosting projects in the EU. camps and EVS exchanges www.gaia.org/activities/ecotourism/ index.asp#Europe for Eu ro pe. This exchange program is based on Europe is spearheading the Ecovillage the concept of learning through direct Tourism experience, featuring many For Summer 2001, GEN-Europe and experience in different nations, in the different communities, and allowing the Italian environmental organisation aim of building a common European visitors to travel by train or public “Legambiente” are organising a culture across the borders. All related transport from one place to the next, program of International Volunteer costs can be covered by the EU thereby giving them a clear Work Camps. Groups of young and programme, to which the interested understanding of the diversifi ed motivated people from all over the person should apply a few months GEN network. world will visit a few ecovillages, share in advance. Teodora Anastasoaei is daily life and work with the community supporting the GEN-Europe offi ce The GEN-Europe service node offers residents. They will offer their work and offers counseling thanks to her ongoing assistance to potential visitors contribution to the development of the experience with the Dutch who call or write us to fi nd out where project, receiving food and lodging in organisation EYFA. Please look up the the ecovillages are and what they have exchange. EVS website: to offer. A detailed questionnaire has www.evs-info.com/index_e.htm been sent to all members in order to Legambiente has been actively involved check their situation and will lead in ecological work camps for ten years For more detailed information on to the publication of a brochure with and is part of the International network the Ecovillage Experience programme all necessary details for a good stay. “Alliance of European Voluntary please refer to Kasimir Reichmuth, When visiting an ecovillage, we advise Service organisations” which reaches GEN-Europe offi ce, tel. +39 0184 everybody to allow themselves a few dozens of countries. For more 215504, fax +39 0184 215504, Email days to understand the spirit of the information on volunteer workcamps [email protected] (in English, place and get to know its inhabitants. you can browse the following websites: German, Spanish or Italian). Living and Learning Centers Philip Snyder

learning community will embody a ‘learn by doing’, partnership pedagogy. Here, the traditional skills and Ph knowledge of each society will be woven together o t o with permaculture methodology and related appropriate :

Ph technologies, forging workable solutions to the problems ilip Sn faced in each culture. Relying on the strengths and outreach capacities of the partners involved, the strategy of this LLC yd

er program is threefold:

1. The foundation will be a broad set of educational programs for the rural and urban communities in each Left: The nursery society, including in-residence courses at the centers. at IPEC, Brazil. Below: André 2. Educational activities at the centers will be complemented Soares from IPEC by networking and cooperative outreach to ecovillages and his wife Lucy. and allied organizations in the respective region (e.g. throughout South Asia for the center in Sri Lanka), Worldwide program of sustai nable systems including new partnerships with governments, NGOs, and edu ca tion and demons tration businesses. 3. The third level will be an active matrix of exchange and Over the past decade, the ecovil lage movement has spawned collaboration South to South and South to North between ews a number of eco village education centers that pro mote a broad these centers and their partners (associated ecovillage N spect rum of sus tai nability skills programs. The experience education centers and also including universities and gained through places such as the Ecovillage Training Living Routes programs). Center in the USA, Crystal Waters in Australia, Auroville in India, Findhorn in Scotland, among others, are the The multi-leveled Living and Learning system will enhance base upon which GEN is building a new program, called mutual learning, experimentation, and innovation in living Living and Learning Centers that will take this work to the reality of sustainability as a powerful means of edu- another stage. Living and Learning Centers are dynamic cating for a new future, one based on harmony between experiments in sustainable community, which will provide peoples and the restoration of nature. Rework conclusion nternational hands-on training in developing green technologies and to include the essence of local, cross regional and interna- I regenerative systems that are integrated with traditional tional cooperation.

N culture and wisdom. GEN’s two initial partners in this ven-

E ture are Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka, and IPEC in Brazil. The

G new Living and Learning Centers in Sri Lanka, Brazil, and later West Africa will be linked together in a South-South IPEC, Brazil exchange network, and, in turn, with Living and Learning To Live and Learn in the Heart of South America partners in the North. This will create a learning web of shared resources in an evolving, collaborative system of An Open Invitation to Communitarians experience, education and research to develop sustainable André L. J. Soares [email protected] systems on the ground around the world. Since 1998, a Living and Learning Center is being The orientation of the Living and Learning Centers is both developed in Brazil with the goal of establishing a global and very local. Closely connected with an existing learning community which will evolve to a full scale or new ecovillage, each new center will be developed to ecovillage demonstrating all features of a sustainable model a comprehensive human settlement. set of sustainable systems designed for its specifi c The rural “Cerrado” communities in Brazil’s central high- social and environmental lands, under pressure of the globalized market, are giving conditions. This will way to urban sprawl and industrial agriculture. The model create a very real and training center and ecovillage is responding in a positive practical base for way, in partnership with other communities, and organi- whole-systems zations such as the Movement of Landless People. Young educational programs. people can volunteer in constructing a planned ecovillage Rich in experiential for 48 families. opportunities, the Living and Learning Centers’ Small farmers and adventurous students from around the (LLC) interactive world will learn permaculture, village economy, sustain- Ph o t o : able technologies, ecologial building and cooperation to restore endangered ecosystems.

The Center is 160 km from Brasília, the nation’s capital, built as a symbol of the conquest of wilderness by indus- trialisation. When government and foreign authorities visit the Center, they fi nd themselves in a different world.

They enjoy organic meals in a community expressing a deep connection with the Earth, and their tired faces give way to smiles, refl ecting the freedom of spirit which can only come from experiencing a peaceful and abundant life in a healthy environment. The Tanamalwila Center in Sri Lanka. Photo: Max Lindegger.

Tanamalwila Living and Learning Center GEN is now a United Nations Max Lindegger ECOSOC NGO The Tanamalwila Center is an emerging ecological training Philip Snyder center run by the Sarvodaya Peace Movement in Sri Lanka, under the auspices of Sarvodaya’s Director Vinya GEN was approved as an offi cial UN NGO with Special Ariyaratne. At the GEN Board meeting in June 2000, Consultative Status at the June 2000 meeting of the Tanamalwila was approved as one of the proposed GEN Economic and Social Council for Non-governmental Living and Learning Centers. Organizations Committee of the United Nations.

Since June 2000, we have been busy attending to Government There are two UN NGO committees, and the ECOSOC formalities with regard to legal extension of the long term committee is most diffi cult to gain consultative status lease at the Tanamalwila farm, assessing the status of the with. Our newly bestowed ECOSOC UN NGO status was facilities, upgrading the infrastructure, and develo ping a the culmination of a long journey, which had begun with comprehensive funding proposal to be presented to donors. our initial application back in 1998. In the spring of 1999, Tanamalwila is located in the South of Sri Lanka - about we had to renew our application with new documentation. one hour from the well-known and beautiful harbour of Our application appeared to be sailing along with broad Hambantota and tea growing hill areas to its North. support. But in a dramatic Committee session in June 1999, it became embroiled in an international political The large farm is adjacent to a national park where elephants situation, as one of the GEN members was the Ladakh roam. Nineteen families live on the land at the moment and project based in Kashmir. Both India and Pakistan claimed make a living from small farming enterprises and labouring the Ladakh villages to be in their respective territories, nearby. The buildings which are intended for redevelopment and this disagreement precipitated a deadlock in our are very large and were originally built in the 70s. In recent approval process, as the committee generally works by years they have been largely closed up. consensus.

The aim of the fi rst visit Lloyd and Max Lindegger made Our application was postponed over the next two was to assess the suitability of the village and the facilities to Committee sessions in 2000, while a solution to the become a Living & Learning Centre for GEN. We felt that impasse was sought. At last, an agreement was made, the village offered strong features required for the ‘living’ and GEN was approved during the summer session. part of such a centre, and that the structures were eminently Receiving Special Consultative Status with the UN suited for redevelopment into a learning centre of high ECOSOC Committee is an honor for such a young NGO standard. as ourselves, as most ECOSOC member NGOs are larger and older than GEN.GEN’s Consultative status will give During our recent visit, and after meetings with Dr Vinya us direct access to the UN system, and a chance to join in Ariyaratne, his staff, and many of the villagers, it became the work of various committees relevant to the promotion certain that a Living and Learning Centre would meet not of sustainable communities and practices worldwide. We only with a lot of support from the villagers but could pass expect that May East from the Findhorn Foundation in on the many skills present in the development of a unique Scotland will be one of the GEN representatives at key curriculum for Tanamalwila. conferences and sessions in New York. Global News O Spiritu Mi change bothintheUSandUN. mary effects ofglobali didate forUSpresident,thateffectively namedthepri with astirringaddressbyRalphNader, formally endorsedourinitiative. This event culminated ture elementandI’mhappy toreport that E bled N cessful presentationbyFindhorntoabout This Nations. O Department ofInformationforN First, therewas the U itself andspent17intenselyfocuseddaysinNYC. actually participatedinfourotherevents aroundthesummit Summit inNew York Cityin August andSeptember. I the myriadevents around theUnitedNationsMillennium USA, Iwant togive youmysenseof‘whatcamedown’ in As IrecentlyreturnedtoFindhornfrommytripthe Roger Doudna, The FindhornFoundation Mi together insilentprayerthe took ‘informally’.Interestingly, they spenttheir world peacebysome Concurrently attheUN,there was aglobal gatheringfor global summit thefollowing week. Thene conducive notsimplytoworld peacebut toasuccessful the apparentintention ofimbuing the placewithvibrations

