The History of GEN, 1996-1999
The GEN Board in 1999 at a meeting in Mexico (the ecovillage of Huehuecoyotl). From top left: Liora Alejandra Adler, ENA; Max Lindegger, GEN Oceania and Asia; Albert Bates, ENA; Lucilla Borio, GEN Europe and Africa; Giovanni Ciarlo, ENA; bottom left: Agnieszka Komoch, GEN-Europe, Silvia Balado, ENA; Ross Jackson, Gaia Trust; Philip Snyder, GEN International.
Reports:
Annual Report 1996
Annual Report 1997
Annual Report 1998
Self Audit
A need was recognized at the Findhorn meeting for some kind of audit to make sure that the power in the movement would remain with the "qualified" villages at the same time as we wanted to open membership up to all interested parties. At the meeting there was unanimity concerning the definition of the elements of an ecovillage. It was graphically formulated as the four elements, each having four components, which appeared in The Earth is Our Habitat book. The initial ideas have since evolved into the Community Sustainability Assessment (CSA) self audit accessible from this website.
The Habitat II UN Conference in Istanbul
The GEN exhibit at the Habitat II conference in Istanbul, 1996
" ... more than anything else, the world needed good examples of what it means to live in harmony with nature in a sustainable and spiritually-satisfying way in a technologically-advanced society."
At the Findhorn meeting the idea arose from GEN's "ambassador to the UN" Rashmi Mayur, of The International Institute for Sustainable Future, Mumbai, India that GEN should go to the UN Conference on Human Settlements in Istanbul in June of 1996.
So Gaia Trust invited 20 GEN representatives to go to Istanbul to put the ecovillage strategy on the international radar. The International Secretariat produced an exhibition that was packed into a hired van and driven all the way from Thy, Denmark to Istanbul by Heidi Wrighton and Kai Hansen. American architect David Bien came from Russia and built an impressive straw bale wall through the big GEN's hall, which was the largest NGO exhibit. GEN's contribution included 40 workshops covering all aspects of the ecovillage movement, daily sacred dancing with the public led by GEN chairman Declan Kennedy, and a speech by Helena Norberg- Hodge to the official delegates. At a big celebration the last day, the official incorporation of GEN as a Danish Association, with the three autonomous regional networks as members, was signed by the first board of directors: chairman Declan Kennedy (Lebensgarten), Max Lindegger (Crystal Waters) and Albert Bates (The Farm).
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GEN goes to Russia, June 1997
Fifteen representatives from the GEN secretariats and selected eco-village projects gathered in June 1997 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The geographical spread of the GEN nodes and secretariats makes it a rare occasion when the staff and sponsors can get together and work out their plans for the coming year.
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On the photo from left: Ross Jackson (Gaia Trust) , Marti Müller (Auroville), Declan Kennedy (GEN-Europe) and Hamish Stewart (GEN International) sailing towards the Balaam island on the lake Ladoga
Creating Global Services, 1998
Along with the regional networks GEN has now moved forward on the cross-regional global services planned at Findhorn.
1. A key area of interest and possible income in all ecovillages is education. A coordination and common marketing of the existing educational offers and development of new courses therefore seemed like an important first step. Gaia Trust therefore decided to celebrate the 50th and 60th anniversaries of Max and Ross by inviting to a global meeting on: Education, Sustainability and Spirituality in the 21st Century in Denmark in September, 1998. A curriculum for a new education to be taken in modules in different eco-villages was discussed, the wish to create a common university expressed and many other ideas.
On the photo: representatives from different ecovillages and universities on the last day of the educational conference in Denmark.
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The first concrete outcome of this initiative has been born now one year later under the name Living Routes, whose purpose is to bring American university students into ecovillages as part of their formal education.
2. GEN is now also working on a Proposal: Living and Learning Centers in the South as part of en education service system and for fundraising.
3. Other initiatives are taking form slowly. In 1999 GEN-Europe has launched the ecovillage tourism programme. Projects like ecovillage design consultancy, complementary money systems and ecovillage e-trade are still under development.
