Russia GEN meeting, 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.

Among subjects on the agenda were:


* Meeting the challenge of a rapidly growing demand for information and services.

* The attitude of an initially "northern" network to North/South dialogue, including assisting in the establishment of networks in the Africa, Asia and South America regions. The regions will start by identifying 10 sites in the countries of the South.

This meeting was in addition a time for the secretariats to share news and ideas from their regions, and for clarifying GEN policies and agreeing on the information base.

Different working groups were created within GEN to work on subjects like: visioning, exchange with universities, rewriting the UN proposal, reworking the eco-village self-audit and coordinating fundraising.

GEN visits Russian eco-villages
The GEN group visited two embryonic Russian eco-villages, north and south of St. Petersburg, and took part in a larger conference where GEN representatives and some of the best known Russian projects shared experiences with an audience of 200 people.

Visiting the site for the future ecovillage at Nevo

The two projects that were visited have been part of the GEN network since its inception. The Nevo Ecoville project, at the north end of Lake Ladoga, 6 hours north of St. Petersburg, is making good progress, having built 4 houses in the last 18 months. The project is situated in Karelia, just south of the Finnish border, in exquisite lake country with great tourist potential. Rysovo village, which lies 7 hours south of St. Petersburg, is still in the early stages of development but has a large group of supporters in St. Petersburg who move onto the land in the summer.

In general, there is an optimism that the concept of ecological communities could spread widely in Russia if promoted in the right way. Thousands of villages are still self-sufficient in providing their basic needs. The question is what development path they will choose to follow? The Russian communities will be staying in touch with one another and in cooperation with the GEN Europe secretariat and the Sacred Earth Network will explore plans for forming a Russian Eco-village Network in the future.

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* The Sacred Earth Network *
The Sacred Earth Network's mission is to inspire and empower activism in defence of the biosphere. Much of their activity is in the former Soviet Union providing communication equipment and support to environmental groups.

The Sacred Earth Network
267 East Street, Petersham
MA 01366, USA
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email: sacredearth@igc.org
http://www.igc.apc.org/sen/