Joubert Kosha - Ecovillage: 1001 Ways to Heal the Planet

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Triarchy Press

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Kosha Joubert, Leila Dregger, 2015

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including photocopying, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Print ISBN: 978-1-909470-75-0

Epub ISBN: 978-2-909470-76-7

Cover

The photo is entitled Curious Girl in the Peace Community, San Jos de Apartado in Columbia and was taken by Ludwig Schramm.

Findhorn / Scotland

Kitezh / Russia

Damanhur / Italy

Lakabe / Spain

Gnesky / Turkey

Tamera / Portugal

Ecovillage Sieben Linden / Germany

Sekem / Egypt

Natoun / Togo

OTEPIC / Kenya

Greening Schools / Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia

Sandele Eco-Retreat / The Gambia

Mbackombel, Gud Chantier, Senegal

Sao Paulos Favela da Paz / Brazil

Tenond Por / Brazil

Peace Community San Jos de Apartad / Colombia

Comuna Tola Chica / Ecuador

Islas del Rosario / Colombia

Sirius Community / Massachusetts, USA

EcoVillage Ithaca / USA

The Farm / Tennessee, USA

The Source / Jamaica

Earthaven Ecovillage / Southern Appalachians, USA

Ladakh / India

Wongsanit Ashram / Bangkok, Thailand

Auroville / India

Narara Ecovillage / Australia

Bangladesh

Kibbutz Lotan / Israel

Hakoritna Farm / Palestine

Global Ecovillage Network: 1991-2015

This book was born from a rich mix of minds and places. Our first priority is to thank our storytellers who have so generously contributed to life in the ecovillages and to this book in particular. We give thanks to all the elders of the ecovillage networks who had the wisdom to plant seeds and watch them grow, and especially to Hildur and Ross Jackson and the Gaia Trust. We give thanks to the vibrant young people, who have the vision and enthusiasm to bring the movement into the next level of aliveness and readiness. We give thanks to all those who are doing the actual work on the ground right now. After reading this book we all know intimately just how much continuous courage, perseverance and caring it takes!

Special thanks go to our voluntary translators, photographers, editors and researchers amongst them Jenefer Marquis, Angelika Gander, Pavitra Mueller and Ethan Hirsch-Tauber. Clio Pauly from Namibia was our star and a never-ending source of clarity and commitment to seeing details through to the end. Huge thanks to the great publishing team at Triarchy Press for your encouragement and support! We warmly appreciate our family and friends, and our communities at Findhorn and Tamera for holding and inspiring us

And lastly, a heartfelt thank you goes out to you, the reader, for going on this adventurous journey with us! We look forward to our paths crossing in the future.

E COVILLAGES are intentional or traditional communities that aim to regenerate social and natural environments. The social, ecological, economic and cultural dimensions of sustainability are integrated into a holistic sustainable development model that is adapted to local contexts.

Ecovillages are consciously designed through locally owned participatory processes.

In this book we also include networks of ecovillages and NGOs that support communities to design their own pathway into the future and to transition to being ecovillages.

All over the planet, and often in unseen, remote places, one of the most crucial explorations of humankind is in full swing. Scientists and technicians, inventors and farmers, women and men with huge hearts and youth with fresh eyes, activists and those most affected by the global crises are building a network of integrity together: in villages, cities and slums, they are finding answers to the questions of our times, stepping into response-ability and initiating ways of living that sustain life and regenerate our social and natural systems. No one planned this community-led movement of meaningful response; instead, it emerged from the hearts, minds and hands of courageous people who decided to choose the road less travelled.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost

While in so many places business as usual continues as if we were blissfully unaware of the consequences, ecovillages work to implement solutions on the ground mostly with simple means, but sometimes with spectacular results. They have become regional and national beacons of inspiration for the social, cultural, ecological and economic revival of rural and urban areas. They are part of a worldwide movement for social and environmental justice.

When the concept of ecovillages first arose in the late 1980s, it related to intentional communities, born from the dedication to create high quality, low impact lifestyles that offer an alternative to a culture of consumerism and exploitation. Today, and especially in the Global South, the ecovillage networks include thousands of traditional villages and initiatives in slums where people have decided to take their future into their own hands. Growing from a shared set of values, the flow of communication between ecovillages from all continents facilitates North-South reconciliation, East-West dialogues and, in effect, an evolving global consciousness.

In this book you will be introduced to a selection of ecovillage projects from all over the world. We have aimed to give at least a taste of their richness and diversity. Most texts are based on interviews with founders or long-standing members of communities; some texts are about regional or national networks of ecovillage transition. As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Global Ecovillage Network in 2015, we want to honour successes, but also learn from difficulties and failure. Consequently, this book, while outlining one of the greatest adventures of our time, our quest for lifestyles of sustainability, does so from a very personal point of view.

At the end of each article, you will find a few keywords for solutions. Every ecovillage is developing local solutions to global challenges. You are invited to find out more about some of these solutions in the Solution Library ( solution.ecovillage.org ) where they are made accessible to all. You might even feel inspired to integrate some of them in your own community or back garden.

This book is simultaneously being published in German by the publishing house Neue Erde, in a version that is more focused on examples from the German-speaking world.

May the stories and tales come as a source of inspiration to all of us. May they strengthen our belief in our capacity to realise our dreams and become true care-takers of our beautiful planet and each other. We are all needed in this quest every single one of us is called to take a next step on our own version of the road less travelled by. Maybe, one day, these roads will merge into a new, life-sustaining culture.

Enjoy!

Kosha Joubert

Leila Dregger

Please note: Unless otherwise shown, all photographs come from the ecovillage featured.