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usarender
millennium club
Joined: 01 May 2004
Posts: 1258
Location: San Diego, Ca
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 Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 1:21 pm Post subject: Eco Villages |
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| Natural Law Student wrote: | Greetings USARENDER,
I've been reading a very interesting book called (Finding Community) by Diana Leafe Christian. The first Chapter is about the planned community located in Ithaca New York, where Super Insulation and Co-Housing was designed and built with common interior wall duplex. 40% reduction of utilities is claimed as compared to the rest of the North Eastern United States. The founder of Ithaca Eco-Village was actually here in Silver City New Mexico,
but I was still far to ill from recovery of Mercury Poisoning via a Mercury/Amalgam filling I accidentally swallowed on May 21st 2007. I almost died with in 24 hours. $10,000 spent having all the mercury removed from my teeth and all the toxic old dental materials removed and replaced. So yes I have a keen interest in avoiding toxins.
Anyway I found out that the lecture was filmed and archived on Radio Free Silver. Here is the link.
Liz Walker
http://www.radiofreesilver.com/programs/071130_liz_walker.shtml
Joel Glanzburg
http://www.radiofreesilver.com/programs/071102_glanzberg.shtml
is also archived on this website and was a consultant to Robert Redford with land development and excellent Green Building ideas.
Ithaca Community did do some buildings with super insulation with cellulose, which is my interest. The SIP panels have formaldehyde glue and polystyrene. I doubt the air is that clean.
Here is the link for the Eco-Village at Ithaca. No wonder its World Famous.
http://www.ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us/
I've been reading more about Richard Heinburg and Peak Oil. Super Insulation is going to be a lot more important as Utility Prices and Available Resources become more scarce. Building design and maybe Geo-Thermal Heat pumps or digging in with earth bermed homes in Northern locations may be the only building design and community planning that makes sense. I've been wondering about the common interior wall with duplexes and one common shared boiler. I know of an Architect in Santa Rosa California who heats his entire Victorian Home with a 40 gallon water heater and hydronic heat exchanger mounted on top of it. Said that the Natural Gas bill only went up $6.00 per month. He said one little burner and flame is all that is needed, and the P.E.C. Hydronic tubing takes the heat exchanged water to where ever its wanted in the house. This was 10 years ago. After the Central Heating System was removed and remodeling was complete. Heating the mass of wood floor was comfortable. We talked about how when the feet are warm the rest of the body does just fine. Hydronic heat is down low to the floor where the human body needs winter warmth the most..... |
Wow, this community is amazing!
It is incredible what they have achieved as a community in such a short period of time over the years, and the partnerships they have established, and the sense of communty and togetherness created ! Thanks for the link of the video !
Here are some notes I took on the first video -->>
Climate change, disruptions, same in Ithica New York.
Similar problems, even though different eco-systems.
Phillipines rain forrests being washed away by too much water.
In balance in micro and macro systems.
It will take all of us to change this. We need to change our life-style as Americans, very quickly and very profoundly.
Mary Oliver favorite poet. Gathers inspiration from nature. She helps to get us out of ourselves and look at the larger picture - imagining what greater, fuller human beings we can be. How can we put down roots and live on the land.
Environmental community. 1991 received an invitation to create an Eco village.
Currently 160 people live there.
Co-housing communities.
Have a common house - community center, with laundry facilities and offices. 100 adulst and 60 children. Kids sell lemonade, girl scout cookies etc. EVI
A model of ecological living. Chose a number of best practices used in other communities around the country -->>
EVI's Best Practices for Sustainable Living :
- To conserve 90% of land as open space.
- To integrate Organic Architecture.
- Develop a village of several co-housing neighborhoods.
- Build energy-efficient, passive solar homes.
- Develop on-site businesses.
- Create educational opportunities.
They own 175 acres, and they are preserving 90 % of that as open space.
Organic agriculture, developing a village of several co-housing communities.
Building energy efficient passive solar homes.
