We have dozens of ecovillages in Ukraine that were created on the basis of depleted farm fields (our network is about 55 locations)
and in 15 years, man-made ecosystems on 50 hectares with permaculture and Holzer lakes have grown there
Yes, I agree about the architecture, it's old-school adobe and straw bale handmade
but a large share of autonomy and self-sufficiency
also a large share of ecovillages based on restored old village houses
a lot of low-tech water waste management and infrastructure
but what I read in the OASA whitepaper is 5% of the land for infrastructure and the rest of the land for regeneration and restoration - this is actually what is done by the hands of these people and it is a lot of intellectual work as well
yes, of course, digital technologies ReFi DAO blockchain platform carbon credits, decentralized green bonds and open forest protocol
Give us a year and we will pull it up, we have a digitized nation, an intern iPhone in every pair of hands
We won't become pure open source communities, but we may take a decent mixed place between digital and hippie ecovillages somewhere
Thank you, Nicole, for this brilliant article. 🙏🏻💗 Wen and I have begun to follow your work. It is our aim, through Life Independence Project, to resolve the polycrises of the unhoused, refugees, and immigrants in our world (1-2% of the world’s current population) through tech-driven, heart-directed regenerative villages. I appreciate the distinctions you offer here and agree, they are significant. When it comes to co-creating New Earth, from our perspective, we are committed to an entirely regenerative approach, both rural and urban. Now that I’m clear about the distinctions between sustainable and regenerative; eco-village and regenerative village, I’ll be integrating that into our documents. Thank you 🙏🏻💗 Blessings, Jahnavi
Drop the link to your project here! Thank you for your passion and support. You should search for Permaculture and Refugees, and there's an article I'll share with you on refugee projects building ecovillages
Regenerative practice involves shifting from old paradigms of thought to one of Evolve Capacity/Regenerative Life. It’s more about a way of being (the first line of work for regeneration is the self) than the features a village has.
In addition, I’d like to introduce the concept of Nestedness.
Just like a cell belongs to something bigger, we belong to larger systems, and within us, we have other systems. Let’s call this cell “a whole.”
Once we understand that a village is influenced by and impacts other wholes (systemic thinking), we can identify these wholes.
Where is my boundary as a whole?
What’s my proximate whole and the greater whole?
What role does this village play in the whole and how does it enrich it?
How am I (as a village) contributing to the vocation of the place?
What are my mutually beneficial relationships, and how can we synergistically keep evolving together?
There are many other concepts I would love to share! Looking forward to delving deeper into them and exploring how they can shape our understanding of regenerative villages. Let’s continue this discussion and work together to create positive change.
To honor your idea of nestedness, I will edit the article to include this idea of the community membrane and ideas about where one community starts and another begins, as well as how responsible a community and its members are to be mindful of not 'othering'. I believe this is how the wholeness you talk about can be embodied.
This wholeness seems very central to creating a regenerative community, which I start to articulate with the idea of diversity, but know it extends much deeper -- identity politics, focusing on our own bubbles, and understanding the full scope of our (potential) impact.
Some of what is presented in the article are examples of answers to the self/community-reflection questions you share, but obviously not the end-all answers. This post doesn't attempt to fully encapsulate what a regenerative village is, only its major differences with traditional ecovillages.
We could see this evolution from Do Good (ecovillages) to Evolve Capacity (regen villages) as supporting every being -- from the people to the mountains to the frogs -- to be their "best selves", as Sanford puts it. We are still figuring out what that means.
What do you think of the tendency to consider regenerative as superior to sustainable? I know some people argue that sustainability is "status quo", but there are actually several amazing sustainability choices that the regenerative movement seems to forget. Sometimes regeneration can be abstracted as we discuss social, cultural, economic regeneration, and then we neglect the very real work of reducing our collective footprint, building less new communities vs. regenerating existing ones, advocating for degrowth, etc. Would love to know your thoughts.
We have dozens of ecovillages in Ukraine that were created on the basis of depleted farm fields (our network is about 55 locations)
and in 15 years, man-made ecosystems on 50 hectares with permaculture and Holzer lakes have grown there
Yes, I agree about the architecture, it's old-school adobe and straw bale handmade
but a large share of autonomy and self-sufficiency
also a large share of ecovillages based on restored old village houses
a lot of low-tech water waste management and infrastructure
but what I read in the OASA whitepaper is 5% of the land for infrastructure and the rest of the land for regeneration and restoration - this is actually what is done by the hands of these people and it is a lot of intellectual work as well
yes, of course, digital technologies ReFi DAO blockchain platform carbon credits, decentralized green bonds and open forest protocol
Give us a year and we will pull it up, we have a digitized nation, an intern iPhone in every pair of hands
We won't become pure open source communities, but we may take a decent mixed place between digital and hippie ecovillages somewhere
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Thanks for this excellent article, Nicole. I also appreciate the shout out for the podcast.