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ofthe uality, - J fi lying cant akob fi nal ) EP in - - von Uexkull, all of whom have endorsed ‘Restore the by Vinya Ariyaratne, Rashmi Mayur, Philip Snyder, and Earth’) mixed with people of worldly power. Again, the Ross Jackson, all of GEN, and Tony Cortese, president of primary issue was globalization and the basic message was Second Nature, Boston. However we were disappointed in that contrary to the message we’ve been receiving from the small turnout because the organizers had planned 26 Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, the Davos Forum, World Bank, parallel sessions, most being added at the last minute. We IMF and even the UN itself, globalization is not inevitable cannot recommend doing this another time. and, even if it is, it can certainly be shaped to respond to the needs of labor, the poor, and the environment. All it The conference showed that there is a very wide gap between will take by way of appropriate antidote is for concerned the TNC-controlled “media” view that globalization is citizens to inform and express themselves and to work benefi ting the world, and those who claim that commercial together. If currently prevailing practices continue, we globalization is nothing but a massive transfer of wealth will simply have to increase the pressure for change as from the rest of the world to the very richest 10% and is required. actually slowing average growth. One of the best plenum presenters showed that the facts on actual growth in BNP per capita support the latter view and expose the TNC view GEN at the State of the World Forum as undocumented propaganda (See www.cepr.net). and Fundraising for GEN in the US Hopefully the people and our politicians will soon wake up. Ross Jackson Philip and Ross, along with Jeff Grossberg, spoke with a GEN was well represented at the State of the World Forum number of potential allies, partners and funders in New in New York, with our session called “Globalization and York, Colorado, and San Francisco. This was the fi rst step in Sustainability; Positive Strategies to Address the Twin an effort to broaden the funding base of GEN, and resulted Challenges of our Time.” Excellent presentations were made in a number of positive leads.

Millennium Declarations Hildur Jackson

The millennium has given birth to multiple global meetings and correspondingly the productions of global declarations. It is like speeches for great family occasion. By speaking out seriously, by focussing sharply and speaking loudly and solemnly you hope to affect and form the future.

Earth Charter The Danish Agenda 21 Sustainability Declaration The Earth Charter Group, which started its process in 1992 after Rio has published its fi nal version in Oct of this year. In Econet, a Danish grass roots organisation, took the initiative the meantime it has been circulating among NGO’s around last spring to create a process around a National Danish the world for improvement and refi nement. Sustainability Declaration responding to the Agenda 21 In 5 pages it contains the values that we should safeguard claim that all nations should produce such one. 40 people under 4 headlines: covering a wide variety of green organisations cooperated -Respect and Care for the Community of Life via email on this task. A national grass roots meeting in the -Ecological integrity form of a tent village for 3 days in August took the process -Social and Economic Justice and even further. The Dansih Ecovillage Association and GEN -Democracy, Nonviolence, and Peace. participated in this with 6 workshops, one of them with The last half page is titled: The way forward.They recom- Bernard Lietaer on Complementary Currencies. mend a change of heart and a global dialogue. They call for creative leadership. The “partnership of government, civil The result is now ready and will be translated into Eng- society and business is essential for effective governance.” lish. It is directed towards the government with several They advocate renewing our commitment to the UN. concrete proposals, mainly in the area of ecology. The question is: Do governments really have the possibility to It is all very positive and not very new. The value of the paper create the necessary changes? They can certainly help set is the process they have carried out. What we need now are the framework and remove hindrances. But that is far from concrete ways of getting to the goal. We need global strate- enough. And also we need the social and cultural dimen- gies. http://www.earthcharter.org/report/special/crle.htm sions of sustainability further developed The Female Voice 2000: The GEN charter (a two-page document) is being devel- oped by the regional representatives and the GEN board. Women for a New Culture of Peace Out strength lies in our clear ecovillage strategy: Trans- formation by example, creating National and Global Net- Three hundred women in Berlin started a new women’s works, and cooperating with like-minded NGOs and otehr movement and a new magazine in German after 30 years of partners worldwide. gestation. In two pages (written by Leila from Zegg) they give their understanding of how we got to where we are. It is Localization - A Global Manifesto based in matriarchal thinking and in liberation of the rela- by Colin Hines, UK tionship between the sexes. They conclude: This book is connected to a longstanding working group on We, the women of the world, in partnership with men, globalization which includes GEN member Helena Nor- will use this knowledge and our love to set up places for berg-Hodge. It outlines a systemic new economic policy- healing, for communities and peace villages all around covering global, National and local political levels. Hines the globe. Through this a new spirit of solidarity shall argues that “the dominant free market theology must be arise. In order that we, women and men, can fi nd a replaced by an overarching vision like: protect the local- peaceful perspective for our deep love towards each globally.” This localization is a “process which reverses other. the trend of globalization by discriminating in favour of And they appeal to all of us: “We are appealing to every- the local. Depending on the context, the “local” is defi ned body: women, men, whores and saints, old people and as part of a nation state, although it can on occasions be the teenagers, mothers and singles, lesbians, ascetics, dancers nation state itself or even occasionally a regional group- and philosophers, people from every land and groups, ing of nation states”. Policies which bring about localiza- organizations, families and enterprises: do not invest your tion are ones which increase control of the economy by engagement, your joy of life, your belief and your money communities and nation states. Many proposals for how in the declining systems of violence. Withdraw your obe- this may happen are the strengths of this book. One of the dience to the absurdity of normality. Instead invest in the means will be a WLO - a World Localization Organisation new perspective of peace and interconnectedness with all to replace the WTO (World Trade Organization). living beings.” It is a powerful book, and easy for anybody to read. It Their strategy is clear: build ecovillages and withdraw should become a must for all students in economics, soci- your energy from the systems of violence. ology and political science. It is the basis for a whole new paradigm within economics. It is the book that the Cultural Creatives have been waiting for, and it gives a GEN Charter realistic hope for curbing the TNC’s while at the same time creating local sustainable communities all over A GEN White Paper was developed by Albert Bates, Ross the planet.When describing local life, he is describing Jackson and Philip Snyder to be given out at large global ecovillage living. The book paints a world we are all meetings in the year 2000. The full ten page text can be dreaming about in a way that seems within reach. Maybe viewed at: we are enough people around the planet with sustainable www.gaia.org/secretariats/international/whitepaper.html values to make it happen. To order: [email protected]

Environmental and social change happens in the South, mostly through grassroots activism. One of the most outstanding examples is the Sarvodaya Movement for Peace, linking 13,000 villages in Sri Lanka in a movement for a sustainable future.

Left, Dr. Ari Aryiaratne, speaking at the 1999 meditation walk for Peace in Sri Lanka. Local Agenda 21 for Survival and Future in the South

Rashmi Mayur, Institute for Sustainable Future (IISF) When the Agenda 21 with 27 principles was signed by the United States. Unfortunately, local Agenda 21 has not over 185 nations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, it was been developed nor implemented in any country in the deve- considered a global guideline for the future of sustainable loping world, where two-thirds of the people of the planet live development worldwide. It encompasses all aspects of and where the environmental destruction continues unabated environment and development on which actions were to be rampantly while sustainable development is a far-off dream. taken by governments, international organizations, NGO’s and the grassroots people everywhere. Everyone at that time Now, as we prepare for the new millenium, what alternatives recognized that the task of making the earth environmentally are available for bringing sustainable development in the sustainable while at the same time bringing the necessary South and the world as a whole? Even at a global scale, development in order to deal with some of the critical we face large-scale crises - threatening climate change, problems of the world, was overwhelming and complex. cancerous depletion of ozone, high resource-consuming lifestyles in the North; poverty, hunger, deforestation, In 1997, however, at the meeting of the Rio Plus Five, it was diseases and deaths in the South. We have no choice. recognized by most of the delegates that on almost every We need global and local Agenda 21 all over the world front, the world had failed. At the closing, people declared it including in the South in order to save the planet. It should as Rio Minus Five. It was all “business as usual.” One thing, be an agenda for change - an agenda for transformation of however, was clear: namely that the governments could do human society, an agenda to be implemented at the global very little; the burden for change falls upon the local people, and local level. It should be humanity’s mission for survival NGO’s and grassroots organizations. Although many projects and future. For that, the United Nations and governments - were completed and continue to be carried on worldwide along with local organizations everywhere should undertake to develop and implement local Agenda 21, some of them projects with time-table and targets so that one day our successfully, these attempts were mostly in Europe, Japan and children will have a livable earth and enjoy its fruits.

