Kin's Domain Village Rodnoe & Slavnoye

Recently in Russia there has been an increase in the number of people who prefer life in nature to the hustle and bustle of the city, and have moved to Eco-villages…and are creating 'Kin's domains'. They have given up the use of fertilizers, heavy agricultural machines, and grow all their food themselves.

Eco-village Rodnoe has approximately 100 plots of land, each of which measures no less than one hectare. Families organize their plots in their own way, and say that their domain has the personality of its owner.

Who are they? People who leave their successful and relatively quiet life in modern cities and go to rural areas to set up a hectare of land - their Kin's domain? What drives them? Are they happy about the change? How do they deal with the land and growing plants? How does one build an adobe house?

Winter comes to Kin's domains village 'Rodnoe'. The land is covered with snow. It's time for renewal and contemplation of what has been created during the summer time. How do the villagers survive the winter? What do they actually do in winter? How to create a true Space of Love and to live in harmony with Nature, animals and all other of God's creations?

The story about the Russian Kin's domains ecovillages continues! More than 150 families have found their home on the beautyful fields of the Kin's domain ecovillage Slavnoye. Each of them has their own story, their own path, but all of them have the same goal – develop their plot to create a Kin’s domain.



The books in English: Ringing Cedars

Intentional Communities In France

Ecolonie (Vosges)


Through the starting points and vision of ECOlonie, we wish to express our view that life is a continuous, unifying experience. Founded in 1989, ECOlonie houses a vibrant, ecological association still very much in development.

Ecology (the thesis of ecological thinking and acting) at ECOlonie goes beyond healthy and organic gardening and building. Ecology is a philosophy that includes all aspects of life - both physical and spiritual. 'Eco' is derived from the Greek word oikos , meaning to feel at home. To feel at home somewhere simply means 'to feel at ease, to be able to be yourself'.

At ECOlonie, creativity and spirituality inspire the development of this vision to include environmental sustainability and the daily experience of nature. Each individual can define their own spirituality, as we focus on being undogmatic, down to earth and practical.

Website: Ecolonie




Lothlorien (Haute Marne)

Lothlorien is the name of the Golden Wood in Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”. It literally means “Flower of the Golden Wood”, a place where rest, peace and harmony prevail and where travellers can seek good advice and find strength.

Centre Lothlorien is a small community and course centre. The basis is living and working in harmony with nature, respect for everything that lives, giving an active contribution to create a human togetherness. It is an international, ecological and spiritual centre that offers a helping hand to every seeking person, everyone who is on the path of life. The centre presents courses, activities and a resting place where you can find your unique Self in order to go on with your life.

Website: Lothlorien



Carapa (Cévennes)

Website: Carapa 



Some other communities:

Green Community (Languedoc Rousillon)
Douceur et Harmonie (Serralongue, Catalonia)
Eco Chateau  (Saint-Privat, Corrèze)
L'Ecovillage du Périgord (Sarlande, Dordogne)
Oasis de Lentiourel (Saint-Affrique, Aveyron)
Taizé (Burgundy)
Goshen (Burgundy)
Peace Factory (Montolieu, Languedoc Rousillon)

Valhalla Movement

Valhalla is a movement hell-bent on making sustainable communal living mainstream. Together we will create the beautiful world our hearts tell us is possible. Superhuman goals can be accomplished when individuals with a common goal come together. Together, we are stronger than the sum of our parts.

We strongly believe many of the world’s ills can be solved through sustainable communal living. Thus we are building a network of 100% off-the-grid communities, the first of which in Montreal, Canada. We are documenting the entire process to teach others how to do the same AND to show the world that sustainable communities are:
- Awesome: This is not only great for the planet, but also a fantastically fun and free way to live.
- Feasible: You can do this too, and we’ll show you exactly how to do it.
- Necessary: Even if this wasn’t fun or easy, this is what we need to do right now.

We are the solution, not the protest.
Unlike other ‘hippie communities’, we are not shutting ourselves off from the world. We are doing everything possible to make this lifestyle universally appealing. We will be as loud as possible so that we’re either loved or hated, but never unheard of.