Creating alot of educational opportunities.
Purchased land owned by a developer that went bankrupt.
Creating 100 homes.
Two co-housing neighborhood. Each of them with 30 homes and a common house.
First neighborhood on just 3 acres of land - includes parking, 30 homes, common house, and the surrounding land.
Second neighborhood with 30 homes on about 4 acres of land, with the same amenities.
They have 2 organic farms - feeds a thousand people a week from just 10 acres of land.
They have a Berry Farm as well.
They preserved 55 acres in a permanent conservation easement.
They decided to produce alot of their own food.
West Haven Farm is set-up on the CSA model.
Community supported agriculture - a wonderful invention. It is a way that small farmers can partner with consumers. At the beginning of the growing season, the farmers put out a general call for customers offering them a share in the harvest of the farm. In the case of West Haven farm, they put out a call on e-mail and they sell 200 shares in a matter of days. $300-500 a share. In return of investing the money, you get a fresh back of produce every week during the growing season of May to November. A wonderful win win proposition. They get capital up-front - they pre-sale the produce before they grow it. Consumer gets the freshest produce around - get it on the day it is picked !
They also have community gardens on site with family plots. Sheeps and chickens owneb by families. Berry farm as a CSA - first organic you-pick CSA farm in the country!
They decided early on to use the co-housing model. A community oriented form of houssing, started in Denmark in the late sixties. It was a way to ensure a strong sense of community but assure people's privacy. Great friendship networks happen, with children playing together. They have a common house for each neighborhood. A very important feature of a co-housing community is that it is based on pedestrian streets. To take cars out of the streets and let people walk there. It creates a wonderful place in the middle of the street where children can play. Co-operative housing relies on consensus - requires alot of meetings.
Common house made by home-cooked meals made by neighbors.
Every adult puts in 2 hours a week into community health projects.
They drip dry their clothes.
They buillt green homes, using green building materials.
DESIGNING AND BUILDING GREEN HOMES
-Use green building materials.
-Heat air-space efficiently.
-Super insulation.
-Passive solar design.
-Duplexes share exterior wall.
-Minimize power consumption.
-Conserve water.
EcoVillage homes use 40-50% less gas & electric than others in the Northeast.
They try to minimize electricity consumption and make efforts to preserve water.
Fintorn Eco-Village in Scottland. They also have their footprint 40% english and Scottish foot-prints which are already 50% below American foot-prints.
Green Building Materials they use
(Some are not necessarily natural).
-Structural Insulated Panels (SIP) (Considred a green form of building). Very easy to work with and light weight. Use a recycled wood on the outside and expanded polyethilene - EPS in the middle.
- In the first neighborhood used ouble-wall construction.with wood, filled with packed cellulose - recycled newspaper.
- Timber-frame / straw bale.
They also have a couple of straw bale homes - beautiful buildings.
Photovaltaic panels.
Try to keep the cost affordable while doing the most green buildings.
About half of the homes have photovaltaic panels.
The New York State housing between 2002-2007 - legislation allows for major incentives for using renewable energy sources- get 50% back on initial incentive right away
While a small project is gaining so much attention - because they are actually putting their ideas into practice.
Common factors in the US to promote such communities -->>
A profound sense of allianation and longing for community.
All of us, if given a chance, would like to live more environmentally sound lives, we just don't know how to do it. When you live as a community, you can help each other do this.
They built the community with a stream down the middle. They built a bridge together across the ravine.
Major Challenges of Cohousing:
-Big development hurdles.
-Planning & Zoning.
-Building codes.
-Ling timeline.
-Extensive participation by residents.
-Affordability.
With more co-housing projects the problems become less.
When they started, there were only 2, and now there are more then 80 and many new ones being aproved every day. A new concept for most people.
A challenge to create affordable housing - they come in at market rate. They got subsidies for 6 out of 30 units.
They have an affiliation with Cornel - social change non-profit organization. 18,000 students at Cornell.
