"Tuwa - The Laughing Fish" is an eco-homestead, living and learning center and green bed and breakfast inn nestled right in the middle of the vast rice fields of the small farming town of Cabiao in Nueva Ecija, Philippines.
It is on the wings of growth and has the potential to evolve into a forming ecological community. What makes it unique is that it was founded and created by two Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) alumni in the persons of John Vermeulen and this author, Penelope Reyes --- all in a short span of two years.
Planting The Seeds of the Four Dimensions
Our 2007 Ecovillage Design (EDE) course at Thailand served as a very important guiding framework in the transformation of a 2.5 hectare chemically-overloaded riceland into a holistically-evolving settlement.
Spirituality, art and connection to nature, plays an integral aspect in our life. In fact, the first construction activity that was started with was the creation of a sacred space to integrate spiritual practice into our daily work. A beautiful labyrinth made out of white stones on grass was lovingly created by John and my two sons. This early integration of spirituality and art reinforces care for the Earth and has paved the way for a robust manifestation of Earth stewardship.
As Ecovillage designers, participatory processes were used from the very beginning and permaculture principles were the primary inspiration for the design. We created a multiple ecosystem habitat featuring zone 0-the human habitat, zone 1- vegetable/kitchen gardens, zone 2 poultry/ livestock, zone 3 - food forests and orchards, ricelands, and aquaculture, zone 4 – timberland area which serves as energy forest and zone 5 - wildlife areas comprising native tree forests and wetlands.
This development successfully evolved in just a short period due to the careful pre-development planning with attention given to soil conservation and regeneration by saving the topsoil, water management, biodiversity conservation, and close observation of energy and cosmic flows. As a result, the land is now home to a diverse amount of plant and animal life and produces abundant harvests like giant Cassavas! We are working towards food self-sufficiency through organic/biodynamic and homa farming. On the aspect of energy self-reliance, we are living 100% off-grid, and this is made possible through an energy mix of solar, wind, and wood gasification technologies.
On the social management dimension, we established regular group wellbeing sessions with our construction team composed of skilled carpenters, masons and bamboo craftsmen. Together with them, we set in place communication and decision-making processes and implemented policies on non-violent communication, non-smoking and drinking. In doing so, it almost felt as if we were living in an intentional community for the one-year period that the construction team was here. The social policies and agreements we laid out earlier on has greatly influencing how we are building community and harmony within our family, our transient staff and immediate neighbors. Surely, this will also have a positive impact on relationships with potential future community members.
And finally, right livelihood and self-sufficiency are cornerstone values that determine how we relate and interact with the local town economy. Re-localization principles, social enterprise development and exploring alternative forms of trade like barter are key activities that we are trying to implement. Some of our products are: organic rice, organic pesticides, bio-fertilizer, herbal medicine, mushrooms & mushroom spawn and for the future we plan to produce a supplier directory for sustainable living.
There are also three major activities that form part of our services: Eco-Tourism through the Green Bed & Breakfast Inn, Ecovillage Exchange Visits plus wellness and health programs. As a Living & Learning Center we offer Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) courses, Vegetarian Cooking Classes, Home-Scale Renewable Energy Design and a post EDE Internship program. For food processing technology we have a small-scale brown rice mill, multi-crop flour mill, plant oil extraction through cold pressing, a distillation system for medicinal and essential oils and a home scale solar dryer.
Philippine EDE 2012 Blooms on Fertile Ground
Again, the EDE takes centerstage as Tuwa The Laughing Fish hosts a training course on June 1-28, 2012 with a fitting theme: “Forming Community Through EDE”. We hope to co-create a positive future by sharing our knowledge and experiences, facilitating a robust exchange of ideas and innovations, and awakening together to the many possibilities of living in community with like-minded people. We are forming an Ecovillage through EDE! We look forward to a month of learning, being, doing, exploring and blooming.
For more information contact: Penelope Reyes
penelopebee AT gmail.com
Article by Emilia Rekestad of Njord, Sweden
An extensive EU-funded collaboration project with the name ECOVILLAGES, recently started operations and will run for a three-year period 2011-2013. It focuses on a survey of eco-villages around the Baltic Sea with a view to promoting ecovillages as innovative sustainable rural development. During the project, various approaches, problems and methods of starting and developing ecovillages such as in areas like eco-technologies, eco-practices like agriculture/garden and social community building will be documented and toolkits for ecovillage initiators developed. The project is funded by the EU Baltic Sea Region Programme (Interreg) with 1. 46 M EUR, dubbed a flagship of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and awarded the status of Baltic 21 Lighthouse project by the Council of Baltic Sea States. GEN Europe has become an Associate Partner of the project and will benefit directly by strengthening its presence in Northern Europe.