Global Challenges Global People’s Assembly for Sustainable Energy in the New Millennium. in Pune, India, 2002

A conference under this heading was arranged by IISF The fi st People’s Assembly, gathering 1500 International (International Institute for Sustainable Future) from August NGO’s and grass roots activists, took place in Samoa 17-19, 2000 in Mumbai. It attracted 300 persons from all in April 2000. Rashmi Mayur from IISF (International over the South. Institute for Sustainable Future, Mumbai) will be the organizer of the next meeting, to be held in Pune, India, In a booklet (110 pages) available from IISF, Rashmi probably in August 2002. The conference arrangements Mayur concludes: “we are convinced that renewable are being prepared in India under the local organizing energy sources like biogas, solar, wind geothermal and committee headed by Rashmi Mayur and selected eminent even tidal offer challenging opportunities for our future. leaders from India. The main objective of the Assembly is to bring people’s grassroot governance in the world. Too They must be explored and developed not only as substi- long governments have become the rulers unto themselves tutes for the fi nite depleting fossil fuels, but also as a solu- with enormous power supported by the military despite all tion to our looming energy crises in the next century. For the claims to democracy. the poor in the developing world, probably, that is the only alternative for survival and development.” At the Indian meeting, specifi c plans for the local gover- nance around the world will be made. We need ideas and Contact information for IISF: see page 29. every possible support. See IISF in Address list page 29. Ecovillage Network of the Americas

Report

ENA - Americas News - ENA Above: ENA (Ecovillage Network of the Americas) members in Colombia, for an adventurous annual meeting. This picture was sent to announce their safe arrival. Photo: Courtesy Kailash

Since the Ecovillage Network of the Americas Council dinating activities in: establishment and development was inaugurated in October 1999, there has been a ground- of ecovillages; funding, consulting, legal documents, swell of ecovillage activities in the Americas regions - and referrals; Ecovillage Training Centers and outreach Canada, Western U.S., Eastern U.S., Mesoamerica, Carib- programs; development of sustainable technologies and bean, Northern South America, Southern South America businesses; public policy formulation; and international and Brazil. networking.

To support this ever-growing network, ENA now has two ENA was represented this year at the Annual GEN Board coordinating offi ces. In March, 2000, ENA opened a meeting in Torri Superiore, Italy by Albert and by André Central Offi ce at EarthArt Village in Colorado, with Soares, the ENA Council Representative for Brazil. (See part time staff Linda Joseph and Kailash coordinating Living & Learning Centers article, page____.) Following internal activities of ENA: meetings; translations; com- the meeting, Albert had the opportunity to tour the ecovil- mittees; database, listserve and web page management; lage communities of Damanhur, Lebensgarten, Gudhorst general correspondence; public relations; newsletters/ and Sieben Linden. A landmark achievement by GEN publications; planning, budgeting, and organizational and in 2000 was receiving recognition of NGO consultative projects development. Previously all of the above, plus status to the United Nations, by ECOSOC. Congratula- a vast array of international networking activities were tions to GEN and many thanks to those from all GEN managed by Albert Bates, who has been on the GEN regions who worked over some years to make this pos- Board since its inception, representing the Americas. sible.

Albert now heads up the ENA International offi ce, coor- ENA’s outreach activities are expanding, with attendance at many sustainability conferences by ENA’s Council and committee members. Albert spoke at the International Symposium on New Com- munities for the New Century: Answers for Retirement and Ecology (University of S. Indi- ana, Evansville, Apr 2-5, 2000).

How can we reach a high quality of life while living within the natural limits of the Earth? That was the central question addressed by the National Meeting on Advancing Community Sustainabil- ity, held in Roanoke, Virginia on June 1-3. Joining Albert in attendance were ENA Council dele- gates Giovanni Ciarlo (Mesoamerica), Lois Arkin (Western U.S.), and ecovillage network consul- tant Jeff Grossberg. Participants included state, local and federal offi cials, business leaders, and representatives of nonprofi t organizations, as well as students and concerned citizens from as far away as Hawaii and Alaska. In his address Albert suggested ways to shift how planners design and operate communities, redirect governmental prac-

H f Cl di M d i C l bi & ENA power cells on the hood.

tices, and reform our institutions to preserve ecosystems for future generations. The conference was organized by Prof. Richard Rich of Virginia Tech. University, who summed up the lessons of the meeting by saying:

“A vision is within our grasp of communities meeting the needs of their current residents far better than our cities and towns do today, without robbing from future generations by degrading the environment. The technologies and knowl- edge needed to make this a reality are already available. We simply need the political will and intellectual courage to adopt them.” [email protected] [email protected] http://ena.ecovillage.org

Living and Learning on the Road

Alberto Ruz Buenfi l [email protected]

Thousands of years before the discovery of agriculture and formation of the fi rst permanent human settlements on Earth, humankind lived in small clans, tribes or extended families. They roamed freely across continents, taking from Nature what they needed, learning from its cycles, sharing its richness with all other species. Claiming no ownership of its boundaries, they migrated as the birds, the mountains of central Mexico, now known as Huehue- whales or buffalo when the signals of life told them it was coyotl. time to look for other hunting or gathering grounds. Fourteen years later, the bug hit again, and a few of The development of civilization and emergence of sed- us decided to create a “Living and Learning Center” on entary cultures transformed both the relation to and use wheels, to take the best tools of change to the most remote of land to either private agricultural fi elds or grasslands places and communities in the Caribbean, Central and for cattle; human settlements became towns, cities, states, South America. This was the origin of the “Rainbow Peace nations and megalopolis. In that process, nomadic living Caravan”, an educational project that has for the last fi ve became a marginal and increasingly persecuted existence, years been traveling and planting seeds of transformation those who persisted being banned or ill accepted in settle- and hope that are germinating and ments, an endangered species in the process of extinction. producing a crop of new projects, groups and networks across the American continent. Today only a small number of those original nomadic fam- ilies of humankind persist, but the memory of that “golden The Caravan, with three converted school buses, solar age” of close contact with mother earth’s cycles and free- powered systems, a large tent for workshops and dom persists as an archetype in the collective unconscious multicultural events, and an enthusiastic crew of a couple of us all. When we see the gypsy wagons or Circus coming dozen people of different ages, nations and trades, has to town and setting their tents, the memories imprinted in become a true Living and Learning Center. We live a our dream world awake and seduce us to think: - “what if collective and sustainable lifestyle, as a mobile school I leave everything and just go?” which is teaching and learning among the widest spectrum of native, ethnic, social groups and communities. Using a Wanderlust will never die, and it was precisely for this broad range of activities, the Caravan reaches indigenous reason that a few decades ago, a group of us became a tribe people, as well as rural and urban audiences, bringing its of international “rainbow gypsies”. We wandered for many experience to educational and cultural centers, universities, years across natural and political borders, until one day we institutions, and to the largest public by way of local, decided to create “our own village”, an eco-community on national and international media. (continued page 40) Ecovillage Networks in the Caribbean Alejandra Liora Adler www.lacaravana.org [email protected]

Above: Founders of the Jamaican Ecovillage Network, with Arlene Dixon, second from left. Photo: Liora Adler.

The Internet provided our fi rst contacts with ecovillages of Jamaica, her ideas were often met with resistance due and related initiatives in the Caribbean. We sent tentative to their holistic and radical nature. It is only recently that letters, conch calls into the void: “Anyone out there?” The she has made more progress, fi nding interest and acceptance Caribbean beckoned, but leads were scanty. Over several now in the higher levels of government. From the fi rst day months we received some initially tentative and eventually we understood that our alliance was not only of work but enthusiastic responses, from Arlene Dixon of ENACT and also of friendship. Arlene took me on a whirlwind tour of COMMAND of Jamaica, Vilda Figueroa and Jose Lama Kingston, Trelawny, Montego Bay and Bath, including a of the Community Food Preservation Project of Cuba, and high level meeting on Bamboo in Jamaica House, visits Felipe Bermudez of Puerto Rico. Some doors were opening; to local communities where people live in “temporary” it was time to take concrete action - we scheduled a meeting housing since the 1950’s, to an agricultural area where a in the Stateswith Felipe and Luz Marina of Puerto Rico, and sustainability project is funded by a Yam Festival, and to a a trip to Jamaica and Cuba. Rasta managed hot springs project.