Ithica College partnership. 8,000 students with adm. interested in environmental issues. They got a 3 year science foundation grant - they teach one course a semester for 5 years, related to sustainability. Sustainability has now become the modus operandi of this college. Work alot with graduate students, and with people writing books. They are created an education center - sustanability for education, alternative land based high school. Doing work-shops in the lobby. Doing enterpreneurial training with Ethica College Business School. They are giving out min-grants to the faculty. Eco village members can apply for these grants. Faculty can revise their courses, so they focus on sustainability.
Did a desigh charret with Village Habitats Designs to look at what to do with the future of Eco-Village. Build alot more homes, creating an educational center, more farm based businesses, create more gardens, space set-aside for wild-life on only a portion of the property, with another 175 acres surrounding this.
Future directions
-Center for education sustainability, planning a new neighborhood called Tree (Third REsidentail Eco Village Entity).
(It will be green, affordable, accessible).
-Local, national and international partnerships.
Many ripple effects from the project.
The college is building a LEED platinum rated business school, to be the first platinum rated business school in the world and they are planning a curriculum that will be sustainability oriented, for their business school.
The Ithaca College science faculty and students collaborated also with ground staffers on an alternative lanscaping project on the steep northern slope outside the Center for Natural Sciences. The area models low-impact landscaping techniques and has markedly improved biodiversity in the area.
The created Sustainable Tompkins, as a parnership with Ithica College. It works with many comities and interest groups as short term and long term efforts to obtain sustainability.
Sustainable Tompkins County -
(Initiated by EVI-IC partnership).
Regional sustainability.
Sustainability study circles.
Public meetings on :
-Local Food networks.
-Alternative transportation. A new group working with people with the city figuring out a whole new transportation system, modeled on systems used in Europe.
-Green business.
-Green housing development and more...
Study circles, in depth studies.
Jamie Cloud - sustainability educator. Teaches about sustainability.
They established also Ithaca Carshare. Eco-Villagers, plus people from Cornell, plus people from Ithaca college, plus people from our local public transportation, and local business people. A little delayed, but rapidly moving forward.
They hae a Tompkins County Sustainability Team created in September of 2005.
It is a team comprised of representatives from various county departments.
They have a legislature action plan being finalized for 2007 and beyond.
They look from an official point of view on what they can do to create a more sustainable county.
They also have the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute (FLPCI) which is committed to bringing affordable and high quality sustainability education to the Finger Lakes bioregion.
And the CRESP Center for Transformative Action, an affiliate of Cornell University, which envisions a world where compassion ignites social innovation.
"Our mission is to support social entrepreneurs in developing and advancing innovative projects that create a foundation for a more just, peaceful and sustainable world.
We practice, teach, and advocate approaches that transform polarizing positions into a cooperative exporation for creative solutions."
They are doing Ecovillage Design training with professionals around the world - in Brazil, Mexico, Portugal, Scotland, Israel, Sri Lanka, Ithaca, NY.
There are aproximately 400 new eco-villages around the world. (Are many thousands of traditional eco-villages). 3 years ago a group got together to create training sessions on how to create eco-villages.
"Creating Sustainable Communities: The Ecological Dimension".
It was adapted form a larger curriculum developed by Gaia Education, an international group of ecovillage educators which EVI helped to start. This curriculum has been recognized by the United Nations as an official part of the UN Decade for Education and Sustainable Development.
To create a place that is healty and safe for their children and grand-children.
June 1991 they had a week-long retreat with 100 people who participated. They talked about what it would be like to create an eco-village. The original concept was to create an ecological village that preserved alot of land, that created a strong sense of community and that used the co-housing model for the housing and grow alot of their own food. They started with no money and alot of enthusiastic people. They were able to raise 400,000 in loans in a few weeks, just by making personal loans ! They started the first co-housing group in March of 1992 and in June of 92 purchased the land !
The non-profit owns most of the land.
