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Luvian Iskandar

Making the Rainiest Place in India Wet and Green Again!

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In October 2020 Sadhana Forest started its reforestation effort in Meghalaya, a state in northeast India, which is known for its hilly terrain and extremely high rainfall.

When we first came to Meghalaya we thought that our experience in water conservation and reforestation was not relevant. Then we started traveling the state and witnessed first-hand the massive deforestation, soil degradation, and the great challenges with the water supply. After a few more visits and a deeper understanding of the ground reality, we started working with the Government of Meghalaya on training local communities and demonstrating different water conservation and tree planting techniques. 

Our solar-powered deforestation bus

Two old wooden buses were turned into a mobile reforestation unit. They were fitted with a small kitchen, bathroom, and solar panels on top to meet the electrical needs of the team. With these buses our team of long-term volunteers drove across the state for one and a half years, working in 25 different villages.

Conducting training with local villagers

The focus of the team was on water conservation (swales proved to be very helpful on the sloped terrain), reforestation (using only native species), soil regeneration (using legumes that were chopped and dropped), and training. In every village, local people were trained in the aforementioned techniques. We planted only indigenous, food-bearing tree species, with the aim of improving food security in the area.

Our team lived very simply, staying in the villages, cooking for themselves, and sleeping in the buses and in tents. This made them very accessible to the local villagers, who welcomed them with open arms. The trainings were met with great enthusiasm, and in every village motivated volunteers stood up to continue the ecological restoration work after the departure of our team. The project was a great success and the Government has asked us to establish three permanent immersion centers in the state, one in each of the tribal regions: Garo, Khasi, and Jaintia hills. These centers will enable an immersive experience in nature and sustainable living and will provide training in water conservation and reforestation. A team from Sadhana Forest will live in each one of the centers and will interact with the local people and provide training.

Digging swales as a part of our water conservation work

If you are interested in making a long-term commitment and getting involved, you can email us at india@sadhanaforest.org. 

About the Author

Sadhana Forest is an international reforestation and water conservation volunteering organization. Sadhana Forest welcomes 1,500 volunteers per year that come and stay on sustainable vegan off-grid community campuses. It was founded in 2003 by Yorit and Aviram Rozin in India and later expanded to Haiti and Kenya, working on food security with local people living in drought-prone rural areas planting indigenous food-bearing trees. In 2020 a new project was started in Meghalaya, northeast India. Find out more about them on their website sadhanaforest.org.

Building Communities and Surviving Together – an Exchange Gathering by GEN Japan

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GEN-Japan held the Second Exchange Gathering Online from March 5th to 6th. Unexpectedly, one week after the beginning of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, it highlighted the meaning of community building and the importance of unwavering cooperation, as well as networking among these communities. In this online event, about 20 communities and initiatives joined. Each speaker and community strongly announced it to the public and as a result, more than 200  participants participated in the gathering. Through the event, we were able to clearly understand the difference between a world that “tries to move people through violence and violent acts” and a world that understands and cooperates with each other through dialogue and we shall move towards the latter.

One audience member sent us her impression after the event;” I was encouraged by the fact that younger people are starting various initiatives.”Since last year, exchanges and cooperation among the participating eco-villages have begun, and at the same time, young people from urban areas are touring the eco-villages and such a population has been gradually increasing. They are beginning to experience a new way of life while there. On the other hand, there is a movement to learn from each other about the efforts of how they keep building ecovillages.

Tetora Tanizaki, representative of WorldShift Japan, an advisory board of GEN-Japan, suggested that we need to clearly show the innovative way of living in harmony to the public. This year GEN-Japan is having a Gaia Youth Education in March and April as well as GEN-Japan EDE course in April. We are trying to steadily promote the creation of a harmonious society through eco-villages.

Grounding: A Reflection After 20 Months of Living in Sun Clover Ecovillage

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This article was written by Luvian Iskandar.

When I first discovered the idea of ecovillages and saw existing ecovillage communities in various countries, I was instantly captivated. I became fascinated with how people choose to live together while intentionally and holistically designing their way of living upon shared values of regenerative living. I saw a community of people that understands the global socio-environmental problems (climate change, inequalities, etc.) we are facing and choose to take matters into their own hands instead of waiting for change to come.

For my master’s program, I wanted to study the development process of ecovillages as I had the feeling that I might be involved with one in the future. After looking around for feasible study sites around me (I was studying at National Dong Hwa University on the East Coast of Taiwan), I was introduced to a new ecovillage initiative called Sun Clover Ecovillage which was only two hours away from my campus. It is a community started by a husband and wife who moved to rural Taiwan from the city to build a space where people can live a more healthy lifestyle while cultivating a strong connection with each other and nature. For my research, I got the opportunity to join the initiative as a participant observer for eight months, being involved in all of the daily activities. 

Through my immersion there, I learned and experienced a lot about the things that happen in the initial stage of an ecovillage community and also developed a deep relationship with the Sun Clover family. In fact, I enjoyed my experience so much that I ended up back in Sun Clover and became a resident there for a year after I completed my studies. During that year, I feel that I grew and healed a lot as a human being. I feel more connected with myself, people, and the environment around me. I have just recently moved back home to Indonesia, so I thought it was a good time for me to share some of my experiences and reflections from the 20 months I spent in Sun Clover Ecovillage.

daily activities in Sun Clover include farming rice, food processing, cooking, eating, taking care of the baby, tidying up the house, taking care of our garden and chickens, building projects, and much more.