Key objectives are to gain political recognition for ecovillages in the Baltic Sea Region and strengthen the ecovillage movement. The number of politicians informed about the situation of ecovillages and the number of GEN national networks established and new members joining GEN are important indicators. The project will create a knowledge base for the creation of new eco-villages and further development of existing ones together with exisiting or future GEN national networks. Concepts such as permaculture, sustainable living, voluntary simplicity can be important in guiding us in cooperation.
The project has just had its "kick-off meeting" during two intense days (8-9 February 2011) in Vilnius, Lithuania. Several universities, NGOs and other institutions at national and international levels are represented, and together create an interesting group of people whose diversity of knowledge and experience can be of great benefit to the project. Representatives from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Belarus and western Russia participated in the project and budget planning, presentations and discussions.
Global Ecovillage Network News are published in Permaculture Magazine.
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The English original version is also translated into Spanish and published in "Ecohabitar", an ecological magazine in Spain.
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The first ever ecovillage conference in north Africa is to be held between 18 - 21 November 2011 at SEKEM Community, Egypt.
Entitled ‘Strategies for Growing Resilience in Northern Africa’, and organised by the Global Ecovillage Network, its main goals will include:
• To make visible to the world the dynamic work being done to develop sustainable community solutions all over north Africa.
• To empower projects and the people involved by connecting them to each others worldwide.
• To facilitate internal and external exchange of inspiration, information and training amongst ecovillages and related projects.
• To invite traditional village networks to join the ecovillage network.
• To focus on and acknowledge the need for political and social reconciliation work in the region.
The conference’s schedule will include a tour and history of SEKEM and discussion of ecovillage strategies throughout the whole region.
Funding to attend is available for NGOs and projects from the north African countries.
For more information or to register,
contact: Ethan Hirsch-Tauber: ehirschtauber AT gmail.com
The Urabá area in northern Colombia is one of the most violent regions in the world, and is the frontline of the Colombian civil war. 13 years ago more than 1,000 farmers and refugees founded the peace village San José de Apartado to defend themselves by nonviolent means against expulsion.
In that period over 170 community members have been murdered.
Now they have received support from Lush, a cosmetics company based in England. Lush buy as much of their raw materials as possible from fair trade, ecological production and sources, free of animal testing. In July 2011 the first 25 tonnes of organic cocoa beans from the peace community arrived with Lush. The cocoa butter, which is about a third of the beans, will be the basis for many Lush products. Lush is looking for a partner, possibly a chocolate manufacturer, for the remaining two thirds of cocoa powder. Paulo Mellett, a freelance permaculturist and former Greenpeace activist who works with the Lush materials buying team, needed months of work with colleagues to achieve the appropriate certificates and import permits. “My colleagues stood behind me, when I suggested to support the peace village,” said Paulo. “We are thrilled that we can help support those working for peace and sustainability in their region. Now that we see the high quality of the beans, we will expand our co-operation.”
The 1,300 inhabitants of San José de Apartado live in a constant struggle against corrupt political and economic forces who have already displaced more than 4 million farmers from their land. Many farmers in the region are forced to cultivate illegal cocoa, in competition with giant corporations makes traditional crops barely profitable. The peace community adamantly stick to their principles. “The statutes which we have set ourselves forbid us not only to participate in the armed struggle, but also to use or produce alcohol and drugs,” says one of the village members. “It is a question of our dignity. We grow most of what we need to live, but we also need the opportunity to sell some of our products.” Thus the fair trade collaboration with Lush is a lifeline to the community and vital for their continued, brave non-violent resistance.
For further details view: www.lush.co.uk
or contact Paulo AT lush.co.uk
Representatives of Russian ecovillages got together at Grishino Ecovillage near Leningrad to officially found the new Russian Ecovillage network (REEN). Thus, Russia joins a growing number of regions and countries with their own local network. Participants spent three days discussing the guiding principles of the new network, areas of activity, statutes and reaching the decision to formally register the network as a legal entity. The network’s mission is to support organisation and development of Russian ecovillages and contribute to spreading the positive experience of ecovillages.
