Ecovillage at SEED, an International Community for Sustainable Living

Logo of the Global Ecovillage Network with a butterfly and gear symbol.
  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • English
  • Ecological
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 2009

What we do

Our ecovillage is comprised of members who own ½ hectare (~1.25 acre) private lots within the 150-hectare (~370 acre) sustainability focused SEED Corporation property. SEED is an acronym for Society for Ecological Education and Development. The five SEED Corporation partners all have ecological education and development backgrounds, and each owns or co-owns a residential property in the ecovillage.
The Ecovillage at SEED is one of the corporation’s primary projects. Another is the ongoing operation of the self-sustaining SEED integrated farm, which is adjacent to the ecovillage. These two projects together effectively create an agrocommunity. The growing ecovillage community is independent from the corporation.
Individuals, couples and families that are interested in living a potentially carbon-neutral, sustainable lifestyle are eligible for membership in the community. Ecovillage at SEED community members have the opportunity of benefitting from the experience and knowledge of fellow ecovillage members. All SEED ecovillage residential property owners are invited to join the community as fellow members and share their skills with the group.
The Ecovillage at SEED is located in the foothills of the Talamanca Mountain Range, in Cahuita District, Talamanca Canton, Limón Province, Costa Rica. The topography of SEED is a mix of valleys, hills and rivers, at 70 to 120 meters above sea level. The Carbon II River, Cañajira River, Hone Creek and Cane Creek form the boarders of the SEED Corporation property. It’s a bit remote, but being removed from the tourist oriented beach area was one of the founding SEED partner’s objectives.
Currently the seventeen families that own or co-own lots make up the Ecovillage at SEED community membership. Most members are from North American, with the majority of those being Canadian. There are also members who are citizens of Columbia, Costa Rica and Germany.
For photos and more, see our facebook page at .

  • Purpose
  • Ecological
  • Languages
  • English
  • German
  • Japanese
  • Spanish
  • Community type
  • Ecovillage
  • Intentional Neighborhoods
  • Land-Based Communities
  • Activities
  • Permaculture
  • Education

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2009
  • Started living together
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
-

How to join

The Ecovillage at SEED Community Member’s Organization is a property owners association created to encourage interaction and development within the community, and to promote the ecovillage and sustainable ways of living in Costa Rica.
“A seed is a unit of consciousness that has body, charge and intelligence and tends to develop from potential into the actual under proper conditions. Seeds are created, transmitted and earthed in order to achieve change –change in one’s world, life or identity.” Jan Fries
Presently bamboo homes have been constructed on three private lots, with one of them being used as an educational center, and the fourth, fifth and sixth private residences are under construction or in an advanced planning stage by community members. In addition, there are about a dozen bamboo SEED Corporation farm buildings.
At this time Ecovillage at SEED residents are mostly weekend and seasonal. One SEED Corporation partner and his wife live year-round in their large bamboo home. In addition, usually SEED Corporation farm employees, sometimes with families, are also living on the farm in SEED Corporation buildings.
As of this date, four of the 20 lots plotted and offered by the SEED Corporation are still available, plus several of the first lots purchased are available for resale. The original sale of these first lots provided the corporation with then much needed cash for development start-up.
Puerto Viejo is the largest village in the canton. The website https://www.puertoviejosatellite.com/index.php has a lot of general information about the region, ranging from how best to get there to what schools are in the area.
Please contact SEEDcostarican@gmail.com with any questions, and I or another community member will respond.
Tom Macaulay
Ecovillage at SEED Community Member’s Organization