When I first came to Sun Clover, I came as an ecovillage enthusiast whose idea and experience of ecovillage came solely from articles, books, and videos I found online. I brought along with me my interpretation and imagination of how life would be completely different in an ecovillage from the way of living in the mainstream: how people live a very low impact lifestyle through living simply and intentionally, having a deep connection with nature, living in natural structures that mimic their surroundings, having food grown from our very own multi-variety gardens, living with a community of people that supports each other, practicing nonviolent communication all the time. My imagined version of an ecovillage definitely falls into the utopian side of the spectrum (not that that’s a bad thing) but with it, I also have this mentality “if I just go to an ecovillage, all of the world’s problems -as well as my own- will disappear!”.

Rice farming using natural farming methods

My experience of living in Sun Clover is very different from this imagined version. Being a new ecovillage initiative, Sun Clover is more like a family rather than a community of people. There were only the two co-founders and their baby when I first came (I was the first person who lived with them for an extended time). We were living in a regular concrete house that the family rented. We were farming rice using more eco-friendly methods of natural farming and selling our rice online, but we didn’t have a garden where we grew our own food. Instead, we purchased all of our groceries from the market. 

At times, I was wrestling in my head with the mismatch between my imagination and the reality I was experiencing. It took me a while to realize and accept that even though the ecovillage that I imagined was similar to where Sun Clover is moving towards, we’ve got to start somewhere and the mismatch is simply a part of the journey. 

Living in Sun Clover made me realize a lot of the practicalities of starting an ecovillage. For example, one of the reasons we were not growing our own food (although we do have space for a garden) is because we simply didn’t have the time and energy to do it. Our natural farming rice farm requires a lot of our time and energy as we do a lot of the work manually and we need to take care of orders and delivery. There are regular chores like cooking and cleaning, and on top of all of that, we have a baby to take care of. We only have three people to do all that work, and we were busy bees a lot of the time and often a day went by just like the flick of a hand. 

Ah-Hsu with our first cabbage harvest

Towards the end of my stay there, I was already able to see the progress we made. One more person joined to live full-time with us, which made us 5 people (including the baby) and it already felt a little bit more like a community. We started our garden and within a few months started to eat the vegetables we grew. We built a few rooms for people to stay, in and built an irrigation channel using natural materials. It’s really nice to see how we have made a few baby steps towards our ecovillage vision.

Through this experience, I learned that developing an ecovillage is not as simple as I naively thought before, especially in the beginning phase. It tied my dreams and visions of an ecovillage into the ground and taught me how to use the dreams and vision as my north star while starting with the realities of being on the ground where my feet are. 

My admiration and appreciation towards people who are building, developing, and living in ecovillages have only grown and multiplied since I first came to Sun Clover as I witnessed the commitment, actions, thoughts, heart, love, patience, and life energy that are compassionately poured in every step of the way towards manifesting “the more beautiful world.” 

I’m utterly grateful for being able to be in Sun Clover in its nascence, witnessing and being a part of this very interesting stage full of mysteries, possibilities, and uncertainties. It has been such a rich experience the past year.  Although I only shared about how it has been grounding in this piece, the time I spent in Sun Clover has been healing and nourishing too. But that’s another story for another time 😉.  

Sun Clover family and some of my friends during a gathering before I left

I have endless gratitude for the family in Sun Clover. Jensen and Michiko, the co-founders, for letting me in although both of them weren’t ready for having an extra member when I first came (I learned about it later), and for the love, care, and guidance that both of them give all the time. Ah-Hsu for joining us, anchoring us with his calmness and his deep and genuine care for everything. And, of course, Sarasa (the baby) for the unbearable sweetness, cuteness, and chaos that adds so much flavor to our daily life. Cheers to all the times spent together and all the things to come!

About the Author

Luvian Iskandar, Indonesia

Luvian works with GENOA as a communications coordinator. When he became aware of the social and environmental degradation in the world, he found out about the holistic approach within the ecovillage movement to regenerating social and environmental systems and resonated with it. He chose to study the early development stage of ecovillages for his master’s program, thinking that he might be involved in such a project in his home country, Indonesia, in the future. Upon graduation, he lived and worked in an aspiring ecovillage community in Hualien, Taiwan for a year before moving back to his home country, Indonesia, where he now resides.

Joining the Ecovillage Lifestyle Experience Week at Gaia Ashram

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This article was written by Lila Sahj.

Simple but profound, the Ecovillage Lifestyle Experience Week was humbling, soul-nourishing, and inspiring. My intention for the week was to listen deeply and learn, to be humbler and appreciate my life & nature, to open and feel more love in my heart, and to apply the knowledge I gain to my life, and then share it with others. 

We were guided by the wise & wild Om (whose stories could fill books), on a journey through the 4 Dimensions of Sustainability: Social, Economic, Ecological, and Cultural. 