You’ve once again shown the clarity and nuance of your thinking.
Your distinctions between ecovillages and regenerative communities are truly helpful, and I appreciate that they are not dogmatic.
Everyone on this path is learning, and I value how much you share.
Of course, I take any opportunity I can to spotlight the people who are doing progress-oriented and relevant work. Thank you for being a mentor.
I appreciate your ability to see nuance in what I share here, instead of a binary 🙏
Thank you, Nicole, for this brilliant article. 🙏🏻💗 Wen and I have begun to follow your work. It is our aim, through Life Independence Project, to resolve the polycrises of the unhoused, refugees, and immigrants in our world (1-2% of the world’s current population) through tech-driven, heart-directed regenerative villages. I appreciate the distinctions you offer here and agree, they are significant. When it comes to co-creating New Earth, from our perspective, we are committed to an entirely regenerative approach, both rural and urban. Now that I’m clear about the distinctions between sustainable and regenerative; eco-village and regenerative village, I’ll be integrating that into our documents. Thank you 🙏🏻💗 Blessings, Jahnavi
Drop the link to your project here! Thank you for your passion and support. You should search for Permaculture and Refugees, and there's an article I'll share with you on refugee projects building ecovillages
Thank you, Nicole. We appreciate it 💗 We’re at www.LIP.global
Thank you for including my article in the Built Environment section. Let’s start the conversation!
I believe a regenerative village can’t be reduced to a checklist, whether it’s about having previous cattle land or diversity among its people. I recommend reading about the 4 Modern Paradigms of thought by Carol Sanford [https://carolsanford.medium.com/a-white-paper-on-regenerations-significance-part-2-the-four-modern-paradigms-ef306f622d1d] to explore a bit further this challenge, even though is talking about business settings, this framework is applicable at any scale.
Regenerative practice involves shifting from old paradigms of thought to one of Evolve Capacity/Regenerative Life. It’s more about a way of being (the first line of work for regeneration is the self) than the features a village has.
In addition, I’d like to introduce the concept of Nestedness.
Just like a cell belongs to something bigger, we belong to larger systems, and within us, we have other systems. Let’s call this cell “a whole.”
Once we understand that a village is influenced by and impacts other wholes (systemic thinking), we can identify these wholes.
Where is my boundary as a whole?
What’s my proximate whole and the greater whole?
What role does this village play in the whole and how does it enrich it?
How am I (as a village) contributing to the vocation of the place?
What are my mutually beneficial relationships, and how can we synergistically keep evolving together?
There are many other concepts I would love to share! Looking forward to delving deeper into them and exploring how they can shape our understanding of regenerative villages. Let’s continue this discussion and work together to create positive change.
To honor your idea of nestedness, I will edit the article to include this idea of the community membrane and ideas about where one community starts and another begins, as well as how responsible a community and its members are to be mindful of not 'othering'. I believe this is how the wholeness you talk about can be embodied.
This wholeness seems very central to creating a regenerative community, which I start to articulate with the idea of diversity, but know it extends much deeper -- identity politics, focusing on our own bubbles, and understanding the full scope of our (potential) impact.
Some of what is presented in the article are examples of answers to the self/community-reflection questions you share, but obviously not the end-all answers. This post doesn't attempt to fully encapsulate what a regenerative village is, only its major differences with traditional ecovillages.
We could see this evolution from Do Good (ecovillages) to Evolve Capacity (regen villages) as supporting every being -- from the people to the mountains to the frogs -- to be their "best selves", as Sanford puts it. We are still figuring out what that means.
What do you think of the tendency to consider regenerative as superior to sustainable? I know some people argue that sustainability is "status quo", but there are actually several amazing sustainability choices that the regenerative movement seems to forget. Sometimes regeneration can be abstracted as we discuss social, cultural, economic regeneration, and then we neglect the very real work of reducing our collective footprint, building less new communities vs. regenerating existing ones, advocating for degrowth, etc. Would love to know your thoughts.