Sandele Eco-Retreat in Kartong is an example of responsible tourism. The lodges are built with compressed, stabilized earth blocks which use a minimum of cement and are frequently stabilized with lime. Electricity, hot water and water pumping are provided using solar and wind power. The Lodges and the Guest Rooms have compost toilets and a constructed wetlands system that minimizes the use of, and purifies, the water flowing from the toilets, showers, hand basins and rainwater. Every step that … Read more
How to Treat Volunteers? And why are People Volunteering in Ecovillages?
Many motives have been put forward for the reason why people go abroad and look for volunteering work. As a volunteer himself, Rolf Grooten, 70, from Holland, raised the question in the group that he met in March of this year, 2015. We are in the ecovillage-under-construction, Istria Park in Slovenia. Volunteers come from all over the world. While I was at the ecovillage there were people from France, Sweden, a young woman from Germany who spent the winter here, from Ireland, and the … Read more
“In Grave Danger of Falling Fruit” A Visit in Village Homes
This phrase of permaculture co-developer Bill Mollison (although he said “falling food”), kept running through Diana Leafe Christian´s head each time she almost bumped into limbs heavy with peaches hanging over the path. This happened last August in Davis, California, when it was her great pleasure to visit Village Homes with her friend Vince, who lived there at the time. Village Homes is 240-home subdivision in a college town in California’s Central Valley. Begun in 1975 by developers Mike … Read more
Community regenerates land and land regenerates community
Whenever Lucia Battegazzore from Uruguay thought about herself living in a community, she imagined herself in a beautiful place of untouched nature, with a stream of clean water, an old native forest where she could lose herself… However, the place where she has ended up is different. Lucia has experienced first hand that regenerating the ecosystems brings back community - and the other way around. I live in an old vineyard in an intensive agro-industrial zone, where a contaminated creek … Read more
Local Collaboration in Italy "We grow our vegetables as we grow ourselves"
In its 26 years of activity, the Ecovillage Torri Superiore, in western Liguria, has been committed to building positive relationships with the local population, tells Lucilla Borio, founder and former GEN-Europe secretary. Now the local connections also include businesses, and the principles of sustainability and social responsibility. The EU program "The Transition Journey, Sustainability to Touch" (2009/2011), conducted with four GEN-Europe ecovillage partners, encouraged us to look for … Read more
There is a Life after GEN It is not better or worse – it is simply very, very different
Max Lindegger, permaculture activist and co-founder of Crystal Waters in Australia, has been involved in GEN for more than 20 years – indeed he was around when the idea was first mentioned by Hildur and Ross Jackson. Although Max has not been active in GEN or GENOA for a number of years, his own life is still very active in community. He shares with us what his life is looking like now. Work for GEN/GENOA has taken me around many parts of this globe and the many friends I have made over the … Read more
Kibbutz Lotan: Mud and Straw Homes Possible Answers for Earthquake Regions
Nepalese villagers are now faced with massive rebuilding projects following the April 25 earthquake. They could benefit from the lessons learned by eco-minded builders in Israel’s Arava desert. Marlene Dodinval reports. In preparation for future anticipated tremors, an Israeli ecovillage is taking a unique approach to safe and environmentally sound construction rather than the more common, but expensive and less effective, reinforced concrete method often relied on to withstand … Read more
Ensuring Regional Food Autonomy Creating Links of City and Rural People in Kenya
Regional food sovereignty needs farmers who have access to health and education. Loubna Sadiki from Morocco, a representative of NextGEN, reports on a research trip to Nairobi, organized by the Kenyan organization, Africa Adaptation Villages. At the end of 2013, I traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, and worked on a research project with a local Food Security organization called Africa Adaptation Villages. Our project consisted of trying to answer many of Nairobi residents (and other areas), who … Read more
Japan in Transition: College for Sustainable Society Building and the Ecovillage Promotion Project
Japan has been dependent on more than 30% of the country's energy from nuclear power plants. After experiencing Fukushima, many Japanese people started restructuring their lives. Transition became attractive and caught the interest of those who were searching for ways to live more sustainably. Shunro Yoshida had already founded the Non-government-organization, Transition Japan, in 2009. Hiroko Katayama is from the As-One-Community in Suzuka, which became part of Transition Japan recently and … Read more
Public Action for Climate Awareness EDE Students in Orissa/India on the Market Place
A new workshop on climate change and peak oil was organized by THREAD, an ecovillage promoting organisation in Odisha, for all customers at Laxmipur market. Standing in different corners of the market, the young tribal activists of Koraput district who had completed the Ecovillage Design Education course at Siddharthvillage, Kakiriguma biodiversity campus, explained to the people the danger of peak oil and the need for alternate thinking and living. Their banner, “No Petrol No diesel after … Read more