I was expecting it to be very community and nature-oriented, so I was surprised at how central personal awareness and growth was to the process, which I deeply appreciated. We all reflected on our lifestyles & designed them anew, inspired by the mind-expanding questions we were given. I like this personal approach because I believe that to change the world, it needs to come from within – culture shift in ourselves & the collective. Being in an environment where we feel connected to all of life and take the time to explore true heart’s desires facilitates the emergence of a holistic mindset; one that values all life, including oneself. I wish for every young person to do this program. 

If I had to place my bets on which topic would be the most emotional, economics would have been the last topic I would have bet on. But answering the questions of “What is wealth to me?”, “What do I want in my life?” “What makes me feel alive?”, and “What makes life worth living for me?” were the most powerful questions asked so far, and I questioned what I truly needed and wanted in order to flourish. I found that I most value joy, fun, and playfulness; freedom and the resources to take my time & space to relax and do what I love; being with people I love; the ability to flourish – to grow and learn in ways that feel aligned to me; a sense of safety and security in a grounded, comfortable home, and of course, beautiful food (and an outdoor shower would be fantastic, too). 

Questions like this aren’t asked in “normal” environments. Having the space to reflect on life and design it holistically is a fantastic experience, which I would recommend to everyone looking for a fresh start, hope for a better future, and some peace and connection with what is truly real: others & nature!

I witnessed and experienced tears of gratitude, liberation in movement and body through the 5 Elements Dance, deep peace in meditation and connection with nature, feeling seen by others, having a deeper connection with myself, and being part of a small and tight-knit community with lots of fun moments throughout. Other experiences included creating a skit, documentary night, yoga, and being led around the farm by a partner with my eyes closed, exploring all my senses – one of the most pleasurable and peaceful things I have ever done. 

I love living and being in ecovillages. Magic happens in these places that don’t happen anywhere else. It’s the influence of great souls who share their thoughts and way of life. It’s the entire new culture and system which honors all of life, including your own hopes, dreams, and talents – waiting to empower you so you can flourish! It’s the nature, the fact that I wasn’t in a single closed room with 4 walls. Everything is open, connected – it’s reflected in the architecture of the place. I love the simplicity of life here. I love the food (too much haha), I love the fact that I can go and switch the water on every day at 17:30, watching the sprinklers go from small to tall towers of water. I love the satisfaction and peace of sitting there witnessing the seeds I planted sprout and grow. I love watching the sky change color, seeing the sun peak gold through the clouds, hints of pink and lilac coloring the sky as the day turns into night. And of course, being barefoot as much as possible! I find myself taking off my shoes as soon as the ground is soft enough to bear. It just feels better. 

This week has shown me the power of deep listening to others and reflecting back on people’s strengths. There is a magic created when another person’s eyes are shining as you tell them the light that you see in them. It is a gift we can all give to others, going deeper than the average compliment. It requires observation of the other, curiosity, listening, remembering, and compassion. This way of communicating leaves everyone around feeling better 😊 as we remember we are all celebrations of diversity. We learned during the topic of ecology that diversity is resilience. Without diversity, the soil dries up, erodes, the leaves get bitten away, and the yields are less. Our differences are what we can use to work together to create a new system that nourishes all life. The meaning we each give to our lives and our willingness to be open-minded and compassionate is what helps this bloom. 

It was beautiful to see the intentions everyone set at the beginning of the week blossom into fulfilled wishes and more, as seen during our final sharing moment around a bonfire. Pleng played the drums, Sin’s awesome dance music filled the air, Simon kept the fire burning, Niki held loving space, and Ben presented his beautiful art. The course ended synchronistically with the full moon and we ended our evening playing a fierce game of Ninja under its glow, a symbol of completion, the waning moon an invitation to internalize the teachings that resonated most and to share them with whoever is curious. 

I leave this week feeling much more grounded and connected to nature, something that I had been missing for a long time. I experienced the deeply humbling feeling of asking nature for permission before I sit in the company of its trees, shrubs, spiders, and crawling ants, well aware that this is not only my home, but theirs too, and theirs first. 

I was aware and committed to my life’s purpose before this week, but the tools and knowledge parted to me during the program have grounded and deepened my plans and what I want to express. Gaia Ashram is a place to go when you want to connect back to yourself, other people, and nature, in an authentic and peaceful way, without the stresses of “normal life”. 

Paraphrasing Om, this is not a place to escape from your life. This is a place to learn, to expand, and to empower yourself with awareness of your own strengths, skills, and talents, putting them into practice in the community so you leave (if you do 😛) being, even more, yourself, knowing what you love and what you find important – which I believe is exactly your purpose & medicine for the world 😊. 

Thank you, Om and Tom, for holding the space and for your wisdom, and thank you, everyone, in the course and others living in Gaia Ashram. It is wonderful being part of this community, our hearts united in the mission of life honoring life. 

Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu,

May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all. 

—

Read Om Sunisa Jamwiset Deiters’s (co-founder of Gaia Ashram) article about the Ecovillage Lifestyle Experience Week here.

