GEN - Who are we?
The Global Eco-village Network has three regional secretariats - Oceania, Europe and North America. Each of the secretariats has a Regional Co-ordinator whose role is to disseminate information and lobby relevant groups to move the world towards a more sustainable way of living. We believe that diversity and tolerance are keys to a healthier world.
Where GEN began.....
In order to obtain an overview of the eco-village movement, the Context Institute in the USA was commissioned by the Gaia Trust in 1990 to produce a report on the status and likely prospects for the eco-village movement. Among other things the report recommended that the Gaia Trust should endeavour to assist the eco-village movement to make the transition from the experimentation phase to the "take-off" stage, and beyond.
Their results indicated that funding for training, building and equipping village businesses would move the existing eco-villages forward. The level of support or investment required over a period of 5-10 years was estimated as being about US $9 million.
Clearly, there was a need for co-financing in co-operation with other foundations or like-minded commercial investors. With this in mind we tried to launch an International Eco-village Foundation. Unsuccessfully, because most environmental grant makers have a relatively narrow geographic focus and are not geared to international grant making.
Following the attempt to launch the International Eco-village Foundation we have reviewed our strategy and are now developing regional networks.
Objectives
The regional networks:
- overcome fundraising barriers based on geographic specialisation
- engage active eco-village-type communities in co-operative action to overcome barriers which are hindering development of their (and others') projects, i.e. through lobbying, creating investment packages, networking etc.
- place a strong emphasis on developing sustainable businesses
- support the initiation and development of new sustainable community projects
To back up the regional networks the Eco-village Information Service is on the World Wide Web. (http://www.gaia.org/).
Gaia Trust's focus on eco-villages is seen as a means of supporting the development of new social structures. Investing in sustainable technologies and businesses actively supports the development of these structures. The strategy behind Gaia Trust's activities has been to promote and strengthen a small global network of eco-village projects which are able to both demonstrate the viability of this concept and to act as replicable models for others.
Initial projects...
The immediate priorities of GEN were:
- Attending Habitat II. This was only the 2nd Habitat Conference in 20 years and attendance numbers were over 20,000. That was a lot of people to talk to and a wonderful networking opportunity.
- Finalising the structural details of the network at the Regional Co-ordinator's meeting at The Farm in Tennessee, and then formally inaugurating GEN at Habitat II.
- Designing a logo for the network.
- Working on a "checklist" or self-audit for eco-villages, which could be used to assess how far a community has progressed along the road towards being a full eco-village, and also provide some guidelines to consider when designing an eco-village.
News
In each newsletter GENOA includes news from eco-villages and businesses from throughout the Oceania region and also include updates from other GEN Secretariats.