Arlene Dixon met me at Kingston Airport in Jamaica. A A conference in Montego Bay and a one day Consensus brilliant planning consultant, who has spent years deve- Course in Kingston resulted in the founding, on July loping sustainability plans for Montego Bay and other areas 1, 2000, of the Ecovillage Network of Jamaica with

On the Road (continued from previous page)

Using the arts, theater, conferences, audiovisuals, weekend any other intentional or traditional “mobile ecovillage” and week long workshops on subjects such as permacul- as an integral part of the Council. This is an historical ture, appropriate technologies, eco-construction, ecovil- step that sets a precedent and encourages other regions lage design, consensus decision making, nutrition, dance, to follow this example and allow a part of our common crafts, puppets, music, stilts - the Caravan is helping create heritage to be restored, preserved and developed in the a new generation of Latin American social activists and future. future leaders, and a continental network of individuals, groups and movements that are strengthening and support- No-Mad living is a sane alternative when done with ing all of GEN and ENA’s visions and goals. high principles to create an ecologically, economically, culturally and spiritually sustainable life style. The Caravan, The Annual Meeting of ENA, in October 2000, was in enduring many challenges, is a pioneering example and Colombia at the “Reserva Integral Sasardi”, a 15 year an educational model for other similar projects. We look old exemplary ecovillage in the heart on the Chocoano forward to creating the largest web of transformation on Darien tropical jungle. There, the Council of the Americas the planet, that includes as many projects as imagination consensed on including the Rainbow Peace Caravan and and commitment can produce. representatives from the Jamaican Sustainability Network, in Havana at 2 or 3 AM alone without feeling fear. Quite St. Andrew Settlement, Birdlife Jamaica, Majesty Gardens, a contrast, having arrived by way of Colombia and New Dolphin Head Project, the UWI Dept of Social Sciences, York ; People are extremely relaxed and friendly and I Camp Zamba, Railway Gardens Citizens Association, and could openly converse with people on any subject. Not the the Natural Resources Conservation Authority. Although stereotyped propaganda I was led to expect; Despite huge Arlene was unable to attend the Colombia ENA meeting advances in the Bay. due to previous commitments, she has enthusiastically accepted to help organize the next ENA Council meeting, The ecovillage concept is new to Cuba but people which will be held between Nov 2001 and Feb 2002 in immediately understood its relationship and possibilities, Jamaica and Cuba. and on June 29, 2000, just fi ve days after my arrival, representatives from 10 Cuban NGO’s, foundations and Cuba projects formed the Cuban Ecovillage Network. One of their representatives, Roberto Sanchez, attended My arrival to Cuba was more uncertain: Due to transpor- the Advanced PC course and part of the Colombia ENA tation diffi culties there was no one waiting at the airport. Meeting in Sept. Together with Jeff Clearwater (Living Taxis are among the few motorized vehicles to be seen on Routes), Roberto did an outstanding job teaching the the roads leading into Habana. Bicycle paths along the PC/Appropriate Technology course given at the Ecovillage major highway were a wondrous sight. No traffi c jams Montaña Magica. With other representatives from the here. Foundation, he has agreed to help organize the next ENA Council Meeting in Jamaica and Cuba, accompanied once Roberto Perez of the Antonio Nuñez Jimenez Foundation again by training courses. was my host, and I had the honor and pleasure of meeting many knowledgeable and committed workers, both of Our representatives of the Puerto Rican Ecovillage the Foundation and of the many organic agriculture and movement, Felipe Bermudez and Luz Marina, have permaculture projects in Habana. returned home from the Colombia ENA meeting and courses with great inspiration and enthusiasm. They are Due to the terrible food shortage experienced in Cuba building model ecological housing, speaking on radio throughout much of the 1990’s, urban food gardening programs and together with Amparo, Clemencia and Carlos became an important survival strategy. Cuba was the fi rst who came to Colombia to learn PC, are working to extend country to adopt organic agriculture as a national policy, the Puerto Rican network. The Caribbean has gotten off to and there are currently over 18,000 urban permacultural a wonderful start and will surely receive an added boost food producing gardens within the city limits, in homes, from the upcoming ENA meeting and trainings. schools, patios and empty lots. Cuba is currently producing over half of its food needs. It would take volumes to record Prepare your bikinis and notebooks and join us for the all of my impressions of this city of strong contradictions. 2001 or 2002 PC/EV Design/Ecoconstruction and Con- Several features stand out: I was able to walk anywhere sensus trainings in (sunny!) Jamaica and Cuba.

‘The ecovillage concept is new to Cuba but people immediately understood its relationship and possibilities’ Crystal Waters Permaculture Village, rammed earth house with pond. Photo: Courtesy Max Lindegger.

by Val Oliver and Max Lindegger [email protected]

a Consultancy and Outreach i s to develop their Tanamalwila education centre into a fully

A This year, we have made contacts and promoted the idea of ecovillages in South Africa, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, fl edged GEN Living & Learning Centre. Sarvodaya, Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, Ban- amongst its many projects, also hosts the GEN-South Asia gladesh, India and New Zealand, in addition to the connec- offi ce and we are fortunate indeed in having its Executive tions that GEN South Asia has made from their Sri Lankan Director, Dr Vinya Ariyaratne, as GEN’s representative a and i base. in the region. Max has travelled there twice to advise on the Tanamalwila project, and on both occasions Lloyd Over the year 2000 we have, as usual, provided lots Williams (an ex student of Max’s and a consultant in his of advice, information and contacts to small and larger own right) has donated his time and expertise. In fact projects, individuals and government departments on the fi rst visit Lloyd paid all his own costs as well as Ocean concerning ecovillages and their creation. It seems that donating his time and expertise - an invaluable gift. It is m more people are getting really serious about developing people like these who make the aims of GEN achievable.

ro ecovillages.

F Courses GENOA’s consultancy work has expanded, and Max s Lindegger (GENOA’s Secretary) has been kept busy with We ran residential courses at Crystal Waters for two w

e work both in Australia and overseas. The ecovillage overseas universities again this year. Max has also presented concept has been particularly well received in South Africa,

N workshops and courses in Brazil, South Africa and Western where there is a severe housing crisis. There are some very Australia, and by the time you read this he will have exciting projects moving forward in south Africa, headed presented a workshop in Korea, at the World Congress by inspired and committed people (see “Other News from of Environmental Design for the New Millennium, to Oceania”). Max has been very involved in the decision to which he has been invited as a keynote speaker. We are work with the Sarvodaya Peace Movement in Sri Lanka also working with Living Routes - Ecovillage Education ‘The ecovillage concept has been particularly well received in South Africa, where there is a severe housing crisis. Exciting ecological projects are happening near Cape Town (the Spier development), East London (Gqnubie Green Ecovillage and Wren’s Nest eco-hamlet), and the ongoing contact with Tlholego Development Center near Johannesburg. ‘

Right, community building in Thlolego.

Consortium (see elsewhere in this magazine). We hope to fi lm just two places - Crystal Waters and the venue for that by 2001 we will be hosting courses for this new US the Sydney Olympic Games! We have also met with the consortium. Editor of a new paper - an Australian edition of the very impressive Positive News paper from Britain. The Aus- Publications tralian version will be called OzPoz, and we expect to be talking a great deal to them about the wonderfully posi- We have at last published a directory of ecovillages tive stories we hear about ecovillages and related initia- and communities in Australia tives from around our region. and New Zealand. We had the books printed at the Sarvodaya printery in Sri Legal Status Lanka, in order to support their excellent work in the GENOA has at last acquired a formal legal status. For now, rural areas of that country. we have plumped for a standard incorporated association, Ecovillage & Communities in as provided for under Queensland law. This provides Australia and New Zealand those of us working for GENOA with legal protection - lists some 36 communities as well as various responsibilities and more than enough along with their size, age, paperwork! primary focus, how they deal with issues like food, employment and housing, whether they accept visitors…. Lots of invaluable information! Contact your nearest GEN offi ce for more information.

We continue to publish our 12 page quarterly newsletter, Pacifi c Lutheran University students The Ecovillage News, and are receiving good feedback. (US) at Crystal This newsletter is sent throughout the region to nearly Waters 1500 addresses. We believe it is vital for us to continue this work, as much of our region does not have access to the internet, indeed to electricity, never mind computers. The newsletter is sent free of charge to most of our recipients, many of whom (e.g. in South Asia) would either not be able to afford it or could not access the foreign currency to subscribe. The newsletter is also sent to addresses outside our region.

We have been inundated with authors, journalists and TV crews this year. We have seen photos and text on Crystal Waters and GEN in Korean, Japanese, Australian and Brit- ish magazines, and papers and TV shows by Korean and Australian networks. A Korean TV crew came to Australia Students from the Kyushu Lutheran College at Crystal Waters.

Kookaburra Park, in Queensland, broke even fi nancially this year, with a number of new residents buying into the property. They have been working hard on the land, and the landscape is now very different from the bare hills of the early years. They hope to be building their community hall soon.