About the Author

Lila Sahj

Lila is a 21-year-old Project Management student & a coach. She has been researching and experiencing ecovillage and holistic living since 17 years old and found a deep love for community and natural living. She has undergone her own spiritual and self-healing journey, and she now holds space for others to go through their own journeys. Her coaching focuses on empowering the other to reconnect with and trust their own intuition, heart, and body so that they can live authentically and share their medicine for the world. The concepts of systems thinking, the permaculture principles, the 4 Dimensions of Sustainability, and regeneration are key to her coaching and project management style. She holds a Belgian passport but was born in Singapore and has lived in Myanmar, Indonesia, Malawi, Thailand, the Netherlands, Cambodia, and Spain. You can find more about her on her Instagram page @divine.play.coaching.

GENOA Annual General Meeting 2022

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On March 11th, the GENOA Council and Office Team came together to hold our Annual General Meeting (AGM). In this meeting, the office team reported and celebrated the activities and achievements we had in 2021to the GENOA council. We also proposed, discussed, and consolidated our plan for this year of 2022.

You can read the meeting notes, see the presentation slides and watch the video recording below which includes the highlights of our activities, financial report, and also future plans.

For this year of 2022, our office team is planning to turn inwards to clarify our purpose as a network and organization, and also find and install structures in place that match our values and context to be able to fulfill our purpose of existence as a network and organization. We will also be looking for funding and support for our activities in the coming year in the latter half of the year.

The process of turning inwards and clarifying our purpose will be done through an internal project called Metamorph Project in which we will dive in and engage with the different stakeholders of the network to clarify our purpose, understand what has worked and what are the things we are lacking in our current structures and how we work. The outcomes of this project will be brought into discussion with the council and members of the network to be discussed and implemented. You can find more info about it by looking at the project proposal below.

GENOA Metamorph – Project Proposal

Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions about this project. During this project, we will be engaging in conversations with some of you as stakeholders of the network. If you are keen to share your perspective, experience, and hopes about GENOA please let us know by writing to us at genoa@ecovillage.org and we will make sure to include you in the conversation. If you are keen to join in this process with us by volunteering, offering coaching, or consultancy, please kindly write to the same email address. 

Thank you so much for your continued support. We are excited to embark on this journey inwards and look forward to engaging with you, dearest stakeholders, to co-create in this evolutionary process of the GENOA Network.

Please note that as we engage in this project, the office team will lower the volume of our activities (such as community calls).

MIBNP Ecosystem Restoration Project, Philippines

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This project is about efficiently using permaculture to restore a sustainable bio-cultural landscape in Mts Iglit-Baco National Park, Mindoro, Philippines

In cooperation with D’Abboville Foundation, Philippine Permaculture Association is exploring ways how to apply a permaculture lens while bridging indigenous people’s well-being and a dwindling tamaraw (endemic buffalo) population in the natural park. The focus is on practicing ecosystem restoration approaches on a granted 6 ha grassland and finding ways to feed park rangers without bringing in processed foods from the outside. 

Drone shot of 6 hectares of grassland under conversion

Here, we use permaculture design to connect existing components and enhance their relationship in order to create better responses. It is a gentle, yet quick approach to allow nature to bounce back. In the grassland, we’ve created bio-diverse islands, swales, firebreaks and we surrounded existing pioneer species with other trees to grow together in a strong bond. In succession, we also created small water impounding with overflow water from an existing water tank so no resources will be discarded. Biomass from the nearby ranger station is scattered around the trees to hasten the growth of microbes and mycelium in the soil.

Drone shot of the ranger station

Within the premises of the ranger station, we use a permaculture systems approach to create productive and intensive gardens that will feed the rangers and supplement some of their needs with locally made soap and food processing from crops grown on-site that allow for storage during lean times. Renewable energy components like solar and hydropower are supplying the energy needed to run the ranger station. 

During the initial restoration approach, the Tao-build are observers and critique the processes we undertake as it evolves. The purpose is to share without imposing new ways of doing things. The project is setting into motion a long-term dialogue between people and responses from the natural world.

Bert Peeters. Philippines Permaculture Association, Philippines.

Born in Belgium, Bert has been in the Philippines since 1989. He worked in the education sector and has been hosting groups, individuals, professionals, and volunteers in the Philippines on a regular basis ever since. Later he started designing products to improve living conditions for people in rural areas. He developed and set up development projects with Tribal communities in several places of the Philippines for over more than 15 years. He studied and developed synergy models between nature and design. System thinking is Bert’s motivation in cooperating with people in order to elevate design to a sustainable development level. The Permaculture framework is his favorite design method and approach for combining available natural sources and simple technologies into relevant and sustainable design solutions. At present, he is training people to develop skills and to take (in a positive way) charge of the changes happening in their environment. Bert has been the coordinator for a volunteer network and an international solidarity network. Later he became the program coordinator for a foreign-supported development program.

In 2000, he started the permaculture development site of Cabiokid foundation in Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, and he also founded the Philippine Permaculture Association. At present, he is part of a team that works towards a well-rooted permaculture fabric and membership base in the Philippines.