The ownership of housing is done as New York State cooperatives and people own shares in the cooperative and have proprietary lease which links those shares to an individual home and people get mortgages from the bank. When they want to sell their homes, people put it on the website. They have a waiting list. They do not screen out members, but ask people to come visit, take part in a meal, celebration etc.
Farm food for 1000 people - what percentage of their food ? Probably supplies 75% of their produce during their growing season. They get alot of food also from surrounding farms - eggs, beans, grains, toffu organic soilbeans grown locally.
They also eat 4 meals a week as a village. Those on the cook team try to select form local seasonal foods and build their meals around that. Organic free range chicken, beef and pork and a distribution system set-up for that also.
The non-profit and the residents are legally separated. Difficult to get grants as is so innovative and holistic and many grants are oriented on very focused projects, where they tend to "weave everything together". |
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usarender
millennium club
Joined: 01 May 2004
Posts: 1258
Location: San Diego, Ca
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| Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 1:47 pm Post subject: A Few Eco Village Sites & Projects |
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Below is an initial list of a few very interesting eco villages around the world.
If you know of any interesting eco villages, I would like to hear from you.
A few are -->>
Gaia Trust
http://www.gaia.org/gaia/gaiatrust/vision/
| Quote: | Our vision
"We are all one Planet, all one people of Earth
All one Planet sharing our living our dying our birth
and we won't stand by hearing her cry and deny
we live as she lives we die as she dies....
— Molly Scott
Our Dream – The Grand Ecovillage Vision
We are one undivided whole on Earth and the healing of Mother Earth is a joint responsibility of all Humankind. The song tells us how we need to redefine our western worldview into a more holistic one and find a new vision for the future.
The vision is for all people to live in settlements containing all elements of society much like a holograph, where every part contains the whole. Plant and animal systems reflect this manifold/variety. Everything in the larger society and in nature may be experienced within walking distance by children, the aged and the weak, so that they may live full lives. It is a place where God feels at home and where you would like to return in you next life. It is a place where we live according to the values of the major world religions of love, peace and solidarity with all. Where we celebrate and respect 4 billion years of evolution on the planet.
As more and more fully featured ecovillages appear, we hope that the idea will quickly spread all over the planet as a morphogenetic field and restore the circulatory systems on all levels both in people and in nature. The ecovillage vision has its roots in civil society, in the subsistence economy, in the informal economy. It is thus a feminine utopia and a community utopia, saying: this is how we want to live with each other, our children, the elderly and the handicapped; this is how we want to live with the natural world, plants and animals. This is how we want to reinvent ourselves as humans. "We are not a collection of objects but a community of subjects" with the words of Thomas Berry. Economics and technology must adapt to that - not the other way round. In this way society can be structured to reflect spiritual and natural laws.
This grand vision contains three partial visions as follows.
The Social Partial Vision
What people most long for in the North is community. In the South 60 % still live in villages and have their social structure intact, but they are threatened by globalisation and urbanisation and in need of modernisation. A local community should be no larger than that we may all know each other personally. Participatory democracy and an open decision structure are critical. We want more, not less democracy. A place where being a kid is fun - where children may roam all over, without fences, without danger from fast-moving vehicles; where they may learn from just being, watching and participating. Cars are parked on the periphery. It is a place where you are an active participant throughout your life. Less may here mean better quality.
The elderly are highly appreciated for their knowledge wisdom and love, the mature for their strength and experience, the young for their enthusiasm and new ideas, the children for fun, play and hope for the future. It is a place for four generations. Couples will have better chances here for unfolding relationships - no guilty conscience about leaving the kiddies with an extended family nearby. There will be time enough for love, and plenty of jobs in the vicinity. Divorces will be less frequent and less of a catastrophe for those involved.