The designers of the Aldinga Arts Village, an ecovillage project designed for artists and retirees, with half the land under permaculture cultivation, south of We expect that further down the line of GEN’s develop- Adelaide, South Australia, attended GENOA’s ecovillage ment, we will need to change this structure to refl ect new design course, and are progressing down the inevitably situations. For instance, we hope that in the not too distant rocky path of actual development. They have an extensive future a number of countries in our region will have strong web site at www.aldinga-artsecovillage.com.au. and active national ecovillage networks. When there are suffi cient such networks we would want to look at chang- In Victoria, Deakin University is considering ideas put ing the GENOA Inc. structure to allow these networks forward by Professor Allan Rodger for an ecovillage on more say in the running of the organisation. campus. In inner city Melbourne the CERES alternative technology project has formulated plans to develop the land next door into the Merri Ecovillage, based on Other News from the Oceania Region cohousing principles. Some other developments, such as the medieval-themed ecovillage near Canberra, have been The Ecovillage and Cohousing Network of New Zealand very quiet of late, and of course some communities are (EVCNZ) has beenparticularly active.Their website: not inclined to join a network, preferring to maintain their www.converge.org.nz/evcnz/index.html is excellent. privacy. They are active in discussions with government about planning laws and legalities associated with ecovillages. By the time you read this article, Crystal Waters will have They are currently working on a Sustainable Land Devel- hosted the 3rd National Intentional Communities Gathering, opment Handbook, in association with government. Sev- which we expect will draw around 100 communitarians eral of their members are brand new fl edgling ecovillages, primarily from Australia (although there have already been some are existing communities that are retrofi tting. some registrations from overseas). We expect to make many more contacts during this 4 day Gathering, and, In Australia, there have been some interesting develop- hopefully, many more friends. ments in terms of interest from various levels of govern- ment in the concept, with at least one local government We have heard of an ecovillage being created in Japan, authority (Byron Bay) actually actively promoting the con- but have not yet succeeded in making contact. However, cept for its region. we have received visits from a number of magazine and TV crews from Japan, and the subsequent publicity has The existing ecovillages of Crystal Waters, Kookaburra (we are told) energised the Permaculture and sustainability Park and Rosneath Farm continue to attract residents and movements in Japan. visitors. Rosneath Farm has made good progress this year, and has such a talented and dedicated group of people In South Africa, exciting ecological projects are happening involved that it seems destined for a prosperous future. near Cape Town (the Spier development), East London At the moment things are a little tight perhaps, as they (Gqnubie Green Ecovillage and Wren’s Nest eco-hamlet), are not yet at the ‘break even’ point of land sales. They and the ongoing contact with Tlholego Development have however secured the land, built their fi rst buildings Centre near Johannesburg. (including a guest house), and a few families are living permanently on the land. They maintain a website and We have had a number of discussions with organisations produce a regular newsletter. in the Philippines and Malaysia this year, some of which seemed quite promising. However, none have translated into ecovillage projects at this stage. Our contacts with South Asia are of course all now via the GEN South Asia offi ce.

News from GEN South Asia Vinya Ariyaratne, Max Lindegger

The Saliyapura Eco-Farm

The Saliyapura Eco-Farm in the Anuradhapura District of Sri Lanka is currently evolving towards becoming a true demonstration site for organic agricultural practices with the assistance of Bandula organic agriculture, enterprise development, biotechnol- Senadheera, who spent a year as an intern at the Nature ogy and community development. He will be coordinat- Spirit community in South Carolina, USA. The 15 acre ing the Living and Learning Centre programme under the plot already had 5 acres under paddy cultivation (of which guidance of Vinya Ariyaratne. one acre is today cultivated organically), and 5 acres of coconut plantation.

Two acres of the site have been completely cleared and ¼ Living and Learning Center at Tanamalwila Farm acre in that area was prepared for vegetable growing, using (See p. 33) Permaculture and intentional farming methods. Radish, okra, bitter-gourd, tomatoes, beans, chillies and other vege- Top: The Sarvodaya Peace Center. etables were ready to be harvested in August after three Below: Shopkeeper in a Sarvodaya village. Photos: Max Lindegger. months of completely organic care. The vegetable cultiva- tion on the farm is not focused around the fi nal produce or its sale and marketing. The Saliyapura farm aims at demonstrating to locals that organic farming allows for viable and successful vegetable cultivation. We are cur- rently introducing inter crops of banana, lime, papaya, pepper and other perennial crops on the 5-acre coconut plantations, following traditional methods as opposed to conventional unsustainable monoculture plantations. This part of the farm is intended to generate income, making the farm self-supporting in the long run.

The Saliyapura farm is evolving into the paradigm of sus- tainable agriculture that it was meant to be. Local farmers, their curiosity aroused, are beginning to see that organic farming is not a distant dream, but is entirely possible and profi table. The Saliyapura farm continues in its every- day working, bringing theory and practice, traditional and modern, old and new, just a little bit closer.

Other News from GEN South Asia (GENSA)

Nandana Jayasinghe, a senior Sarvodaya worker from the enterprises Division of the Sarvodaya Economic Services (SEEDS), joined GENSA on a full-time basis as a new executive assistant for programmatic activities. Nandana, who is an agricultural graduate, has wide experience in GEN Europe General Assembly Lakabe Ecovillage, Basque Country, Nafarroa-Euskadi, August 2000 Lucilla Borio

The general assembly of GEN-Europe was a wonderful ten and Sieben Linden, Germany; Ekbo/Gebers, Sweden; opportunity for members to meet each other and work Gyürüfü, Hungary. together. The community of Lakabe, in Basque country - • Representatives of Alcatraz Free University, Italy, Young northern Spain - was a perfect host for the occasion and gave Nature Friends, Romania, and ecovillage initiatives in Cro- us great support and encouragement. atia and Portugal participated as well. • Maria Helena Avena from the Brazilian Ecovillage. Terra s Many hours were spent talking and discussing, but a good Mirim was a special guest. w amount of time was also invested in singing under Martin e Stengel’s (Ecovillage of Sieben Linden) skilful supervision, N dancing the traditional ecovillage circle dances, walking and Decisions from the meeting: exploring the majestic surroundings of the village. Slide- shows and video projections fi lled our evenings and afternoons • Eco-rates* were adopted for GEN-Europe membership fees, e providing a non-stop fl ow of information and entertainment which were set at 50 Euros/year for full members and 25 p for all those interested. The fi nal “Open House” on Sunday Euros for Ecovillage Supporters; ro closed the Assembly and attracted a crowd of friends and • The new statute of GEN-Europe was approved by consensus activists who sang, talked and shared the evening meal with and will be registered in Italy; Eu

us, after a general presentation of the network and the GEN • Accounts for 99/00 and budgets for 00/01 were presented offi cial slideshow. by the GEN Europe Secretariat, and approved. • The newly elected GEN-Europe Council is formed by (in Mabel, Alfredo, Claudio and all the other Lakabe members alphabetical order): Lucilla Borio of Torri Superiore, Italy GEN made us feel at home, and at the end of the meeting Lakabe (Secretary), Mete Hacaloglu of the Ekilat network, Turkey was elected honorary member of GEN-Europe as a symbol (Treasurer), Agnieszka Komoch of Lebensgarten, Germany of our gratitude. Many thanks also to Agnieszka Komoch, (President), Jean Michel Pochat of the French Network, Lepre Ulysses and above all Susanna Onate who offered their help Viola of Damanhur. They will serve a two-year term of offi ce. with translation from and into Spanish. During the plenary sessions, we discussed the situation of About 60 people attended the meeting, representing 17 present ecovillages and networks, suggestions and possible members: improvements on fundraising, network organisation, and communication. It was also decided that the next General • Eight National networks: Come Together, Germany; RIVE, Assembly will be held in July 2001 in Poland. Italy; EVNUK, UK; Ekilat Turkey; NJORD, Sweden; RFEV, France; Finnish and Hungarian Networks) Several smaller work-groups were formed according to per- • Nine ecovillages: Artosilla and Val de Pielagos, Spain sonal interests on topics like youth exchange and volunteer ; Damanhur, Bagnaia and Torri Superiore, Italy; Lebensgar- programs, politics and ecovillages, communication and con- fl ict resolution, community glue, sus- tainability and education. This allowed a more relaxed and direct exchange between participants, and enhanced personal relations and contacts.

As a fi nal note, the general assembly was a great moment for GEN-Europe, not only for the important decisions that were taken but also for the gen- eral feeling of support and cohesive- ness among members. Even though long plenary sessions were sometimes tiring, the group energy was high all the way through and participation was intense. It was hard to part and say good bye to our new and old friends... we hope to see you all in Poland for the next meeting!

*Ecorates: alternative currency exchange rate system based on the average income level of each country. Created by Eyfa (European Youth For Action). The community of Lakabe, Basque Country, where the GEN Europe General Assembly was held.