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Our Community Members

Ecovillage at SEED, an International Community for Sustainable Living

Promoted Needs and Offers

  • Events
10 years ago

Yo Mujer, Yo Ecologico, Yo Gaia

Taller Vivencial de Ecologia Profunda para Mujeres Un fin de semana para Reconectarnos con nuestro Poder, la Naturaleza y la Red de la Vida Vivimos en tiempos desafiantes, con crisis en nuestros ecosistemas, economias y sociedades que están afectando a toda la vida del planeta. Para muchas personas esto puede ser angustioso y abrumador; tal vez no sepan como reaccionar. En este taller vamos a explorar como son nuestras respuestas al estado actual en que se encuentra el mundo; de un modo que nos ayude a despertar y acceder a la motivación, creatividad, fuerza y solidaridad necesarias para la transición a una cultura humana sostenible. Juntas haremos un recorrido que nos llevará a espacios en los que podamos reconocer en que maneras, nosotras como mujeres, sentimos los peligros que hay en estas crisis, experimientando sus efectos y visualizando y co-creando nuestro futuro. El sonido nos acompañara en este viaje y jugaremos con nuestras voces y tambores, para expresar nuestros sentires, nuestros deseos y nuestras esperanzas. Estas prácticas pueden reconectarnos con nuestro poder, el poder CON la Tierra, en lugar de Sobre la Tierra, lo cual es algo que las mujeres desde la antigüedad han sabido y entendido. Vivir en plenitud es conectar con nosotras mismas como partes activas de la Red de la Vida. Las mujeres siempre han sido activas en los movimientos sociales y medioambientales: en la Guerra Civil española, las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo en Argentina, en el Reino Unido ha existido un campamento antinuclear con unicamente mujeres por 20 años. Y más recientemente oimos las voces emergentes del Sur como Vandana Shiva y Wangari Maathai en campañas por la soberania alimentaria y los derechos de acceso a los recursos locales para la población local. Estas prácticas que realizaremos, han sido desarrolladas y utilizadas desde hace más de 40 años y están basadas en el trabajo de Joanna Macy, ecofilósofa, activista, estudiosa y profesora de la teoria de sistem
  • Events
5 years ago

EDE France 2021 | Écovillage Sainte Camelle

We had to wait 2021, against all odds, to see the very first French EDE. How come it was only the 1st? Why never before? Well, we know why. FHF. This is why making an EDE in France was a tough challenge to take on. And yes, we did it! The group of participants we had for this EDE was so diverse that no clan emerged. It is quite usual that people gather by affinity in small groups but here, the entire group stuck together no matter what. The glue was really strong. Some personalities were more extraverted of course, but with a real care for other’s presence and voice. To the extent to become a real counter-power: if we made any facilitation mistake, if we failed to propose in the most careful way and if it felt like we were imposing anything, we would be immediately in trouble. We knew it came from a childhood school trauma for these people, who were very open about it. It was an amazing journey to navigate the facilitation process with such awareness. This context led to something incredible during week two: a very quiet voice, Pauline, protested against the fact that they had agreed to community agreements on the first day but now, she said, they had to review them by themselves and check if it reflects who they really are. We, as EDE crew members, opened a space in the program for them to take the time to do it. They used Sociometry, a tool taught to them before, to assess the agreements. They counted in percentage who agreed or not for each topic. They even discussed about the structure of the program and finally approved it. It was a very beautiful real-life example of self-empowerment. One of the most iconic moment of this EDE was the Derdian roleplay in which they completely immersed themselves for three hours. The participants playing the indigenous Derdians went in the forest and created another set of social rules to add to the existing 10 social rules, making it even harder for the engineers to understand them. Howeve
  • Events
11 years ago

Liderar la Transición

Lo femenino del mundo, de las personas. De Mujeres y Hombres. La Transición que nuestro mundo sueña, necesita de una reformulación clara de los liderazgos. Reinventarse el liderazgo devolviéndolo a su lugar: ser una función de la eficiencia de los procesos colectivos; y dejando de lado los liderazgos basados en la acumulación de privilegios, en la desigualdad y en la dominación. Cuando lo Femenino ocupa el espacio de lo publico, trae consigo la realidad no visible; coloca en lo social los interrogantes necesarios para que lo social deje de estar fraccionado entre Publico/Privado, y pueda ser acogido como el Todo que es. Lo femenino en su esencia, despojado de los condicionamientos impuestos, libre de ser y expresar su potencial en un mundo que busca caminos hacia la inclusión, la escucha, la equivalencia, el empoderamiento de los seres y colectividades que cuidan de la Vida. Traer al espacio de lo Publico , lo invisibilizado: las mujeres, los pueblos olvidados, la propia Tierra, la parte oprimida de la humanidad; es una forma de integrar las necesidades de las personas , del planeta, de la humanidad como identidad . Esta propuesta quiere ser un espacio para abrir las puertas e indagar juntas sobre el papel de estos liderazgos en los procesos de cambio. Como son esos nuevos liderazgos? Como es encarnar estas posiciones en colectividades y organizaciones? Como viven el proceso las mujeres que están desarrollando estos nuevos liderazgos? Y las que no. Como se sienten los hombres ante los liderazgos de las mujeres? Y los que encarnan estos nuevos modelos de liderazgo. Buscar respuestas….temporales tal vez. Ofrecernos espacios para el debate, la indagación, profundizar, explorar. El Programa: (Provisional, sujeto a cambios) Viernes 9 por la tarde: Llegadas, instalarnos, visitar Arterra. 20.00: Cena y Presentaciones. 21.30: Cine y Debate. Sábado 10 : 9.00: Desayuno 10.00- 13.30 Taller: Liderazgo y Poder. 13.45:

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