GEN was exceptionally well represented with 15 GEN people at the recent Habitat II conference in Istanbul. The Conference was publicised as the last of the big United Nations conferences for the century.

While the conference lacked some of the refined touches we have become accustomed to from other conferences, the enthusiasm shown by local people was infectious. Sadly the friendliness of the Istanbul population was a little overshadowed by a police force which showed its worst side during Habitat II.

Our GEN display was excellent, thanks to the efforts of many, but special thanks must go to Heidi Wrighton, David Bienn and Linda Joseph. Plus scores of others.

The main feature of the stall was a substantial strawbale wall, and a horseshoe-shaped reception desk creatively built from hessian covered sandbags - it looked fantastic!. The wall space created an excellent opportunity for the display of materials from the participating ecovillages. A 3.5kW wind generator attracted a lot of attention as did our solar display and flow form feature. A specially produced 3 minute video was being shown on a regular basis. Our interactive computer set up allowed access to the internet pages on ecovillages. (http://www.gaia.org/)

One of the most encouraging and surprising aspects was the very high level of volunteer support we received. The GEN "staff" could not have handled the many enquiries and the necessary work to keep such a display going without this extensive help. The interest was to me surprising in its scale, and it was amazing to find so many very young Turks showing a genuine interest in ecological issues. It is our hope that we will be able to fulfill their expectations and it is planned to assist a local network in distributing information on ecovillages, support and show appreciation for villages which have strong ecological elements, and eventually help conduct permaculture courses and design sessions for ecovillages.

David Bienn, who hails from St. Petersburg, involved GEN in a partnership project with a village in the east of Turkey. During the conference villagers built a traditional beehive shaped house from unburnt brick, as a demonstration of traditional building techniques that can be used in the creation of new settlements in eastern Turkey.

While our display, as beautiful as it was, had to be demolished (and some of the architectural students protested about the management of their university failing to see the benefit of a permanent display of an alternative and appropriate building method), it is envisaged that the Harran building will remain as a reminder of Habitat II.

Many of our "staff" members were involved in a continuing series of workshop sessions on a variety of ecovillage related themes. Over the period of the conference, it seemed like we were developing a following. It was rewarding to be able to get to know some of the participants and their projects a little better. We made many contacts during the period of the conference and it will be the responsibility of the different regional secretariats to follow these up. No doubt this will be a big job and will keep us busy for many weeks.

In preparation for Habitat II, the GEN international secretariat in Denmark produced a variety of handout materials which we plan to keep up to date and make available to interested parties.

One of our main aims for attending the conference was to attract support for our proposal The Earth is Our Habitat which asks for $100 million to be allocated to an international UN committee for the support and development of 50-70 small ecovillages in urban and rural areas across the globe. We believe that the establishment of successful examples of sustainable settlements will be an important contribution to the health of our planet...