The Ecological Partial Vision
The ecovillage site should ideally have an uplifting experience of nature - forest, lake or stream, variety in plant and animal life. This is how eco-literacy may be learnt naturally. But it could even be in the inner city of a large metropolis. If it is not there initially, then restoring nature to have these qualities will be a priority. There is no reason to accept less. Interaction with a diverse natural environment defines the human state and identity. Without it, we lose our heritage. An ecovillage design course can create a shared design for the site and for fine-tuning shared values and priorities. Part of the land will often be set aside for a wilderness area or nature corridors for wild animals. An integrated village renewable energy system should be researched. Fresh, local, ecological food production will be re-established. This ecovillage lifestyle is possible in principle for everybody on this planet, even in reorganized and retrofitted cities. The movement is one large Earth restoration project expressing the principles of Agenda 21, Earth Charter and living up to the goals of the ecological foot-print, i.e. reduction of pressure on local nature so that we do not need three planets if everybody should live like the North.
The Spiritual Partial Vision
Beauty and aesthetics are guiding principles of design for all and everything in the community. Celebrations, laughter, song and dance are important elements of daily life. Rather than being consumers, we will all become artists. Architects and designers once again will make sure that houses and surroundings are beautiful and made of good healthy, long-lasting materials. People will all be in a lifelong learning process of personal development. Spirituality will be a major goal. How to open our hearts, to reach new levels of consciousness and understand the deeper levels of nature will be more interesting than technological fixes. Life will be seen as constant change, death and birth as important passages. Preventative health and traditional medicine will be the foundation stones of the health concept. Acceptance, tolerance, solidarity and love will be the fundamental values. Meditation and silent prayer will be seen as part of personal hygiene.
A Global Civilisation in Harmony
A global perspective is the starting point of defining our vision about the future. What kind of global civilisation do we wish for Humankind? Our response is that we wish to see a global society of independent free peoples in harmony with nature and each other, but with a diversity of cultures, races and religions that honor and respect the diversity of our common heritage. We ask ourselves, how can this be achieved in a society, which is moving in exactly the opposite direction - a society that is destroying the environment, diversity, harmony among people and local communities in the name of a misunderstanding of "progress," as if the human condition can only be measured in terms of material things, and as if we had infinite resources to satisfy infinite wants. Today, we create massive poverty in some parts of society and massive wealth accumulation in other parts, which is unacceptable from a moral point of view since we are all interconnected parts of a single planetary organism. Under such circumstances, we asked ourselves how we could best contribute to a transformation of society in the desired direction.
We observed that vibrant, harmonious local communities are the basic building blocks of any healthy society, the very essence of what it means to be human. But such communities are being destroyed all over the world by the current economic system that ignores the negative environmental and social effects of its ideology. We observed also that our politicians will never be able to take the necessary decisions because their time frame is too short, and their obligations are to the same people who are causing the problems in the first place, and the people who elect them are for the most part concerned with their own, often formidable problems of survival, and not with the problems to be faced by their great grandchildren. Who does that leave?
It is at the grass roots level we must look if we are to expect revolutionary change to occur. The only real solutions always come from the bottom and work their way up. Fortunately there is a small minority that has the right priorities, the right understanding, and the courage to act in opposition to the dominant culture. They are many and they are found in all walks of life and in all countries.
One part of this minority in particular, we felt, deserved our support, because they were truly agents of change, and were getting almost no support, financial or otherwise from anywhere else. These were the grass roots people who not only shared our vision, but also were already actively working on the ground to create the models for such a new culture - the ecovillagers who are adapting their lifestyle to the needs of future society, living lightly on the Earth in tolerant harmony of all other beings. They were walking their talk, putting their lives on the line as they build a new foundation for a new culture.
The Vision is Manifesting
That our vision is not pure utopia can be illustrated by much of the information on this site and related links. The vision is, in fact, slowly manifesting all over the world with millions of participants and with the wind of inevitability behind it. Read, for example, the history of The Ecovillage Movement, the story of the Global Ecovilllage Network, more detail about the question, "What is an ecovillage?" and about the people who are making it happen in the illustrated book Ecovillage Living; Restoring the Earth and Her People. New educations teach how to establish ecovillages. See more in the Gaia Education section of this site. |
The Ideal Eco Village
| Quote: | Introduction
The ideal ecovillage, which does not yet exist - is a sustainable human settlement which is in harmony with all aspects of life, including the cultural, ecological and spiritual dimensions.