Meaningful Journeys The shortest way home is around the world”

Teodora Anastasoei [email protected] Teodora Anastasoei is a young Romanian activist who We were really overwhelmed by the Italian hospitality... plans to start the fi rst ecovillage in the Timisoara region We absorbed the atmosphere of community through all our with the Tinerii Prieteni ai Naturii Association (Young senses, and we took home not only ideas about economical nature Friends). She and Sebastian Capotescu received a development but also memories of communal meals, lots GEN-Europe bursary to attend the General Assembly and of dishes and big pots, singing and talking, gardening in visit some well-established ecovillages as a part of their tough conditions, and of the way time passes by the sound practical training. Here she writes about her experience and dreams, living in a country where sustainable rural of the wind. communities still exist but are considered something of the past. In Germany we visited Sieben Linden and Lebensgarten. Here we received lesson after lesson on communication, decision-making, confl ict management, business initiatives The idea of community living sprouted within Tinerii Pri- and more. eteni ai Naturii (TPN-Young Nature Friends, a student group from Timisoara) a few years ago. We--Teodora Each place we visited held a double vibration for us. On Anastasoaei and Sebastian Capotescu (Capy)--met Lucilla the one hand there was the emotional aspect: We were Borio of GEN-Europe during the Ecotopia festival and fi nding something that linked our original dream and drive the straw-bale construction workshop in Romania in the with the start of this project. On the other hand, there Summer of 1999. We were very honoured by her invita- was the intellectual stimulation: Each place was giving tion to attend the GEN Assembly in Lakabe this Summer, us a lesson, answering questions and dissolving fears and and the opportunity given us to visit other European eco- unclarities. villages as part of our training. We were pretty tired after traveling one full month. We We were more than two young people travelling: We were spent over 150 hours on trains, and talked for maybe half the messengers of the Young Nature Friends vision, meet- of this time. Our memories and impressions crystallized ing other dreams that had become a reality. Our trip was a into lots of ideas for the project of our life. Our journey very intense journey, sometimes providing more food for continues, as two of us are now going to India, to visit thought than we could digest. Ladakh and other places. We’ll keep you informed ... Our fi rst stop was Lakabe, Spain. We had the double privi- lege to visit this amazing place and meet people from eco- villages all over Europe. The greatest challenge here was To know more order the book assimilating the overwhelming input of ideas. In Lakabe “Between Sky and Earth” at we felt at home, as in Romania we are fond of mountains, [email protected] or look it up on the and the place reminded us of the simple village lifestyle internet at: we know. http://www.geocities.com/ betweenskyandearth/ The biggest lesson was learning about slow development Our site: http://www.geocities.com/ in time. Patience and solidarity are so important... comunitate Next, we traveled to Bagnaia and Torri Superiore in Italy. Strawbale Building in

Turkey Demet Irkli Eryildiz [email protected].

The fi rst straw-bale house workshop in Turkey was held last One month after the end of the course, the fi rst and second July in Hasandede (90 km south-east of Ankara), organized layer of mud plaster were completed and the windows by the ecological association “Harman” and sponsored by fi xed. From the very beginning, villagers closely moni- GEN-Europe. The house plan was designed by Architect tored the building process, as the construction site was Demet Irkli Eryildiz and drawn by Mükremin Barut and strategically located in the Hasandede town center. The Aysu Baskaya, who also helped for the building calcula- site was also visited by several architects and university tions. The course was held by the German instructor professors from Kirikkale. The building will be offered Harald Wedig. Nine Gazi University students, two archi- to the Hasandede Municipality as an ecological training tects and three volunteers participated. The State Farm in center, and experimental tests will be performed in the Bala provided the strawbales, while the Research Fund of next stages of the project, which is now in need of addi- Gazi University and the Kirikkale branch of the Chamber tional funding to carry out further research. of Architects provided the other building materials. The Hasandede Municipality supplied a building area on the Top: Strawbale building Course in Hansandede, Turkey. town hall plot.

The workshop aimed at building an earthquake-resistant and ecologically sound rural dwelling. Straw-bale houses have a very high thermal insulation value both in winter and in summer, and the wooden post-and-beam structure was choosen for earthquake considerations. A 10cm thick News from Gyürüfü, Hungary concrete slap was placed on top of the masonry foundation Bela Borsos while heavy cross-ties were used to attach the foundation to the upper frame of the roof structure. A wooden trussed- roof system and light metal coverings were chosen for their For us at Gyürüfü, 1999 was a year of great migra- earthquake resistance, durability and ability to harvest clean tion: The four founding families of the project fi nally rainwater. Both the foundation and the roof were properly moved out from the neighboring Ibafa village and into insulated against cold, humidity and condensation. Open- their respective homes at Gyürüfü Ecovillage. Also, ings were designed mostly on the south surface for harvest- we reached benchmarks such as the completion of the ing more solar energy, and wooden window and door frames access road to the ecovillage (previously a dirt path), were applied as natural building elements. the roofi ng of the Community House, the installation of fi ve reed-bed systems, solar collectors and other eco-facilities, and the beginning of on-site community life. The Ecovillage became a reality. Unfortunately, some misunderstanding soon followed about the fact that the Gyürüfü Foundation has no membership and is thus unaccountable, and the community still has to accommodate different views on this subject. We hope to sort out these diffi culties soon. All in all there are seven families permanently living on site, hoping to receive residential permits from the authorities. With the moving of the head offi ce, contact numbers and mailing addresses have changed. Inquiries about Gyürüfü should be addressed to: Andrea Solymos, e-mail: [email protected]

A strawbale house can also look like this! Staw roof on a compressed earth house at Gyurufu, Hungary

Letter from Grishino Ecovillage, Russia Vasudeva Kirbatiev [email protected]

Dear Friends, every day’s program. We are glad to share with you the joy of our growth and creativity in the Grishino community (300 km North- Every year we have a great Russian New Year’s celebra- East of St. Petersburg). tion (December 31-January 2), when we receive many friends for an evening of singing, dancing, story telling, We had a really lively, productive Summer with six costume show, Russian sauna and swimming outside seminars/camps in our ecovillage, which showed us that amidst the snowy landscape. And of course we invite our our community is becoming a good retreat and workshop western friends to join us for this wild Russian winter place in Russia. We hope to grow further in this direc- holiday! tion. Our inspiring vision is to build a beautiful Universal We only have fi ve permanent residents at this point in Temple in traditional Russian style in the middle of the time, as the others join us for periods lasting from a few wild fl owers fi eld, where we can meditate, pray, sing and days to a few months. We are working on the project dance together. You are very welcome to join or support of a family school in Grishino, to allow families with us to make our dream come true. children to live in the ecovillage all year round. During the summer 20 to 40 people live, work, meditate, dance and laugh here together with us. We are building new rooms for our guests, a new dining room and meeting place, and we invite volunteers to come and work with us in exchange for food and lodging. We speak Russian and English, a little German and French, and we welcome invite our European and Ameri- can brothers and sisters to come and try the real Russian expe- rience. Hot shower, Russian sauna, vegetarian meals with organic vegetables from our garden, spring water and free swimming in the river a part of Institute for Global Peace Work Founded at Tamera, Portugal

The Institute for Global Peace work (IGF) was opened intensive training on subjects like the art of overcoming last August at the Summer University at the Tamera fear; the logic of love; sexuality and healing; building Center for Humane Ecology, Portugal.This was the larg- communities and leading groups; cosmology and the est summer meeting in Tamera so far, with about 230 study of religion; evolution and early history; and the participants (70 of which were youth). We received repre- power of concrete utopia. sentatives of several peace initiatives and European com- In this “Political Ashram” the fundamental co-depen- munities (among others Likatien, Zegg and Sieben Linden dence between inner and outer peace and the global from Germany; Damanhur from Italy; and Findhorn from effects of punctual actions in a holographic universe are Scotland). The main topic related to communities was deeply researched. Spiritual training is held on the basis cooperating to give their youth a purposeful perspective. that our ego must not be a life-determining force, and Special meeting participants included Scilla Elworthy, emphasis is placed on fi nding the personal task in global founder of the “Oxford research Group” against nuclear peace-work. If we are fully focused on this goal, personal weapons; Hartmut Heller, founder of “Friends of People fears can be looked at in the right perspective. The greater Close to Nature”; and Daniel Zapata who supports the the aspired goal, the more energy can come to a person Hopi and Navajo tribes in their fi ght against uranium or a group for its achievement as well as for their own mining on their land. healing.