The men in GEN... Photo from the 1998 educational meeting in Denmark
By late 1999, 160 intentional communities and more than 10,000 traditional villages were linked to GEN despite the fact that it has placed moving existing members towards sustainability ahead of recruiting new ones. There's still no ideal model ecovillage to showcase, but there are many well-functioning communities in all parts of the world.
Ross Jackson points out that the ecovillage movement is fundamentally a response to the global crisis facing Mankind as we approach the limits to growth on a finite planet. But the approach taken by GEN members is different from others and remarkable in two respects, which help define its uniqueness. One is its bottom-up approach: "Its philosophy is that the problems involved in living sustainability are too complex and too diverse to be solved from a traditional top-down perspective. It would be impossible for an overall solution to take into account the vast differences between North and South, between urban, suburban, and rural living, and among many cultural traditions", he says.
The second unusual aspect of the ecovillage movement is that it is truly global. Ross continues: "It unites North and South in a common agenda that cuts across all cultural, racial, and religious differences. It is a remarkable fact that the builders of ecovillages often have more in common with each other than with their respective local cultures, no matter where they come from. A common, global vision is emerging that has the power to change the world."
Changes in 1999
The year 1999 stood under the sign of changes for GEN. At the organizational level, Declan Kennedy, one of the founders of GEN and its first Chairman, retired. Declan was Chairman of the GEN Board since the Findhorn meeting in 1995 and also had the mandate to create the European ecovillage network (GEN-Europe) from the ecovillage of Lebensgarten, Germany. Also due to Declan´s retirement, and by a decision of the GEN-Europe Council, the GEN-Europe secretariat was moved from Lebensgarten to Torri Superiore in Northern Italy. Lucilla Borio, took on the administration of the European association from Declan Kennedy and Agnieszka Komoch.
A major step in the development of GEN happened in June 1999, when the administrative office of GEN-International (under Gaia Villages) moved to Copenhagen, Denmark. GEN said goodbye to Hamish Stewart, who had acted as Program Director for Gaia Villages and Secretary for GEN-International since the beginnings. Philip Snyder, from the USA, took over after Hamish, with the assistance of Karen Svensson.
Another change in 1999 was switching the internet server for www.gaia.org. After introducing GEN to the Internet in 1994, Stephan Wik of ANU, Ireland passed on the hosting of the GEN website to Rolf Jackson, Oberion Internet Services, Copenhagen, who shared office space with GEN-International.
GEN owes a big thanks to Declan, Hamish and Stephan for bringing the organization to where it is today.
Philip Snyder, Programme Director and Secretary from 1999 to 2001, concentrated on developing partnerships with organisations in the Southern hemisphere: among others Sarvodaya (Sri Lanka), Eco-Yoff (Senegal). He and Karen Svensson also followed up on the UN ECOSOC status for GEN and established the Living and Learning program. Philip also helped starting the Ecovillage Tourism program under GEN-Europe
Karen Svensson further developed the gaia.org website (new content and functionality), for which Rolf Jackson implemented new information technologies. She also started the first international ecovillage magazine, Ecovillage Millennium, in Spring 2000, with Hildur Jackson. Today she and Hildur are producing “Restoring the Earth and her People”, an ecovillage building manual, which will come out in Spring 2002.
...see GEN History 2000-2001
References:
Ross Jackson, "The Global Ecovillage Network", Communities Magazine (Summer 1996)
Maddy Harland, "Cultural Shífts: Ecovillages & the Internet: An interview with Ross Jackson", Permaculture Magazine (no. 12.)
The Earth is Our Habitat, (Gaia Trust, June 1996), including the following articles: Rashmi Mayur, "Eco-Habitat: Fulfilling a Child's Dream".
Helena Nordberg-Hodge, "Models for the New Millennium".
Doug Benn, "Global Crisis: The Need for Sustainability".
Hildur Jackson, "What is an Eco-Village?"
Ross Jackson, "The Eco-village Movement".