Website: Valhalla Movement

Anima Mundi

Will you survive the transition of human industrial civilization happening now due to peak oil and climate change? Can you see the forest for the trees, the earth for the dream, the universe for the seed? Anima Mundi is an innovative documentary about the planetary animal called Gaia and the human animal we deny, we deny at our own peril, yet a peril that is perfect in design.

Featuring:
David Holmgren – co-founder of Permaculture
John Seed OAM – Deep Ecology
Stephan Harding – Gaian Ecology
Vandana Shiva – Human Rights
Michael C Ruppert – Peak Oil (as seen in the movie Collapse)
Michael Reynolds – Earthships (as seen in the movie Garbage Warrior)
Noam Chomsky – Activism
Dr Mark O’Meadhra – Integrative Medicine
Dr Christine James – Psychology
Permablitz – Permaculture



Peak Oil

Intentional Communities In Spain

8th Life (Canary Islands)

We believe that stopping the destruction, working to build soil, restore ecosystems, heal our addictions, change organizational structures of the global economy & learn to live in community starting locally ... are the most important & urgent jobs to do now.

Website: 8th Life

Matavenero (Castile & Leon)

Website: Matavenero 



Sunseed (Andalusia)

Welcome to the Sunseed Desert Project, a hands-on practical centre for low-impact living and environmental education in Andalucía. At this lively international community, staff and volunteers work and learn together to develop, demonstrate, research and communicate alternative ways of having less impact and a smaller environmental footprint. Situated in a Los Molinos del Río Aguas, in a beautiful valley in southern Spain, Sunseed is off-grid and committed to low impact living and environmental stewardship.

Website: Sunseed

Valle De Sensaciones (Andalusia)

The project 'Valle de Sensaciones' is creating a space rich in nature, whose design, installations and sustainable infrastructure are allowing people to experiment with a wide variety of projects that revive the senses, including the conscience, and help to recreate a profound contact with the spirit of nature, the basis of our life. A space where various creators find fertile soil for the development of new initiatives between Art, Ecology and Technology. Another objective is to transmit the whole range of knowledge and inspiration out of the creation of this project. Beside the thematic areas of permaculture, green building, ecotecnology, and many other, we like to mediate a different attitude towards the need of changing our lifes, where each iniciative is enriched by creativity, art, music, spirituality, sensuality and by the spirit of comunal living.

Website: Valle de Sensaciones 

Ecoaldea de Lakabe (Navarre)



Other Ecovillages & Communities in Spain:
(Click for link to website)

Escanda (Asturias)
Falcon Blanco (Ibiza)
KanAwen (Catalonia)
Los Portales (Andalusia)
Flores de Vida (Catalonia)
Matricultura (Canary Islands)
Taller Karuna (Castile & Leon)

Iberian Ecovillage Network

Intentional Communities In Portugal

Awakened Life Project

A short introduction to a sustainable community in central Portugal that is pushing the boundaries of collective human potential. The Awakened Life Project is a non-profit association situated in a beautiful and wild ecological reserve in the mountains of Central Portugal. Part retreat centre and 21st century spiritual ashram, part permaculture farm, part integral evolutionary education hub, the Awakened Life Project is a multi-dimensional evolving organism and movement of (r)evolutionaries that is being co-created by a growing network of people throughout Portugal.

Website: Awakened Life Project



Tamera

Tamera in Southern Portugal is an international training and experimental site for the development of peace research villages and healing biotopes worldwide. Under the motto "Think Locally, Act Globally," approximately 200 people live, work and study in Tamera. Tamera’s aim is to develop an example of a model for a nonviolent co-existence of people and between people and nature. The main tasks of Tamera are: the education of young people within the "Monte Cerro" peace study, the building of a village model called "Solar Village" which produces its own food and solar energy, and global networking under the name of GRACE.

Website: Tamera



Osho Garden

Osho Garden is a communal project to create a living space where ecological gardening and meditation go hand in hand. We are registered as an Osho Information Center. The project started in 2010 and presently our accommodation is limited to a maximum of about ten people. We welcome visitors who want to participate and enjoy community life, spend time in nature and join the meditations, workshops, meetings, gardening and health food preparation.