“If we are against war, we need a vision for a peaceful Through the establishment of a chain of healing bio-topes life”, say the IGF founders, Dieter Duhm and Sabine around the globe, the professional peace workers want to Lichtenfels, who believe that true co-operation between create co-operation with fully established or newly set-up communities, organisations and individuals who have centers and peace movements. committed themselves to working for global peace is now urgently necessary. The IGF principles are published in the “Tamera Mani- The new Institute aims to develop a concept for a global festo for a Global Peace Culture” by Dieter Duhm. non-violent civilisation on earth and to speed up global This project needs fi nancial and mental support from networking. They also want to help establish what they foundations and individuals. call “healing biotopes” - a living community of people, animals and plants whose life forces are complementary For further information please contact: and don’t block each other through violence and fear - in Tamera, Monte do Cerro, P-7630 Colos, Portugal, many places on earth. Tel.: +351/283.63.53.06 Fax: +351/ 283.63.53.74 email: Through IGF, future peace-workers follow a three-month [email protected] homepage: www.tamera.org

Books contact [email protected] Tamera: Manifesto for a Global Peace Culture text by Dieter Duhm, Zegg Community, Germany Thoughts ont he development of a Global force for Peace and a corresponding perspective for a humane future. Note: Zegg community members started Tamera. Eros Unredeemed, Visions for Peace between the Sexes, Dieter Duhm. 100 pages Events July 1 - 7, 2001 at Zegg, Belzig, Germany Fourth International Community Meeting tel: +49 3384159510 fax: +49 3384159512 email: [email protected]

Top: The café tent at Tamera, Protugal. Left: “Growing People” or meditation in nature at Tamera. Senegal, addresssing the GEN Europe Assem- bly. Photo: Courtesy Lucilla Borio.

French Ecovillage Network Report on latest meeting

August 26/28, Village of L´Arques, Carcassonne. Jean-Michel Pochat

Our Summer 2000 meeting was organised over four days and was very successful. A great variety of topics was dis- cussed every day.

On day one, we looked at:

· an overview of eco-villages in Europe (presented by people living in them, like Lepre and Husky from Damanhur) · the work of traditional rural villages in Africa with Demba Mansaré of Colufi fa and Elise Guldagger (whose presenta- tion was very rich, full of love and hope and much appreci- ated by everybody) · a general presentation of the GEN network organisation and evolution, with Lucilla Borio, Lepre and myself.

On day two, a few eco-village projects in France intro- duced themselves:

· “Le village”, with Claude Traks (a fabulous writer, able to communicate with great ability his faith and his inspiration) · our “Montbel ecovillage” project was creatively intro- Fifteen Criteria duced and arose good interest for Sustainable Land-Based Rural Developments · “La Chataigne”, in an old and beautiful village in Ardèche, Lucilla Borio and several other projects were introduced and discussed at the plenary session. There have been many defi nitions of sustainability, but one defi nitive statement has been internationally endorsed by Day three was focused on subjects related to the Ecovillage the British and most other national governments through- concept: health, economy, architecture, fi nance (with rep- out the world: The June 1992 Rio Declaration on Envi- resentatives of “La N.E.F.” - Nouvelle Economie Frater- ronment and Development, which is backed up by an nelle). We also met people from the “Rainbow” movement, extensive programme for social change known as Agenda a historian who talked about the Cathar communities in the 21. Chapter 7 of Agenda 21 specifi cally addresses Sus- middle ages (the meeting took place in Cathar country) and tainable Human Settlement Development, and provides a a witty French inventor presenting a car running on a com- detailed policy context for matters relating to planning and pressed air engine. Live drum music and dances were the construction. perfect end for this intense day. Through Agenda 21, governments have expressed their The last session was dedicated to education and politics, commitment to sustainability, and sustainability is regarded with Erwan Lecoeur, Claude Traks, and many others. as a material consideration in planning decisions. However Lucilla Borio (GEN Europe Secretary, Torri Superiore there is very little guidance on what actually constitutes a Ecovillage, Italy), Lepre Viola (Damanhur, Italy) and Elise sustainable form of development in the countryside. Plan- Guldagger (Colufi fa Movement, Senegal) contributed with ners and other professionals involved with rural develop- singing and dancing, and their presence helped make the ment may therefore fi nd it diffi cult to assess the merits of meeting a success. a project which claims to be sustainable” or “low-impact”, or to fi nd grounds for refusal of one that they suspect is A fi nal note about the formal part of the French Network not. meeting, the general assembly of our network Association: This session started off with confl icts but ended very well. It In 1996 a working group under was set up under the gave birth to a new and dynamic organisation with a freshly auspices of an organization called “The Land Is Ours” in elected Board, chaired by Murielle Gehlen as President order to address this policy vacuum ; this document is the and Co-ordinator. We are now happy and confi dent in our initial result of the work performed by that group. possibilities, and we know that our network is on its way to making Ecovillages a reality in France. See full text: www.gaia.org/secretariats/geneurope/criteria.html Upacchi´s 10th birthday The Spanish Ecovillage On September 10, 2000, we celebrated the 10th anniversary Network Is Born by Ulysses of the Upacchi Ecovillage Cooperative in Arezzo, Italy. On that day, the new residents of the old village took the oppor- Summer 1998: Artosilla, a small village in the Spanish tunity to link with the past. The village consists of very old Pyrenees. I was rebuilding an old house to transform stone houses abandoned which were abandoned between it into a communal building, hostel and training centre 1950 and 1960. Upacchi is now being rebuilt by the ecovil- on sustainable development, when I heard of a “strange” lage initiative, and its church has been restored and conse- ecovillage meeting to be held in Permacultura Montsant crated. (Tarragona). At the time I didn’t know anything about eco- villages, but I had the feeling we in Artosilla were close to The ecovillagers, their relations, new friends and local this concept. So I attended the meeting, and after 3 days neighbors were invited to join in the great celebration, and of exchange with different people, I realised I wanted my lots of people came to take part in the event. Over 300 village to become an Ecovillage. At Artosilla, we were 10 people came for the consecration mass of Upacchi’ s little adults and 7 children. I gathered everybody, talked about church, though it could only hold less than half of the vis- what I had discovered and we all (or almost all) began to itors. A constant fl ow of people met around the church think about the Ecovillage concept and how to apply it and remembered the last time it was restored, in 1948. to our own lives. A few months later, the second Spanish Exchanging memories of the old times in the village, and Ecovillage meeting took place in Artosilla and over 200 meeting the new eco-villagers, some of the elder people people attended. were in tears, having come back to a place where they grew up but had not returned to for over 50 years. Summer 2000, third Ecovillage meeting at Amayuelas de Abajo, an old and small village in the Spanish Meseta, Later in the evening, the village square was crowded by old where a group of 12 people is carrying out an interesting and young Italians and Germans (new inhabitants of the vil- project on organic farming, clay building and social econ- lage), former and present inhabitants, friends and relations. omy. As is the custom at all good Italian parties, we had plenty of food and wine, followed by music and dancing. We also Fewer people than last year attendeed the meeting, but set up a slide show and a photo exhibition of how the village unlike previous times many participants now were involved had changed during the last 50 years. After a while the dif- in existing projects or initiatives. Approximately 15 proj- ference of age, nationality or life style were forgotten and ects were represented, among which some of the most sig- the people in the square melted into one joyful company. An nifi cant Spanish communities, e.g. Matavenero, Lakabe, elderly man with his accordeon was accompanied by Afri- Los Arenalejos, Artosilla and, of course, the host village, can drum rhythms played by young villagers, old and new Amayuelas de Abajo. Among the most interesting initia- inhabitants were dancing waltz and rock together. When we tives were the Ecovillage Valdepiélagos, near Madrid, and fi nally sat around the bonfi re late into night, we felt that past the South-East Permaculture Network, grouping several and present had really met. We could hear from the distance collectives that want to create an ecovillage in the Spanish our children and youngsters dancing together, reminding us Levante. of the future, which we hope will bring more occasions to connect to each other in harmony. We talked about social economy, self-suffi ciency, health- care and confl ict resolution; we pottered in the garden, worked with clay... had a good time in the pub at night and New Community of Pan in the morning circle-dancing. We all wanted to do things Anew community has developed within The Damanhur together and keep in touch. We had the feeling we needed Federation since last May: to build a network. The community of “Pan” is located in the rural area of Vidracco and is developing a very interesting agricultural Autumn 2000. Madrid, a small village (maybe not as project. It is composed of two of the larger Nucleos of small!) in the center of Spain. the Rama Community and a new Nucleo. These have decided to merge and create the new Ecovillage in order All groups interested in creating the Spanish Ecovillage to develop the agricultural self-suffi ciency programme of Network are invited to a gathering that will take place the Federation.The Pan Community are presently running during the Biocultura exhibition. I am looking forward to several greenhouses and vegetable gardens, a new orchard, this event, as I have always defended the network idea as a poultry farm and goat farm.They also have an organic way of improving and deepening our Democracy. Now the bakery - which makes special bread on new and full moon Spanish Ecovillage Network is going to be born. All I can days - a carpentry shop and an “agri-tourismo” (agricul- say is you’re welcome to attend! tural tourism) business, with a restaurant that serves deli- cious organic meals. At present, Pan has approximately 40 citizens with an elected woman President by the name of Ulysses, La Carrucha Cultural 22600 Artosilla (Huesca) Medusa Silene. Web page http://www.pangea.org/spie/carrucha GENtle Power Meeting in Damanhur Nov 8-11, 2000 www.damanhur.org/GENtlepower

Women from Denmark, France, USA, Germany, India and Italy met between the third and fourth fl ooding in Italy this autumn. On arrival we had fun identifying new names within the animal and plant kingdoms for ourselves. Birgit from Fjordvang in Denmark brought a beautiful talking stick with a big crystal which was designed to inspire the speaker holding it in her hands.