Ecovillage Experience Week at Gaia Ashram, Thailand

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How do we get people to be inspired, interested to join the community, and learn deeply during their time at Gaia Ashram? This was one of the questions we contemplated during the lockdown in Thailand.

The pandemic affected Gaia Ashram as an international learning center and community due to the lockdown and shutdown of transportation for international travelers. This made us cancel a lot of programs offered in English for international travelers. However, We also observe that more Thai and local people have a stronger realization of how sustainable living and lifestyle such as ecovillage lifestyle is quite resilient in this kind of situation. We then emerged with the idea of launching the Ecovillage Lifestyle Experience Week (ELEW), where people can get an introduction to ecovillage design principles and also experience how it feels like to live this lifestyle.

We design the program where the participants get a theoretical session in the morning and join the hands-on/ practical work in the afternoon. The daily routine flows as Gaia Ashram’s usual routine where we start the day with daily yoga practice. Breakfast starts at 7.30 am where we gather together to bless the food and remind ourselves how grateful we are to be alive on this planet earth. After breakfast, we have our morning session which is class time for workshop participants until 12.00 am. The afternoon session starts at 14.30 pm, we do practical work together until 17.00 pm. After that, we continue with a dance session at 17.45 – 18.30 pm followed by meditation until 19.00 pm as the way to wrap up our day. Workshop participants join our daily chores to do dishes, tidy up, feed the chickens with kitchen waste, etc.

Our aim was to have people experience Gaia Ashram’s lifestyle and cultivate an understanding of why we designed our lifestyle this way. How we use ecovillage design principles as guidelines to design our life and the importance of holistic and whole system design.

This program and most of Gaia Ashram’s programs from now on are bilingual, English – Thai. We intend to start promoting the ecovillage concepts and Ecovillage Design Education to Thai audiences as well as international participants. 

We also made this Ecovillage Lifestyle Experience Week (ELEW) compulsory for those who want to volunteer or take an internship at Gaia Ashram. They have to join this ELEW program before starting their volunteering/internship period. 

We offer this program monthly at Gaia Ashram, usually in the first week of the month. We have done this program three times already so far.

We found that the participants value the programs both in terms of the experiential part of it as much as the theoretical inputs. The lifestyle where each day we find the balance of the use of the head, heart, hands and also the time to connect with nature, work with nature, and experience community spirit. 

We found that this program helped volunteers/interns to understand the big picture of Gaia Ashram, our core values, and why we have our structures as they are. 

The interest among Thai audiences has increased. As a result, more Thai People are interested and inquire about the full Ecovillage Design Education program which we will offer in November/December 2022.

Read an article by Lisa Sahj about her experience joining the Ecovillage Lifestyle Experience Week here.

Gaia Ashram

Gaia Ashram is an Eco-Education center on Permaculture, Ecovillage Design, and Deep Ecology. Gaia Ashram aims to be a place where we live holistically, practice, and realize the interconnectedness and the oneness of all beings.

For more information about them, visit their website and Facebook page.

Conscious Food Systems Alliance calls for Local Hubs

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The Conscious Food System Alliance (CoFSA) is currently looking for partners who can help create a global network of local hubs that offer conscious food learning programs and retreats to key actors in the food system, with the aim of facilitating an equitable exchange of knowledge and experience. If you’re interested, please complete the form linked here.

What is CoFSA: 

Conscious Food System Alliance – CoFSA was convened by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and it’s a movement of food and agriculture practitioners and consciousness experts united around a common goal: to leverage the power of inner transformation to support systemic change in food and agriculture systems. For more information, please visit the CoFSA webpage. 

CoFSA Vision: 

The vision of the Alliance is to pioneer the application of leading approaches such as mindfulness, compassion, somatic transformation, systems leadership, indigenous and feminine wisdom into food and agriculture systems to help us reconnect with ourselves, each other, and nature, and to build the inner foundations – mindsets, values, and skills – needed for systemic change.

CoFSA is looking for partners who’s organisation…

  • – Emphasise an interweaving of human and more-than-human communities through food
  • – Take a holistic approach to social, cultural, ecological, economic and individual engagement with food systems
  • – Engage with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – with a particular emphasis on , with an emphasis on addressing global poverty (1), hunger (2), health and wellbeing (3), and partnership building (17)
  • – Engage with the skills and core principles of the Inner Development Goals (IDGs), namely: Being, Thinking, Relating, Collaborating & Acting
  • – Can offer learning programmes or retreats on conscious food systems in local and global contexts
  • – Willing to actively participate and contribute to the development of the network.

If this resonates with you and your organisation’s values, we invite you to join the network, please complete the form linked here as soon as possible (preferably before 10 February 2022). 

cover picture credit: Wild0ne

Engaging Youth for Regeneration in Taiwan

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It was a cool winter and a misty morning. We walked along the giant greenery stairway at the center of Tunghai University shaded by local banyan trees, a common scene in school campuses with long history around Taiwan. Along the two sides of the stairway are modern buildings designed with a touch of traditional wood and brick materials, while the stairway is decorated with Christmas puppets as the holiday vibe was in the air. For Luvian, it was nice to share with Hema fond memories of being a student on this beautiful campus. And for Hema, it was interesting to observe the Eastern-Western, modern-traditional mix of styles around the campus in which Luvian completed his bachelor studies. Somehow this style of cultural melting pot felt relevant to the special mission we had for this trip, which is to bring inspiration from the ecovillage and regeneration movement around the world to young local and international students currently studying here at the International College of Tunghai University.