Website: Osho Garden

Terramada

Isn’t Terramada like ”home”? A place where we can belong instantly and leave knowing we are a part of it even when apart. One Global Family. We share a wonderful gift in being Terramadians, in a community that is created by our principles of love, harmony, truth and freedom. By the labour each one of us who have tilled the soil, made the website, baked or organised or participated in an event or workshop has given.

Terramada needs your help to evolve into an ethical village and community, Where more people can visit and be inspired by our lived philosophy: Living as one, loving as one, in harmony with the Nature and each other. Creating a new world based on the heighest visions of ourselves by developing the power of our spirit.

Website: Terramada

Sustainable Living Projects, Courses and Events: Eco Living Portugal

The Many Uses Of Hemp

This video takes you on a quick tour of the many uses of hemp and offers a little bit of history. The first drafts of the American Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper. It was eventually banned in the US not because of any potential that it could be abused as a drug, because commercially grown hemp does not have THC as marijuana does but because it's a major threat to corporations.

We are familiar with hemp used in textiles, but did you know it is also being used to manufacture bricks and building materials like chipboard? And fuel...and plastic? And it makes a great nutritional supplement? Did you know hemp makes up to 4 times as much pulp as trees for paper production? There are thousands of uses for hemp and the time has come for the U.S. government to legalize the growing of hemp so that we may benefit economically from this truly amazing plant.

See also:

- Hemp can save the world

- If we grow...this is what we can do

- Understanding the hemp plant and its 50.000 uses and benefits

Visions Of A Sustainable World

A short film of voices from India, South Africa, Bangladesh and Ethiopia, giving their answers to the question 'What is your vision of a sustainable world?'

O.U.R. Ecovillage (Canada)

O.U.R. Ecovillage in British Columbia is aiming to create a self-sustaining community where they live in balance with the land, the animals and the environment. This is likely the most well developed eco community in Canada and is used as a model for similar sites all over the world.

Website: O.U.R. Ecovillage

From their Zero Mile Meal Eatery to zoning and financing innovations, O.U.R. Ecovillage in BC, Canada has paved the way for many communities worldwide. For co-founder Brandy Gallagher, the story on the planet right now could be a shared ethos of caring: "Everyone is fed. Everyone is taken care of." Asserting that "No is just an uneducated Yes," Brandy shows how a village mindset can transform individuals, preserve land, reduce resource use, apply permaculture principles, change laws, and even the way money works.

O.U.R. stands for "One United Resource," expressing how interdependence and inclusion undergird this 25 acre demonstration sustainable community on Vancouver Island. This model ecovillage comprises natural buildings, a school, long- and short-term residences, extensive gardens, greenhouses, and even a bed & breakfast. Brandy Gallagher MacPherson describes how they created an entirely new zoning category by building relationships with regulatory agencies that go beyond "us versus them".

Earth Friendly Moving

Cardboard boxes are not the way to move anymore. This video spotlights an exceptionally forward thinking company called Earth Friendly Moving, serving Orange county and Los Angeles county in California. They offer a Rent-A-Green Box service. These are strong plastic boxes you rent, all made from 100% recycled plastic bottles. Owner Spencer Brown got the idea when he spent $800 on moving supplies, only to have to drive to the dump and trash them all after their one day of use.

His company also makes pallets to stack on, and a bubble wrap replacement out of waste materials. The trucks they drive are fueled by waste vegetable oil, which he says saves him half a million dollars a year.

Those styrofoam packing peanuts are not just a terrible choice because they float around and do not biodegrade: they break off into smaller bits and birds, fish and other animals eat them. They choke, become poisoned and die. This company has wonderful biodegradable solutions to replace them; small paper cubes made of recycled cereal boxes that people return when they are done, and another product that is fully compostable.

Yes we are moving on! See if you can support initiatives like this in your area when anyone you know needs to move from now on.

Bhutan: The Land Of Happiness

Bhutan is the only nation in the world that measures Gross National Happiness (GNH) while all other nations focus on Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GNH was launched formally in 1972 as an economic alternative to GDP.