On these pages you can read more about the ecovillage movement, philosophy and history and the people who are making it happen all over the world. |
Los Angeles Eco-Village
Global Ecovillage Network
Ecovillage at Ithaca
Eco Village Farm - A Learning Center
(With the Ecovillage Site Plan).
Eco Sustainable Village
A Cluster of Eco Villages
| Quote: | | There are so many eco-village projects under development, and they are springing up so quickly, that we were hearing about new ones right up to the day we closed this issue. Not all eco-villages are fabulous successes, of course - many projects never leave the drawing board or the meeting room. But the eco-village movement, like science, thrives on experimentation: we can learn as much from what doesn't work as from what does. Here we present a representative sample of eco-village and community projects, some established, some just getting started - and one in the odd state of being finished, but practically unpopulated. |
1. CRYSTAL WATERS
2. SOLTA ECO-VILLAGE NETWORK
3. SOLDIERS GROVE
4. IMAGO
| Quote: | We are a task-directed group, and so far we've established:
* a natural food co-op
* an annual Harvest Festival
* street-wide recycling
* shared meals
* organic gardens
* a monthly Street Newslett8er
* a Block Watch
* a process of conflict resolution through mediation
* tree-planting
* a neighborhood organization |
5. GANAS FOUNDATION
6. ECOVILLAGE AT ITHACA
7. THE SWINOMISH TRIBAL COMMUNITY
8. THE NORTH CAROLINA BIODOME
9. Essence And Form
| Quote: | The New Road Map Foundation is a community of financially independent full-time volunteers, living in a large suburban house in Seattle. They sell a cassette course entitled "Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence," and give away all the proceeds to non-profit groups. They also perform numerous service projects. During a recent conversation with Diane and Robert Gilman, long-time members Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin offered this crucial piece of wisdom for prospective community developers. Contact them at P.O. Box 15981, Seattle, WA 98115.
It is absolutely vital in a community to understand, really understand, the distinction between essence and form. The substitution of one for the other is so often a pitfall. Purpose, vision, and reason for being together remain purely at the level of essence. How that manifests in form is almost irrelevant. Things are going to work out fine if there is a clear link between that essence and the forms that emerge from it, whether at the level of projects, or architectural style, or governmental processes, or job distribution, whatever. But when there is a muddying - when the focus is put on forms, unlinking them from the driving spirit behind it all - the problems emerge.
- Joe Dominguez
If you don't have the capacity to step back into that place of essence, you'll surely lock horns over things like whether or not we should compost our kitchen scraps. That kind of issue is going to be your downfall. People have to have the capacity to step back from their position, what they think is right, to a place where they are all attempting to see the highest. That's an essential skill for dealing with other people in community - to let go of being right |
The Eco-village Challenge
The challenges involved in building an eco-village - comprehensive list!
Eco Village Siri Lanka
O.U.R. Ecovillage
Ecovillage Beyax
(A beautiful well-designed web page).
The Ecovillage at Currumbin
| Quote: |
Awarded as Queensland's finest example of sustainable urban development and best residential subdivision. The Ecovillage at Currumbin offers something inspirational ... the chance to live a natural lifestyle within a vibrant community atmosphere amidst one of Australia's most liveable cities.
Embraced within picturesque Currumbin Valley and with world heritage rainforests providing a lush back drop. The Ecovillage is located just 7 minutes and 7km from one of the Gold Coast's most exceptional beaches.
The location makes it possible to live amidst nature while still being just a stone's throw of city amenities. With sustainability as the goal, convenience facilities are included in a Village Centre, so that residents can spend less time commuting and more time simply enjoying life.