The Tunghai University Campus

Our experiences of participating and engaging with the ecovillage movement have been life-transforming and empowering, to say the least. In the past few years, Hema has been visiting ecovillages and communities around the world, participated in Ecovillage Design Education and became an EDE trainer, and is also a part of the team behind GENOA’s REGEN-Nations program. Luvian has been studying ecovillage development for his master’s program and is currently a resident of Sun Clover Ecovillage, an aspiring ecovillage community on the east coast of Taiwan. He is also working as the Communications Coordinator in the GENOA Office Team. Both of us have become actively involved in the ecovillage and regeneration movement in the region in various ways ever since we discovered these concepts and practices.

When we found out about the NextGENOA Seed Grant last year, we thought it’d be a great opportunity for us to do something together here. We came up with the idea of holding sessions for us to share about ecovillages and regeneration, our stories and experiences of being involved with the movement to university students. We hope this session will facilitate them to internalize the issues we face today as humanity and realize that the future is in the hands of us, the young generation.

By early December 2021, we had the funding granted, sessions booked, and materials prepared. And on the 21st of December, we made our way to Tunghai University located in the western part of Taiwan. When we met that night, it was the first time we got to meet each other in person. Although we are both living on the same island, we have only been interacting in the online space prior to this. It was a wonderful experience being able to meet friends from GENOA in the three-dimensional realm and work on an on-the-ground project together.

Our session flow

The way we designed our session was inspired by Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects. We started our session with an attunement of gratitude. Then we honored the pain of the world by taking an overview of the complex and interconnected socio-ecological problems we are facing as humanity, sinking in the fact that we are living in planetary collapse, and that within our lifetime, we will continue to witness the degradation of our planet. The session then continued by a section where we saw the world with new eyes through learning about the concept of regeneration and seeing the plethora of regenerative action that has already been happening for decades across the globe, including the ecovillage movement. And finally, we offered pathways of how to go forth in integrating regenerative practices into our lives. You can take a look at our presentation slides here.

The Session

We conducted two sessions in total. One with the freshman students of the Sustainability Science and Engineering (SSE) program and the other with the sophomores of International Business Administration (IBA) program of Tunghai University International College. With the different backgrounds of students, it is interesting to see the difference in their responses towards our session. Students from the SSE program are those who already want to learn about how to solve sustainability issues in the world. During our session, they were active in sharing their thoughts, perspectives, and views about the global problems we are facing. On the other hand, the IBA students were not as vocal in sharing their perspectives and opinion in the big group, although they were listening attentively to our talk and did participate in smaller groups. Perhaps this is a topic that they haven’t had much chance to pay attention to before.

Most students found the Map of Regeneration activity very engaging and mind-stimulating. In this activity, students explore the principles within GEN’s Map of Regeneration and were asked the questions “which principles do you feel more energized about?” and “which principles do you feel are most neglected in your community?” It was interesting to see which principles or aspects of the map resonated with the students at the moment. To our surprise, in the SSE class where students are learning about sustainability, a lot of the stones and sticks (where they find most energetic and feel most neglected) were placed in the economic dimension. While in the IBA, where students are learning about businesses, a lot of the stones and sticks were in the ecolo gy, culture, and whole system design aspects of regeneration. 

The tally from the Map of Regeneration Activity of the two classes
IBA students feel energized to learn from nature and practice whole systems thinking

For us as facilitators of the session, the sessions are also insightful. We learned what students in that particular age group are thinking and feeling about the current situation of the world and the idea of regeneration. During the small group discussions, we were able to connect with the students and listen to their sharing- the deep sharing with fellow students by which most of them appreciated.

It is really interesting to have these [discussions and activities] because I learn what other people think about climate change or environmental problems. Actually everyone notices the issues or news, so they have their thoughts about the questions. And when they share their thoughts, I get different opinions.

A lot of students also feel that they know about this problem(s) but have been feeling disconnected from it as they are not feeling the direct impact of the social and environmental problems. Some also mentioned that their attention has been so distracted that they haven’t been able to pay attention to crucial and existential issues. Some shared that they were overwhelmed by the scale and complexities of the situation and they felt powerless as individuals, but they feel more empowered and motivated to act now instead of waiting for others to find solutions. Some students shared in their reflections :

I am happy that I got this opportunity to listen to a new perspective of people who focused themselves on developing their community of sustainability like Luvian and Hema. I was reminded of how climate change is real and is slowly destructing our earth. They reminded us that the world is changing and everyone needs to be alert to contribute to their communities, especially the youth, because the future is in our hands. A lot of youngsters are indifferent, in the sense that they already care about their interests and showed less enthusiasm and sympathy for things that matter. However, we need to start to care for things that are around us. Therefore, we can improve ourselves according to our fields and change in our ways, for the future ahead of us.