Topics were wide-ranging from Indigo children (page 21) and the exchange of children between villages, through sorrow over all the cows/animals being butchered every day, to the new women’s declaration, the creation of a new political party, a global university and a full ecovillage curriculum. A core group crystallized consisting of Lepre, (Damanhur) Brigitte (France), Birgit (Denmark), and Sara (Zegg), which committed to arranging the next meeting on education in either Torri or Fjordvang.

Top: Hall in Damanhur’s underground Temple of Mankind, man-made, carved and built by hand over twenty years in the mountain’s fl ank. The mural represents an androgyn, sumbol of the perfect balancing of female and male energies. The fusion of male and female is represented by the man (right) and the woman (left) uniting in one entity. Left: Formica, the Queen Guide (elected leader for a year) holds the feathered “talking stick” with a large crystal, a gift Birgit (back, left) brought on behalf of an artist friend for the GENtle Power meeting in Damanhur.

Below: Top, left to right: Sarah, Birgit, Gentiana, Hildur, Muriel, Brigitte. Bottom row: Lucilla, Marti, Lepre, Rotraud, Gazella, Cristina, Heather, Karen, Formica.

Between meetings song, dance and the spell of Damanhur and all its attractions, a full moon shining on white mountain tops made it mythical and unforgettable. A dinner in one of the communities was another gift as was a visit to the Temple of Mankind. Coming home, what stays with you is the feeling of all the women of Damanhur as belonging to a future race of humanity with open hearts and the capacity for change. A big thanks to Lepre for sustaining prolonged labour in giving birth to this work. Tomorrow’s Children A Blueprint for partnership education in the 21st Century Riane Eisler

of belief and social structures that not only help today’s and tomorrow’s either nurture and support or inhibit children build healthy bodies, psyches, and undermine- equitable, democratic, families, businesses, governments, and nonviolent and caring relations.” For com munities, but also give them a Eisler, the task ahead is to develop clearer understanding of our human an educational paradigm that fully potential, our place in history, our supports the partnership model. She relationship to nature and our respon- distinguishes between 3 core intercon- sibility to future generations.” Riane nected components: concludes: “ What I am interested in is systemic, long term educational 1)Partnership process is about how change.” we learn and teach, or pedagogy Tomorrow’s Children is the book for a new paradigm in education- even if 2)Partnership content is what we learn The book contains a wealth of ideas for the author does not write about ecov- and teach. It is the educational curric- the implementation of such a system illages and their educational role. The ulum. It is about basic skills (reading, within existing schools. It could be a targets of the book are primary and writing,) but equally about how to bible for ecovillage edu cation. In the secondary schools- but also with the create a sustainable, peaceful Earth. last pages of the book, Eisler envisions perspective that it can be used in much 3)Partnership structure is about how a “future partnership school where broader contexts in neighbourhoods. the education situation is organiz ed. tomorrows children will form visions of what can be and acquire the under- Riane Eisler distinguishes between Riane Eisler realizes that a lot of expe- standing and skills to make these partnership and dominator models rimentation is going on everywhere, visions come true. They will learn of education. This distinction can but what we urgently need is an “inte- how to create partnership families and “equally be used to describe systems grated partnership curriculum that will communities worldwide.”

The Cultural Creatives: How 50 million people are changing the World Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Andersen

Book Reviews Paul Ray has studied the rapid tionships, peace, and social justice, ditionalists, modernists and cultural changes of values in the USA for 20 about self-actualization, spirituality creatives. Traditionalists and modern- years. In his most recent book,”The and self-expression. The writers draw ists make up respectively 48% and Cultural Creatives” he presents sta- upon research studies on more than just under 25% of the population in tistics, graphs and documentation on 100,000 Americans, over a hundred the US. While modernists are for a social group wich he calls the focus groups, and dozens of in- making money and bigger is better, Cultural Creatives, and which he depth interviews. The cultural cre- traditionalists share some values with estimates to encompass 50 million atives have grown from less than 5% the Cultural Creatives (such as being people at the present time in the US of the American population in the late pro-environment). alone . The Cultural Creatives are 1960s, to 26 % in 1999. The European people who care deeply about ecol- Union launched a related study in Sep There are two kinds of Cultural Cre- ogy and saving the planet, about rela- 1997 and found at least as many Cul- atives. The Core group is the creative tural Creatives across Europe, to their leading edge of the subculture, con- amazement. Ray defi nes the radical sisting of about half the cultural cre- change being brought about by this atives-24 million persons in the USA. group, representing the process by The core group has strong values of the same symbols as GEN’s: the Cat- personal growth, ecology and spiritu- erpillar, the Chrysalis and the Butter- ality. They are mostly educated, lead- fl y. ing-edge thinkers. They differ in the intensity of their values and in the In the fi rst part of the book the authors “extent to which they put their values group Americans by their values: tra- into action.” (It seems to me that the core of the Core Cultural Creatives must be partly made up of ecovillag- ers since they have already made their And we Are Doing It! lives to fi t these values.) The second Cultural Creative group by Ross Jackson, Exerpt from the Though many of the world’s lead- is called “The Greens”. The greens Foreword by David Korten ers remain in denial, it is evident are more secular than the Core Cul- that an increasingly unstable and tural Creatives, with the same green This Book presents the personal destructive economic system that values. life journey and vision of a very values moeny more thean life is special human being, Ross Jack- leading humanity toward ecological The Cultural Creatives are a coherent son, and his life partner Hildur and fi nancial collapse. subculture but, says Paul Ray: “they Jackson. Ross rose from a modest are missing self-awareness as a whole background to achieve extraordi- And We Are Doing It! demonstrates people.” The fi rst time they realized nary success in the institutions of possibilities within our reach to that they are one culture was in Seat- International business and fi nance. organize human spaces into ecovil- tle in 1999, fi ghting the WTO. Now, From his insider’s understanding lages that restore our sense of com- a convergence is happening between of the destructive nature of the munity and our connection to the different parts of the ecological/social, institutions he came to master, he earth, while provising us with envi- women’s and other consciousness has lent his energies to the task of ronmentally sound and sustainable movements. The book gives many creating societies more responsive sources of livelihood. examples of such groups converging. to the needs of people, community and nature. Buyinginfo: In part two of the book, the authors describe the creation of the cultural In this book he shares his personal http://www.amazon.com/exec/ creatives, and in part three they outline insights int ot he forthcoming step to obidos/ASIN/1885003455/ the “maps for the journey” towards a human spiritual maturity by offer- 104-6008479-1967950 new culture. The “in-between period” ing clear information on topics such is experienced by most as a period of as the causes of global fi nancial Ross Jackon’s website: utmost pain. You have to live in total instability. http://www.ross-jackson.com/ insecurity and constant change, and at the same time you have to keep the vision clear. Describing this transition may be the biggest asset of the book and present a real help to many.

The authors do not come up with concrete solutions, but they notice that there is a phenomenal demand More Books for resources to feed the movement; for institutions that can support their Nizioni: The Higher Self in Education values. There is a need for classes and Chris Griscom, 1989, The Light Institute of Galisteo Foundation courses, teachers and schools and cen- ISBN 0-9623696-0-8 ters where they can take these classes on how to change society and our The Of• cial •uide to Planet repair own lifestyles. Cultural Creatives need Dennis Hayes (Chairman and CEO, Earth Day) gathering places in which circles of Island Press, 2000 people with common interests can ISBN 1-55963-809-5 explore new ways of knowing and sharing. The Pedagogy of the Earth: Education for a Sustainable Future Learning for the New Millennium (1999; 1997) This book has the possibility of chang- both books written and edited by Carlos Hernandez and Rashmi Mayur ing the world by uniting all these IISF (Institute for Sustainable Future, Mumbai, India; contact: page 29) movements and making them ask: Available also at the GEN International Offi ce (contact page 30) What is the new culture we want? How do we create it? The ecovillage Sri Aurobindo and The Mother on Education movement has valuable answers. How Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1920 about inviting Paul and Sherry to visit contact: Auroville, Email: [email protected] ecovillages around the planet?