Jyotshna, Gurbari and Meena, three Munda tribal girls never thought that in their adolescence they would be appreciated in their own village for bringing transformation into conventional agricultural patterns, and become young agricultural scientists. Thread reports. While girls of their age were busy with playing, studying and engaging in household work, the three of them assisted farmers of their village to promote organic farming. They demonstrated how, by minimizing the input cost, … Read more
Report
Japan Japan: New collaborations Have Emerged
Spring has come. Under the soft and warm sunlight, Mom’s Lunch-Box Shop, of As-One Community, becomes very busy with orders for local people’s spring events in Suzuka city, Japan. But there is also another reason to be busy this year. Hiroko Katayama / As-One Community Suzuka, representative of GEN-Japan, reports. The members of the As-One-Community are getting busy being guides for the participants of a study-trip. There is a new stream in Japan of people that are facing the real conditions … Read more
Bangladesh Andharmanic Ecovillage, Bangladesh: A Model for Sustainability in Climate Sensitive Regions
Andharmanic village is situated in Khulna district of Bangaldesh, near the Bay of Bengal and beside the biggest mangrove forest ‘Sundorbon’. This village community experienced the very powerful cyclones ‘Sidr’ in 2007, and ‘Aila’ in 2009, which affected the community tremendously. Houses fell down, big trees uprooted, crops were destroyed, domestic animals died, soil and water were polluted by saline water, and many villagers were injured. Today, having incorporated a variety ecovillage … Read more
Cameroon Cameroon: Bafut Ecovillage Sparks Entrepreneurship Revolution
About 20 km north of Bemenda, Cameroon, is the village of Bafut, where the traditional "fondom" (kingdom) community living structure remains intact. The goals for the future are ambitious, and inspiring. With the help of matching Permaculture principles with volunteer placements, Better World Cameroon (BWC) http://www.betterworld-cameroon.com is building an African green revolution based on youth, agriculture and environmental conservation. In just two years of linking up with the Global … Read more
ORIGIN Orchestration of Renewable Integrated Generation In Neighborhoods: Connecting Damanhur, Tamera and Findhorn
“ORIGIN is developing a sophisticated intelligent ICT (Information and Communication Technology) system for the management of energy in a community.” (www.origin-energy.eu). The name stands for Orchestration of Renewable Integrated Generation In Neighborhoods, a visionary project with the goal to achieve a more efficient use of the installed renewable energy generation and storage to reduce the amount of “imported energy”, from the public grid, often produced with non-sustainable means. Beatriz … Read more
Ecovillage Boekel Ecovillage Boekel, Netherlands: Ecovillages are Formula 1 Cars - about the cooperation of ecovillages and governments
A key figure in the Dutch government said: "Ecovillages are like Formula 1 cars" after he saw Ad Vlems´ presentation about Ecovillage Boekel, an aspiring member of GEN. The politician used this metaphor because a Formula 1 car is not mainstream, and let’s face it, not everybody wants to live in an ecovillage. But parts of our sustainable way of living will find their way to normal households; growing your own food, sharing cars and tools, biobased building and many more. Just like Formula 1 car, … Read more
Estonia GEN Estonia celebrates 7 years of eco-life
7 years ago, on the 8th of February in 2008, a group of sustainably minded people founded an organisation called the Network of Estonian Eco-communities, working towards creating a just and ecological Estonia. Today, our biggest achievement is a sustainable and vital ecovillage movement with yearly gatherings and regular communication activities, 2 strong eco-communities, and a Gaia Elementary School. Kadri Allikmäe from Network of Estonian Eco-communities reports. We first hesitated in … Read more
Slovenia Slovenia: The Time when Ecovillages were Places Faraway in the Woods is Over
The following article about ECOLISE and GEN, written by longterm ecovillage activist Nara Petrovič from Slovenia, was published in the Delo Newspaper, one of the biggest mainstream media of the country. It can be likened to GEN as it is today: a modern and open movement for global change. What connects us, brings us joy and is good for everyone: for ourselves, for our communities and for the Earth? Can civil society think and plan further into the future than that which currently directs … Read more
GEN History The History of the Global Ecovillage Network: 1991-2015
Ross and Hildur Jackson from Denmark were the driving forces in creating the GEN network twenty years ago. For the first time they share the full story from their perspective. All there experience and information is a great gift especially to the young people who now take over the responsibility for the network. The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) has now existed for 20 years and Gaia Education, which began as a GEN project, is celebrating its 10th year in teaching the principles of living … Read more
Ecolise. Nara Petrovic The time when ecovillages were places faraway in the woods is over
What connects us, brings us joy and is good for all: for ourselves, for our communities and for the Earth? Can civil society think and plan further into the future than those that currently direct global development – primarily politicians and economists? Can an umbrella alliance represent community-lead local development and thereby long-term interests of people and nature, thus radically changing global development goals in Europe or even in the world? These are the questions raised by … Read more