I felt inspired to look at my own life and see how I can make a difference in the world so my children can have a better future and Earth. I also learned about regeneration and how I can implement this into my life by becoming mindful of my choices. I have a responsibility to make the world better.

Some students also appreciated the social and community aspects of regenerative living, the students said:

Personally speaking, the concept of sharing and living together of ecovillage fascinated me. I believe having this kind of village around the world glues everyone together. In the present world, people are becoming more selfish than before. Hence, having goals to work together as a community might reduce the self-centered idea.

Some concluding words

Overall, we felt our aim of the project was delivered and well-received when we saw feedback like the following:

“This talk was very engaging. The main topic of this subject is a topic that all of us can relate to. All of us are aware that climate change and the destruction is being inflicted on the environment, this issue should be prioritized over everything. If our survival as a species is threatened, you would think every single person would be motivated to do all that they can to solve this issue. Unfortunately this is not a reality. People care, but are not motivated enough to take action towards making a change in their lifestyles. So I was really impressed with the speakers. It was nice to see two people who have taken it upon themselves to do something, and live in a way where they not only take but also give back to the environment, as it should be.”

We are thoroughly moved by the depth of some students’ reflections and feedback after the session. The whole process of this project has been a deeply rewarding experience for both of us. We got a glimpse of what students in universities from various backgrounds are thinking and feeling about the current state of the world and their response to ecovillages and regeneration ideas. We got to test out our materials and see the response of the students to the sessions we designed and held and now we have a better idea on how to further improve our sessions to better suit the needs of university students.

We’d like to express our gratitude to Dr. James Sims and Dr. John J. Perez from the International College of Tunghai University for kindly welcoming and supporting us to share about ecovillages and regeneration to their students. We’d also like to thank NextGENOA for the seed grant that helped us cover the preparation of materials, travel, and accommodation expenses of the trip. And finally, we’d like to thank all the students who have actively participated in the workshop sessions with us. May the experience we delivered through the sessions be a source of deep meaning and inspiration to regenerative actions for the youth, as well as for the regional activators in the network.

About the Authors

Hema Wu. EDE Trainer & Facilitator/ GEN Ambassador

Hema is an intentional community and transformative process facilitator and an Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) trainer. She has worked in the field of international development around South/Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and South America. Upon seeing the international scene of all types of projects, she was driven to think more deeply about the impacts and sustainability of human development, which inspired her commitment to foster a more conscious culture of human existence on earth. She is currently founding her own school with the goal of rehabilitating relationships between/with humans and all beings.

Luvian Iskandar. Communications Coordinator, GENOA

Originally from Indonesia, Luvian came to Taiwan for his studies. He completed his bachelor’s program in International Business Administration at Tunghai University and master’s program in Humanity and Environmental Science at National Dong Hwa University. During his master’s program, he focused on the early establishment stage of ecovillages. After his graduation, he moved to live in Sun Clover Ecovillage, an aspiring ecovillage community in Fuli, Hualien while working as GENOA’s communications coordinator.

Edited and proofread by: Alisa Sidorenko, Matt Inman & Thao Kin

From Climate Ambition to Rethinking Climate Vulnerability

by

A Post COP26 Reflection as GENOA delegate. Written by Sarah Queblatin, GEN Regional Representative & Ambassador.

As I write this, almost 3 million Filipinos who were directly affected are waking up to the devastating aftermath of Supertyphoon Odette which intensified from Category 1 to Category 5 in 24 hours ripping through islands in the central and southern part of the Philippines. Given my time zone difference, I realized it is still December 16, the same day that Supertyphoon Washi / Sendong triggered a deadly flash flood in Cagayan de Oro City, nine years ago in 2011 which was my first experience in responding to disasters. I am in Findhorn Ecovillage in the north of Scotland after the COP26 in Glasgow and I look back to why the ecovillage model has been central to my approach to transforming the narrative of DRR (or Disaster Risk Reduction) into that of Designing for Resilience and Regeneration). You can listen to my podcast on this as interviewed by Morag Gamble.

Responding to the flash floods after typhoon Washi through psycho social support assistance was my first introduction to humanitarian recovery. Today, a decade later, I am now with my own organization, Green Releaf Initiative, a partner of the Global Ecovillage Network, working with the same approach integrated in permaculture gardens in disaster recovery and an innovation lab on ecosystem restoration underway.

Joining the Ecovillage Movement and GEN

After typhoon Washi, I was burning out from ensuring we meet large numbers of participants over delivering quality in the sessions we needed to design to adapt to the realities firsthand. I asked myself, “how might we heal broken systems without the same factors that caused them in the first place?” Then the response that emerged was to come from wholeness where a whole systems approach through regenerative design started unfolding for me. It brought me back to my interest to study ecovillage and permaculture design in my 20s. So I was naturally drawn to join a healing ecovillage in the Philippines in 2012. A year later, Supertyphoon Haiyankilled over 7,000 people and displaced thousands of Filipinos. I volunteered to help in one of the affected villages together with permaculture and ecovillage designers. 