The Ecovillage concept embraces the land, aiming to enhance what is already beautiful ... a piece of paradise, where you can have the comforts of contemporary life within the vibrant Gold Coast city yet harvest the many benefits of a world class ecovillage.
The first stage of The Ecovillage (Creek Ecohamlets) has experienced strong interest and sales with the second stage "Valley Terraces" are selling now. Visit the Interpretive Centre and find out about these two stages and the "Highlands" to be released late this year.
As only limited opportunity now exists to become part of this vibrant forming community, click here for more information. |
According to the site --->>
2007 UDIA Award for Excellence
Australia's Best Environmental Development |
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miscreant
Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Posts: 11
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 12:05 am Post subject: |
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here's an interesting example of an ecovillage in Israel 2006 Award for Ecovillage Excellence to Kibbutz Lotan
Updated: 08/01/2006
The 2006 Award for Ecovillage Excellence has been awarded to Kibbutz Lotan by the Global Ecovillage Network in recognition of its work in promoting ecological building, waste management and environmental education as well as for its work in promoting sustainability through the building of bridges between different ethnic groups in Israel.
Kibbutz Lotan was founded in 1983 by graduates of the Jewish reform youth movement from Israel and overseas, with the aim of creating a community based on a modern liberal approach to Judaism that strives to fulfill values of equality between the sexes, equality in work, and genuine communication between people. The kibbutz maintains a cooperative lifestyle with shared means of production and resources. During a period of community redefinition in 1995, a few dedicated members began advocating greater emphasis on environmental concern and ecology within the activities of the kibbutz. A waste management program and organic vegetable garden were established, and alternative building methods utilizing waste and sustainable materials were promoted. Lotan became a member of the European branch of the Global Ecovillage Network in 2001.
In the wake of increasing environmental awareness outside of the kibbutz, Lotan's Center for Creative Ecology was established as an expression of its progressive Jewish orientation. Rooted in"Tikun Olam", the Jewish concept for repairing and transforming the world, the Center expanded to include an ecological theme park, migratory bird reserve, nature trails, and an ecological education center that combines hands-on, experiential environmental education with Jewish values. The Center runs seminars, workshops and courses of varying length for adults and children of all ages, both from Israel and from overseas, with the aim of empowering participants with practical tools in order to promote positive change within their own communities. In 2000, the Center won the environmental award of the Ministry of the Environment in Israel for its activities on behalf of environmental education.
Development of a bird reserve in an adjacent deserted sand quarry has been made possible through partnership with the Jewish National Fund and the Israel Ornithology Center of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel as part of the international Birdpark without Borders program. Currently under construction, with support of the European Union's LIFE fund, is a constructed wetland that will naturally treat all of Lotan's wastewater via plants and will constitute an additional part of the educational migratory bird center.
Educational activities of the Center for Creative Ecology have included sustainability workshops for Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian youth in partnership with Friends of the Earth Middle East. The idea of combining environmental education with working towards peaceful coexistence and promoting environmental justice has also been behind Lotan's partnership with the Bustan (Orchard) for Peace organization, which resulted in the building of a straw-bale medical clinic in the Bedouin village of Wadi El-Na'am. Lotan's educational center has also established a successful 10-week permaculture and ecovillage design course called "Green Apprenticeship" that attracts participants from all over the world. For further details about the Center for Creative Ecology's educational activities, see the Lotan website: kibbutzlotan.com - - Fishfool @ The Reef Tank |
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Antisthenes
Joined: 28 Nov 2006
Posts: 594
Location: Phoenix
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 10:39 am Post subject: |
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do you think we will see villages in Iraq by USAians like this one day?
the idea sounds great but it is built on occupied land in the middle of a horrendous apartheid.
_________________
The most necessary/useful piece of learning is that which unlearns what is untrue: 'evil'
may be acquired, Happiness through virtue which is based on knowledge!/? |
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