Yvette Dzakpasu, GEN Advocacy Director, attended the Talanoa Dialogue on behalf of the GEN Advocacy Working Group, which also includes Executive Director Kosha Joubert and Main UN Representative Rob Wheeler. Yvette filed this report for the event: The Talanoa Dialogue took place in Bonn, Germany on 6 May 2018, bringing the traditional Fijian storytelling tool to the UN Climate Change policy process. As described by the UN, “the purpose of Talanoa is to share stories, build empathy and to … Read more
Europe
March Newsletter Opportunities from GEN's regions
The Global Ecovillage Network builds solidarity across all planetary regions to catalyse communities for a regenerative world. This month we are gathering materials for our 2017 Annual Report and in the mean time we want to feature just a few key opportunities from our regions: Auroville celebrates 50 years "The City of Dawn" celebrated its Golden Jubilee with a Fire and Water ceremony last month. View photos and hear perspectives on this momentous occasion. Two job … Read more
Youth Social Innovation for Resilient Communities
Youth SIRCle, or Youth Social Innovation for Resilient Communities,is an EU-funded training and capacity building project for young social entrepreneurs in Scotland, Cameroon, Denmark and Ghana. It is a project largely run by young people for young people. Together we increase our skills in green social innovation and entrepreneurship, finding creative ways to follow our passion, make a living and care for our communities and planet at the same time. Our curriculum is based on work done in a … Read more
Reflections on COP23 GEN Africa
What was the most inspiring aspect of COP23 for you this year? Throughout COP23, GEN spoke as a diverse and harmonious family, in a powerful voice about the necessity to involve grassroots communities in the global reflection on and action against environmental degradation. An increasing number of African government officials are reaching out to GEN to seek support and partnership to initiate or reinforce holistic regenerative development programmes in their most vulnerable regions and … Read more
Reflections from COP23 Great Interest in Ecovillage Climate Solutions at COP23
The two most promising and exciting things about COP23 for me was the keen interest among so many delegates first in ecovillage development and second in taking the 1.5 degree goal from the Paris Agreement on limiting global warming quite seriously and then on increasing government ambition to be able to do this. For example I heard again and again about various efforts being made to move towards 100% renewable energy; to sequester carbon in plants and soils; and to reach carbon neutrality … Read more
Ecosystem Restoration Eco-communities as Sacred Activism
To Gaia, life is sacred, because evolving life forms is what Gaia does. To life, diversity is sacred, because diversity leads to stability in the delicately interwoven ecosystems upon which life depends. To one particular life form on Earth, the humans, perceiving sacredness depends on each individual’s personal level of consciousness. Without authentic adulthood initiations what many humans hold sacred is mere survival in the widely adopted culture of capitalistic patriarchal empire. … Read more
Standing Rock in Colombia A vision of peace after decades of war and displacement
20 years ago, more than 1000 displaced farmers and smallholders in Colombia´s North founded the peace community San José de Apartadó, a neutral village committed to non-violence and forgiveness in the armed conflict that had being going on for decades. They are still there. Sabine Lichtenfels, co-founder of Tamera/Portugal, attended the 20 anniversary of Tamera´s sister community. I am writing this from Colombia, where we – a small group from the Global Campus from Tamera/Portugal, Bolivia, … Read more
A Twin Journey between the Ecovillages Guedé Chantier and Damanhur A mutual learning and support experiment between two large ecovillages - one from Africa and one from Europe - show how North-South collaboration can look.
Brief introductions to Guedé Chantier and Damanhur communities Guedé Chantier is located in the north of Senegal, 480 km from Dakar, on the bank of Doué river and about 12 km close to the Senegalese border with Mauritania. It is an oasis in a semi-arid region with a short rainy season between August and October with less than 400 millimeters. The dry season is the rest of the year. Peak heat is May, and June can reach 45-47° C during the day. Guedé has a population of around 7,000 … Read more
Ecovillage – 1001 Ways to Heal the Planet The Book on Ecovillages
"What a beautifully, lovingly constructed book! It conveys not only the variety and ideals of the ecovillage movement, but the heart of it as well. Kosha and Leila's book affirms the importance of ecovillages not just as an inconsequential alternative in the margins, but as an invitation to transform every place into an ecological collaboration between humans and the rest of nature." Charles Eisenstein The Ecovillage book by Kosha Joubert and Leila Dregger introduces a selection of ecovillage … Read more
Women Transforming Traditional Villages into Ecovillages in India
Differently from ecovillages in Europe which are intentional communities, in India “Eco Village Development” is about changing existing traditional villages into ecovillages by implementing in, and teaching the community - especially women - climate solutions which are needs based, low carbon and affordable. India has 600,000 traditional villages all over the country. The following example is a model on 6 villages in Uttarakhand. Its aim is to showcase these to the Government and other NGOs, and … Read more