A year later, I joined the Global Ecovillage Network Oceania and Asia then was invited to work for the UN Working Group of GEN International which evolved into a role as Advocacy Coordinator from 2015-2017. This role enabled me to help GEN in its representation and work with the United Nations where it has a consultative status in the UN ECOSOC and a civil society observer for the Conference of Parties (COP) for the Climate Change conferences. I was able to represent GEN from the 21st – 24th and now the 26th COP. Working with former GEN Executive Director Kosha Joubert, GEN UN Representative Rob Wheeler, and representatives from each region, we engaged with government leaders, civil society groups, and other movements relevant to the cause of regeneration that GEN modeled in lighthouse projects and communities from its network of 6,000 members around the world. 

Coming from one of the most climate vulnerable nations and regions in the world where climate emergencies have been taking place with growing intensity over the years, being able to share our voice and work has been a privilege and opportunity. With GEN’s Ecovillage Development Program, we explored how communities can model low carbon lifestyles that restore social and ecological ecosystems that can meet the Paris agreement goals and the SDGs through participatory design. 

Below are some of the events that I participated in at the COP26 in Glasgow as a GENOA delegate.

GENOA Participation

As part of the GEN delegation, representing Oceania and Asia, I helped share our GEN partnership for ecovillage development in an indigenous community affected by Super Typhoon Haima/ Lawin in the Philippines from 2017-2020 through Green Releaf’s Regenerative Transitions program. Our story served as a case study in our interactive presentation for the Capacity Building Hub on “Using Participatory Approaches to Design Robust, Community-Led Climate Action” together with Anna Kovasna and Taisa Mattos. You can watch the presentation here.

GEN partnered with Gaia Education at the COP26 Gender Day for the exhibit “Women, Power and Entrepreneurship in the Climate Change Age“. The day-long exhibition was curated by Gaia Education, Artists Project Earth (APE), Global Ecovillage Network and LUSH UK – in partnership with women from the Federation of Tribal Women of Orissa, THREAD, Bangladesh Association for Sustainable Development, L’Arcolaio Cooperativa Sociale, Saterê Mawê Craftswomen Association and many other communities. You can read more about it here. 

As GENOA representative to the UNDP Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA), I helped co-facilitate a Climate Emotions session together with other CoFSA members, One Resilient Earth and the Institute for Advanced Sustainable Studies. You can read my story here. 

It was also meaningful to be able to share about my reflections and learnings from working with climate vulnerable indigenous and displaced communities through an interview by the Pocket Project through its CEO, GEN International’s former Executive Director Kosha Joubert as part of its Trauma Informed Climate Leadership events at the COP26. You can access the recording here along with other speakers from the network including May East of Gaia Education, Sonita Mbah, and Sabine Lichtenfels. 

To generate support for scaling our prototype for REGEN-Nations Whole Systems Co-Learning Journey and Regenerative Design Lab for GENOA, I participated in relevant side events that could provide updated information and possible ways to channel resources to the project. 

After the COP26, I was invited by the Philippine Misereor Partnership, the conveners of the Rights of Nature movement in the country to share about my insights for their session on “What Now After the COP26?” Preparing for this talk helped me put into words what I recommend as ways we go forward beyond COP26. You can watch the video here. 

As we face the aftermath of supertyphoon Rai / Odette in the Philippines leaving almost a million people displaced and almost 400 dead, I think about a deeper meaning of climate vulnerability and how it can differ from climate ambition. Now on my 5th COP, I reflected deeper on the role of regenerative leadership after realizing over time that there already exists so many solutions but how we make these solutions work depend greatly on our inner condition of the leader and the worldview s/he has that influences the design of a system. For me, a reframe on “climate vulnerability” is to truly lead with empathy and authenticity in our leadership versus the shadow of the term “climate ambition”. The latter has the danger of falling into lofty goals that may lose integrity when words can’t be fulfilled into actions given that many agreements and statements are made during climate conferences yet the real actions and delivery are slow or may not be completed at all. Many climate vulnerable nations like mine and the region have witnessed these failures of agreements and commitments over time and we need to show up fully in ways that could bring regenerative leadership in our design for resilience and regeneration. We hope one of the ways we can offer this to the region is through the leadership component of REGEN-Nations coming up with its 2nd cycle in 2022. Click here to learn more and to sign up. You can also support the program’s fundraising efforts by donating or sharing this campaign. 

About the Author

Sarah Queblatin. GEN Regional Representative & Ambassador, The Philippines

Sarah is a regenerative design strategist weaving collective experiences in peacebuilding, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) conservation, environmental education, and humanitarian assistance for 15 years. She designs inclusive ecosystems of collaboration through innovation labs and learning journeys to transform the narrative of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) into Design for Resilience and Regeneration. She is trained in Ecovillage Design and Ecosystem Restoration Design and holds a merit diploma and advanced certificate in Permaculture Design. Prior to founding Green Releaf Initiative in the Philippines, Sarah has worked with GEN as a representative to the UN Climate Conferences, served as a global trustee, regional council member, and currently, as a wisdom keeper for GENOA. Sarah also helped incubate GEN’s EmerGENcies Program and GENOA’s REGEN Nations. With a background in ecopsychology and transformative artmaking, she applies a trauma-informed understanding of resilience in her work with climate and conflict vulnerable communities in Asia and the Pacific region.