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VillageLab – a service tool to facilitate the flow of wealth to and from regenerative communities
Gaia Villages Foundation & the Ecovillage Innovation Lab has simplified its name to VillageLab. Though initially based in North America and Mexico, VillageLab hopes to spread its services to the entire GEN network and other networks of sustainable and regenerative communities. Presently VillageLab is looking for beta test projects to include on its crowdfunding site. The group will be publishing their project selection criteria soon - to get a copy please contact them directly. Jeff Clearwater … 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
2nd Festival of Eco-practices in Russia
The 2nd Festival of Eco-practices took place on August 9 -12 on the Festival Field of the Union of Kin-domains Blagodat , Yaroslavl oblast, Russia. This festival was initiated by Russian Ecovillages and Eco-initiative Network (www.gen-russia.ru), where also the first festival had taken place in the last year. The event is conceived by the organizers as a platform for exchange of practical experience in the field of environmentally friendly technologies and practices relating to all aspects of … Read more
Women’s Earth and Climate Summit Women are Gathering: International Women's Earth and Climate Summit September 20th-23rd, 2013
From September 20th to 23rd, the International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit is taking place in New York, USA. One hundred women leaders are gathering together from the Global South and Global North to draft a Women’s Climate Action Agenda. It is time for female voices to be heard in the right places. Women have been the sustainers of their communities, women have been the nurturers of future generations always. Each garden we plant, each community we build is a cultivation of our future. The … 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
NextGEN – a positive future in Asia Working with the Next Generation to Create a Positive Future in Asia
Om Sunisa and Tom Deiters, representatives of NextGEN GENOA (Next generation of the Global Ecovillage Network of Oceania & Asia), and Gaia School Asia, are presently on a journey to the Himalayas, travelling across Sri Lanka, India, Ladakh, Nepal and Bangladesh to work with children and youth. Along the way, they are providing workshops for schoolchildren and village youth on connecting with Nature. Our workshops aim to encourage awareness, love, respect and care for Nature. We are … 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
Fall and Rise in Scotland The Fall and Rise of the Scottish Community
Ecovillages and community based organisations have a different history, but they can lead to a similar effect - the economical and ecological revitalization of regions. The example of Scotland shows how this can happen and why also the government has joined in to support this process. After a decline in the 20th century, communities in Scotland are thriving again. At the ICSA conference in Findhorn, Alex Walter described the rise of Scottish communities, and some of the opportunities that … Read more