They see the longterm vision of sustainable human existence on earth as being realised by following these four principles:
• Care for the environment.
• Replacing consumerism with conscious minimalism.
• Replacing material wealth and power with personal development.
• Life without war.
Various educational activities, events and a website are planned, until then keep an eye on these pages for further news.
The 20 strong Swiss community of Schweibenalp has joined GEN as a full member. It is located at an altitude of 1,100 metres in the Bernese Alps. The community is currently establishing a permaculture landscape to demonstrate sustainable ways of food and herb production, water management and agroforestry. It aims to explore workable alternatives to industrial agriculture by supporting a big range of biodiversity, creating habitats and biotopes, and fulfilling the needs of plants, animals and humans in one garden.
Schweibenalp was founded 30 years ago. The initial focus was to create a spiritual centre for all traditions and spiritual practices. Today the center hosts guests for various courses, seminars and conferences. It is a developing community, practicing social sustainability in everyday life and work. Networking, with other projects and communities is valued too, hence the new GEN membership.
Read more: www.schweibenalp.ch
During August 2011, water specialists and decision makers from ten countries met for the first ever Water Symposium in Tamera. Among them were Sepp Holzer, permaculturist and mountain farmer. The aim was to explore the benefits of decentralised and natural water management systems. Representatives were given a guided tour around all of Tamera, including the construction site of a new water retention space in Tamera’s south valley. Sepp Holzer said: “Water retention landscapes are possible and can provide enough freshwater for animals, plants and human beings in every region of the world.”
For more information about Tamera’s lake developments and the symposium please view: www.tamera.org
This year’s annual Ecovillage and Sustainable Living Conference took place at Tamera peace research village in southern Portugal under the headline Strategies for Resilience. 200 participants from 35 countries came together for four days of presentations and workshops, highlighting the work of the Global Ecovillage Network in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Participants learnt about a wide range of ongoing and planned projects, and about the diversity of possible responses to the challenges of the times we live in.
Professor Adama Ly from Senegal, Lua Bashala-Kekana from Congo and Philip Munyasia from Kenya presented ecovillage projects in their countries that are responses to poverty, war trauma and exploitation of nature. It was clear that the GEN Excellency Award for 2011 had to be given to Africa. It was impossible to decide between Otepic from Kenya and Mama na Bana from Congo, so the award was split, and a spontaneous fund raising by those attending doubled the prize money of EUR 3,000, enabling both projects to take home the full amount.
Macaco Tamarice, the GEN Europe president from Damanhur community said. “Ecovillages are seeds of hope in a time of change”.
“GEN is in a current transformation” Kosha Joubert, a member of the GEN council stated. “We hear the call of mainstream society, we get requests from official bodies like the European Community and the foreign ministry of Germany. Our knowledge is needed. One task GEN has is to gain a political acknowledgement for the whole of the ecovillage movement.”
View: www.gen-europe.org
A big well done to CIFAL Findhorn’s Executive Director May East who has been recognised at the prestigious 100 Global Sustainability Leaders 2011 awards!
The nominated 100 Global Sustainability Leaders, selected from all over the world, include Nobel Prize winners, scientists, architects, designers, artists, and CEOs of international companies. Besides the well-known, there are recognized as quiet achievers who are making a name for themselves and their NGOs, institutes, universities or businesses.
Details at: www.cifalfindhorn.org
Njord, the Swedish ecovillage Association, has carried out initial field work for the EU funded Ecovillages for Sustainable Rural Development project (Permaculture 68, page 63). To date it has established nearly 30 villages and representatives from the Baltic countries will visit the Suderbyn permaculture ecovillage in Sweden, where together with the Swedish Permaculture Association, they will host seminars, workshops and meetings later this year.
The Slovenian Ecovillage Network’s annual gathering attracted 300 people. The celebration of sustainable living was held at the village of Razazije.
Read about the network at www.ekovas.si
for submissions to Permaculture Magazine No.71: 31 December 2011
To contribute to the Global Ecovillage Network pages contact:
David Yekutiel
Email: nartan AT argayall.com
The publishers reserve the right to select, edit or delete material according to the space available.
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