The Global Ecovillage Network

Movement Profile

In 1995, the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) was founded in the famous Findhorn spiritual community in Scotland. Experienced activists for an alternative lifestyle from Europe, Australia and the US gathered with the idea to create a platform for ecovillages and communities to share their best practices, skills and strategies. Over the years many challenges to creating the platform were overcome through the efforts of organisers, fundraisers, legally skilled people, networkers, IT specialists, writers, practitioners and teachers. Now it seems that the time of harvest has come: the ecovillage movement is gaining momentum, providing a viable alternative to existing globalised inhumane structures, exploring decentralised solutions on a community level and connecting traditional and contemporary knowledge for a peaceful and sustainable future. GEN has become an organisation capable of linking grassroots projects with social movements, other global actors and governments. With the support and assistance of GEN, ecovillages around the world have developed from a loose network to a movement that generates hope on a global scale.

What is an ecovillage? According to GEN president Kosha Joubert, an ecovillage is “an intentional or traditional community using local participatory processes to holistically integrate ecological, economic, social, and cultural dimensions of sustainability in order to regenerate social and natural environments”. From Scotland to Italy, from Portugal to Russia and all over Europe, ecovillages are no longer perceived as hippie hangouts. They have gained acceptance as centres of excellence in their regions and as models for a positive rural and urban development, gathering and providing experience of how to live in a respectful way with nature and among people. This reputation is a result of GEN’s longstanding efforts to support ecovillages. There are testimonies from all over Europe and from other continents that show how diverse and serious the wishes and motivations to create ecovillages are – and how they still are connected to one movement.

Why do ecovillages get started? Anna Fillipou, co-founder of an ecovillage initiative close to Thessaloniki in Greece, links the rise of ecovillages to loss of confidence with current system. “Two or three years ago,” she says, “we could not foresee how fast this system would collapse. All kinds of securities – money, education, health, work, consumption – have fallen apart. Most people have lost confidence in the system. Many young people have become exhausted in protesting. This is the time for alternatives! It is amazing how many people now are interested in ecovillages.” Anna has seen growing interest in her initiative, as have ecovillages in other crisis-stricken countries like Spain, Portugal and Italy. Food sovereignty, a safe environment for the children, alternatives in times of crisis – these are three major reasons why people choose to live in or learn from ecovillages and to become involved in GEN.

GEN serves as an umbrella group to bring diverse initiatives together. “For me, GEN is the UN of the communities”, says Charly Ehrenpreis, one of the founders of Tamera in Portugal and participant at the last GEN conference in Switzerland. “It is our extended family, it is the community of the communities.” Robert Hall from Sweden, a long-time GEN co-worker, states: “With the GEN association we could create a highly sophisticated organisational structure, which is respected by cooperation partners on many levels, providing a platform for collaboration, fundraising and knowledge transfer on a global and a grassroots level.” 

Connecting communities from the Global South and the Global North

In its first years GEN was organised and maintained by the large and experienced ecovillages like Findhorn, Siebenlinden, ZEGG, Damanhur, Tamera, The Farm and Crystal Waters – most of them European. In recent years, however, the network has spread across the planet, into poorer regions of the world and also into cities, connecting with Transition Town initiatives and the permaculture network to create real alternatives in times of climate change and rural exodus.

GEN International has five regional subgroups representing Europe, Africa, Latin America, North America and Australia and Oceania. With GEN, traditional villages from the Global South find direct partners in industrialised countries that share the same vision and to a certain extent the same lifestyle, and do not take a patronising approach to their partners, or lead them into greater dependency on globalised structures. Ecovillages demonstrate that even in the most hopeless situations, people can come together, connect with each other and the land on which they live and create alternatives to sustain the Earth and each other.

There are a wide range of ecovillages in Europe: traditional villages in the process of transition to more social or ecological resilience; spiritual or New Age groups that have created their own environments in former military settlements; urban gardening or co-housing initiatives in cities; and the thousands of Anastasia settlements that have formed in the former states of the Soviet Union. Any initiative that connects two or more of the so-called “dimensions” of sustainability can be regarded as an ecovillage. In reality, GEN is formed by the most active initiatives, which hold their common goal higher than the communities’ spiritual or social differences. Of course, all ecovillages share common values: caring for each other and the land; healing the wounds of violence and exploitation; empowering women; and self-sufficient provision of food, water and energy.

