The Original Sovereign peoples of Australia are traditionally highly-skilled designers and builders of both permanent and temporary living and working structures and spaces. Remains of homes, middens, sacred ritual spaces, and technologies such as fish traps, have been scientifically dated to at least sixty thousand years ago, revealing a highly developed continuous society and culture. As a role model for sustainable living, traditional Original society demonstrates a highly complex and … Read more
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Disaster Support in the Philippines Permaculture Aid Yolanda for Disaster Support in the Philippines
How many times have we seen images of refugee camps worldwide with people being forced by wars, or other disasters, to live together under harsh and unbearable circumstances? Sometimes this situation can last over years, and even decades. An increasing number of people in the GEN movement feel that ecovillage processes and practices can contribute a great deal in these situations. A prime example being in communities that are forced to come together out of traumatic or disaster situations often … Read more
Nicaragua: Healing Colonialism Healing Colonialism by Building Bridges and Putting Hands Together
Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Southern hemisphere. However, it is also rich in cultural heritage and in nature. To honour and utilize this richness in the right way, Paul and Gaia founded the Inanitah community nearly 5 years ago - empowering and supporting friends, neighbours and subsistence farmers in many fields. The community members build bridges across the colonial divide when putting their hands into things together. A report by Tara. Inanitah is a consciously created, … Read more
Pilgrimage for Truth and Trust Pilgrimage for Truth and Trust in the Holy Land
For ten days, 40 pilgrims - including 2 babies - walked along the tracks of the ancient Nabatean tribes: the "Incense Route" as it is known historically. This time, 2,000 years later, we carried not expensive perfume to Europe, but an urgent question to this region: what does a healed picture of the Middle East look and feel like? How do we create community and bring to an end the conflict that has torn people apart for so long in this area? What important questions should we carry for 10 days, … Read more
Global Campus in Palestine Together with the Global Campus and GEN for a Green and free Palestine
Tulkarem, Palestine: International peace activists from the initiative "Global Campus“, together with around 30 Palestinians, have supported a farm in Palestine to become a place for education in decentralized energy systems and permaculture. The internationals served as keepers and protecters of a knowledge exchange between Palestinian farmers, experts and students under occupation. Aida Shibli, GEN Ambassador for Palestine, reports. Tulkarem is a city of about 60 000 people in the Westbank, … Read more
Peace Communities to Resist Violence Colombia: Peace Communities to Resist Violence
In Colombia, 3.5 million people have become refugees in their own country, and former farmers have ended up in the slums of the cities. San José de Apartadó is a village that resists the violence. Ecovillages from Europe and Colombia have helped them. Leila Dregger reports. Jesus Emilio, 47, is a farmer. He has fought peacefully for 15 years to stay on his land and to cultivate bananas and cacao, the way his family has always done. However, a civil war has been going on in his country for a … Read more
Dancing Rabbit’s Local Currency Dancing Rabbit’s Successful Local Currency
Many ecovillages and communities try to create alternatives to the global finance system that support the regional economy. Dancing Rabbit in Missouri, US, has been highly successful in this: “We’re the only intentional community I know of where an individual can pay for all their daily living expenses with locally currency", says a member. Jonathan Swiftcreek reports. Until May, 2007, Dancing Rabbit (DR) - a 70-resident ecovillage in rural northeast Missouri - utilized a time-based and … Read more
Seeds of Hope Colombo, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has been through over 400 years of colonization. Primary forests were cut down to make way for plantations. 30 years of war have left the people yearning for a peaceful, just society. In Colombo - a tropical city full of concrete, traffic, and people - a small ray of hope is beginning to shine from out of the smog. GENOA member, Trudy Juriansz, reports about the Good Market, and another initiative that, although still small has the effect of creating hope for Nature and the people of … Read more
The SCOPE News Zimbabwe
The SCOPE programme in Zimbabwe is undergoing a process of launching the revamped, integrated land use design (ILUD) tool, after undergoing a re-strategising process that saw the organization shifting from just the ecological learning aspects to incorporate a phase which can be called 'grounding'. It involves the community elders imparting the historical, traditional knowledge to the young people. This phase is designed to build on the experiences and lessons learnt from implementing the ILUD/ … Read more
From Economy to Community Archipelago SCEC
In 2005, a group of people from all over Italy started to meet on the Internet with the intention of discussing the outcomes of some previous local currency experiences. They predicted the impending financial crisis and wanted to create a system that helped to make the regions and communities economically sustainable. This led, two years later, to the birth of the SCEC - Italian acronym for “solidarity that walks”. Ethel Chiodelli reports. SCEC is not exactly a local currency, but rather a … Read more