Bhutan has a completely different approach to prosperity from the rest of the western world. The Prime Minister of Bhutan, Jigme Thinley said, "The dogma of limitless productivity and growth in a finite world is unsustainable and unfair for future generations". At the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements he made a commitment to sustainable agriculture saying, "...my government has pledged to become 100% organic in food production…"

Gross National Happiness in Bhutan

Bhutan, a small country enshrined in the Himalaya's leads the way in the pursuit of holistic, inclusive and truly environmentally sustainable development.

Web Of Life (Full Movie)

Biodiversity: the essence of life.
This is a documentary on biodiversity with the brilliant Dr Vandana Shiva, who talks about the devastating 'gifts' of the the corporate agri-business, mass production system of genetically engineered seeds:

“We have an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. We have an epidemic of hunger and malnutrition. And, we have an epidemic of farmer suicides…I have grown up in an India where we have driven out mass consumption. In Indian philosophy, Ayurveda is the science of life. Veda means knowledge and ayur means life. And, central to the science of life is food. Sustainability and diversity are very intimately linked.We will continue to save seeds, exchange seeds, and breed seeds. We will NOT obey your brute laws of enslaving life on Earth and enslaving our farmers.”

Dutch subtitles

Part 2

Keyhole Garden African Style

Keyhole Gardens are a great garden to make - here is one being built in Uganda. This organic technique is part of Send a Cow's training in sustainable agriculture and is a great home garden idea too. Keyhole gardens survive floods and arid conditions well as the raised bed holds moisture and is 'fed' via a central compost basket.

Life Under Palm Trees

The ecovillage Sieben Linden is a community of 50+ adults plus children who plan to build a new village in a rural, conservative part of Germany with high unemployment and little cultural infrastructure. Som 300 people are supposed to live an ecologically and socially oriented life there one day.

Website: Sieben Linden

GMO a Go Go

This new animated cartoon covers all the basics on why GMOs are dangerous.

Seeking The Good Life

Like many of us, Joy is not content with the high consumption modern lifestyle we live in the United States. So she journeys to three different intentional communities - places where people have chosen to share land and resources in all kinds of creative ways - and documents her experiences. The result is a fun and engaging crash course in sustainable living, thinking outside of the box, and finding positive solutions in an increasingly challenging world.

Featured communities are:

Light Morning
Twin Oaks
Acorn Community



Part 2



Part 3



Part 4

Humanure Toilet

The fourth is an amazing piece of art. With some really smart engineering.

It seems that the secret to having no odor is to have a large pit and to vent the pit. It also helps to separate the pee. In all four, folks were encouraged to pee outside - way from the outhouses.

Sawdust is used in case there is any smell. A properly built outhouse can be better for the environment than a septic tank or a sewage treatment plant. I like these three designs much better than any of the humanure systems or composting toilets.

The Loveable Loo is demonstrated by loveable Lulu, who shows us the compost toilet and the garden that it can produce.



Build one yourself: Humanure Toilet

Manual: Instructions

Edible City (Full Movie)

Edible City is a fun, fast-paced journey through the Local Good Food movement that's taking root in the San Francisco Bay Area, across the nation and around the world. Introducing a diverse cast of extraordinary and eccentric characters who are challenging the paradigm of our broken food system, Edible City digs into their unique perspectives and transformative work, finding hopeful solutions to monumental problems. Inspirational, down-to-earth and a little bit quirky, Edible City captures the spirit of a movement that's making real change and doing something truly revolutionary: growing the model for a healthy, sustainable local food system.

Website: Edible City

Atamai Village

The Atamai permaculture community was set up on the principle that it takes a village to live sustainably - it is too difficult to do it on your own. Members of this community have come together to deal with the impacts of climate change, energy shortages and the social and economic challenges that are likely to follow these changes. "You don't want to wait until the signs are so obvious because then it is too late."

Website: Atamai Village (New Zealand)

Crystal Waters Ecovillage

An introduction to Crystal Waters covering permaculture design, innovative housing design, intentional community living and land restoration. Crystal Waters is situated in rural south east Queensland Australia. Filmed in 2001-2002.

Website: Crystal Waters