The Global Ecovillage Network provides the stability of belonging to a global movement that does not only talk, but really explores an overall alternative. While the African, Asian and South American regional GEN networks deal with serious issues like starvation and civil wars, European and North American ecovillages can provide related solutions: regional autonomy on food, water and energy; social resilience through conflict resolution and togetherness. With methods of water retention, ecological building, solar-powered cooking and electricity, local food production, compost toilets and reduced consumption, many ecovillages demonstrate that life does not require a large ecological footprint. On the other side of the planet the same techniques can save lives. This is the basis for a promising connection for both sides.

Social life in ecovillages

Ecovillages have created different methods for decision-making, conflict resolution, mutual support, transparency and communication in groups. They learn from each other, developing the methods ever further by applying them in real life. According to Joubert, “it is clear that decisions in an ecovillage are taken by all people who will have to live with them. This does not work without intensive communication. On this path many practical ways of consensus building are being tried out.”

Social life in different ecovillages varies. Some put the focus on families, others on working groups or the community as a whole. Co-housing projects are a loose connection of families living in the same house who share meals together. In Damanhur, Italy, people live in “nuclei” of living groups of 20 or 30 who care for and look after each other.

Tamera, Portugal, is a community of all age groups. Families of choice form around couples with children. These consist of friends and lovers committed to help care for the children until they reach adulthood. Children can find a second home at a specially designated place for children, where they connect with other children and young people who act as role models. The youths find orientation in adults who feel reliable and committed, and still are encouraged when they reach adulthood to spend some time outside the ecovillage to learn a profession or learn about different lifestyles. Some older members have found that their own village, “Aldeia da Luz”, has become a centre of creativity that runs craft workshops – a place all generations enjoy going.

Growing on many levels

The Global Ecovillage Network is growing on every level. New ecovillages seem to pop up everywhere and existing ones are growing in membership. New regional and national networks are forming, and more education and training initiatives are taking place.

In the European Union, Africa and Latin America, national governments are showing interest in ecovillage strategies for sustainable development. The German government has been very helpful; governments such as those in the Baltic Sea region understand that a true transition to resilient societies requires them to work hand in hand with civil society actors and organisations. The Baltic Sea project, founded by the European Union, brought together knowledge from ecovillages across the coastal countries of north-east Europe. The project found that in the transition of traditional villages and urban neighbourhoods to ecovillages, bottom-up and top-down approaches can intertwine to become a truly powerful formula for sustainability.

On the other hand, the example of the “Let’s Do It – Cleanup” initiative reveals how many people on a grassroots level can be reached through the GEN network: after having spread through a GEN-Conference 5 years ago from Estonia to other European countries, in the past few years more than 20 million people around the world took part in regional clean-up activities. GEN raises its voice in global conferences like the Peoples’ Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, and in initiatives like the World Future Council.

Knowledge transfer

Some examples show the ecological and social expertise present in ecovillages. Ecovillage Siebenlinden in Saxony-Anhalt is the only growing village in the whole of Germany; Findhorn has the lowest ecological footprint of the UK; Damanhur in Northern Italy has more than 1,000 members and has created its own currency; Tamera in Portugal created a water retention landscape that reverses the process of desertification and enables the community to grow food even in the dry summer months. These successes are based on skills and experience that need to be shared.

In cooperation with Gaia Education, GEN has created a syllabus for knowledge transfer from ecovillages. Based on four dimensions of knowledge – ecological, social, economical and spiritual – Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) courses have been carried out in many countries. Often funded by partner organisations, they bring together people from ecovillages with those who want to learn from them, to share and study skills and philosophy in sustainability and creating community. The four-week course is a life-changing experience for many participants, who don’t just learn skills but form community, find empowerment and create projects and start-up initiatives.

During the last few years, these educational tools have been complemented by various online tools that connect ecovillages, related movements, and those looking for answers and solutions. The Solution Library is the most recent example. This is an online access portal to sustainable solutions that people can use to find sustainable solutions to their own communities’ needs.