http://gen.ecovillage.org/regions/index.html
GEN Oceania and Asia
Asia, Australia and the Pacific islands
Contact person: Max Lindegger
59 Crystal Waters
65 Kilcoy Lane
Conondale Qld 4552
Australia
Tel. +61 7 5494 4741
Fax +61 7 5494 4578
eMail: genoa@genoa.org.au
Ecovillage Network of the Americas (ENA)
North, Central and South America
Contact person: Linda Joseph
64001 County Road DD
Moffat, CO 81143 USA
Tel./Fax 719 256–5003
eMail: ena@ecovillage.org GEN Europe
Europe, Africa and the Middle East
Contact person: Jonathan Dawson
Findhorn Foundation, The Park
Moray
Forres IV36 3TZ
Scotland
Tel. +(44)-(0)−1309–69244 (Office)
eMail: jonathan@gen-europe.org
GEN South East Asia
Contact Person: Jonggon Duangsri
31 Chiangmai - Lamphun Rd.
Tamboon Watkeat
A. Muang
Chiangmai 50000 Thailand
Tel. +66 53 247374, +66 53 241504
Fax: +66 53 241504
eMail: info@chiangmaigreen.com Contact person: Giovanni Ciarlo
Apto.111
Tepoztlan, Morelos
MEXICO 62520
Tel (011) (52–739–395–5077497
OR
Cherry Ave • P.O. Box 811
Watertown, CT 07695 USA
Tel. 860 945–0056
Fax : 860 274–0724
eMail: giovanni@ecovillage.org Contact person: Michael Anderau
ZEGG Ecovillage
Rosa Luxemburgstr. 89
14806 Belzig • Germany
Tel. +49 (0) 33841 44766
Fax. +49 (0) 33841 44768
eMail: info@gen-europe.org
The GEN Board
Each year, the GEN Board meets to determine and integrated agenda for the coming year, set guidelines for International work. Current GEN Board members:
Max Lindegger, GEN Oceania and Asia (GENOA)
Jonggon Duangsri, GEN South Asia
Linda Joseph, Ecovillage Network of the Americas (ENA)
Giovanni Ciarlo, ENA Council Representative
Ismael Diallo, GEN Europe/Middle East/Africa Representative
Jonathan Dawson, GEN Europe secretary
Ross Jackson, Gaia Trust, consulting status
Marti Mueller, Chair of Advisory Council, consulting status
www.gaia.org.ar/
Gaia Ecovillage
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BACKGROUND
Gaia Association is a non profit association, founded in December 1992. Its founding mission is the promotion of sustainable societies, mainly by creating human settlements based on the practice of Permaculture systems and methods.
The origin of this project comes from the voice of Gaia (name given to mother earth by the ancient Greeks). It is our own voice and impels us to wake up from the dream in which the system has submerged us. We have proposed to develop small human settlements based on communitarian, ecological and spiritual principles, or Ecovillages. Residents and transitory inhabitants live in an environment that is in total harmony with nature and the evolutionary process of life. This does not deny reality, on the contrary, it connects us with a huge network of people who are also working to lead the world.
The project encourages work as a communal ritual. It is a space to contact our innerself, to create and collaborate with Gaia’s process. Our deep aim at the EcoVillage is service, oriented to generate real solutions for the global crisis and for an impoverished society as Argentina’s. This is why these Ecovillages will not be either places to run away from society or set up small Edens. They will be places that will function as living laboratories (lavore et ore). An attempt to transform the links with each other, with work and with life itself.
The supporting pillars of the Ecovillage follows these principles: coexistence, harmony, participation, democracy and tolerance. The Ecovillage aspires to be a center of integration with the bio-region in which it is settled. Each Ecovillage will be open to interchange with each other, so that we can help one another in different aspects, as food, service, construction, alternative energy, etc.
Ecovillages do not intend to be a closed and self sufficient system. For example, we are co-dependant on material elements and scientific, technical and cultural knowledge. Each Ecovillage will be autonomous in its decisions regarding the organization of tasks. The local administration of houses, productive activities and common spaces will be organised and administrated by the inhabitants themselves. At the same time, there will be a co-operating spirit linking the different Ecovillages. Special emphasis will be laid on the development of habits, minimising the existence of rules, since these narrow our minds.
Our intention is to provide a basis for group security based on solidarity, as opposed to the competition that destroys human bonds.
Gaia Ecovillage
Since 1996, the first Ecovillage is being developed on a 20 hectares’ site in a rural area near Buenos Aires city.
The buildings on the land had been used for a milk processing plant, until they were abandoned 30 years ago. So, as you can imagine, the first steps were to restore part of these buildings in order to settle down, and start to define the complete restoration of the big buildings and the general design of the village, and an integrated energy system.
We are also reforesting with autochthonous trees, starting an organic vegetable garden and generating economic resources with some micro-enterprises and creating new ones.
There are a small group already established, and we have a growing group of collaborators that visit us every week. In addition, we receive many visitors and interested parties whose input and recognition has helped us to clarify our vision and re-enforce the importance and need for this sustainable living model. We are introducing ideas and concepts which are new to this part of the world, and as there are very few other places, it is a great challenge to pioneer this project which is only understood and accepted (up to the moment) by a handful of people.
We have founded the Permaculture Institute of Argentina and are currently involved in a world- wide Living and Learning Center project. Through these entities we carry out our main educational programs. We are also very focussed on networking. For this reason, we have participated in the creation of the G.E.N. (Global Ecovillage Network) in 1995 and we have been very active members since then. We are the South American node of the network.
We see Permaculture as an innovative tool to achieve the creation of permanent societies based on sustainable principles. We believe that Latin America is a fertile land to develop new techniques for sustainable life style and the challenge is to learn and spread them, always making local adaptations. Out of this vision arose the initiative of convoking the 1st Latin American Permaculture Congress (march 2000), to strengthen the bonds among regional permaculturists, to offer a forum for the exchange of information and to organize mutual support within the Southern region.
To learn more, see the article, Changing Society at Gaia Ecovillage: A Model for Argentina’s Recovery