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REGEN-Nations 2022: New Projects Incubated

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REGEN-Nations – the programme of whole systems design for regeneration curated by Global Ecovillage Network Oceania & Asia – has recently ended its 2nd live cohort of 2022. This cohort was brewed in August 2021 and has gone through a rich journey full of learnings, especially with the 6-month live cohort.

The programme offers dedicated facilitation throughout five areas of regeneration (social, cultural, ecology, economic and whole systems design). Participants receive feedback on learning activities and coaching with real-world change makers to help projects develop solid foundations and resilience. In this second cohort, REGEN-Nations collaborates with Earth Regenerators to provide a platform of connection with a dedicated community space for changemakers to activate, catalyze, and nurture relationships between their social and ecological ecosystems, as well as other projects in the region. 

Hosted on the GEN Learning Platform, REGEN-Nations is designed to be a regenerative design thinking lab to grow innovative solutions and address systemic challenges through not only videos and reading lessons but also different activities, action-oriented assignments and live exchange sessions. 

REGEN-Nations Course Calls

Twelve participants of this second cohort went through 6 months with 84 hours of learning from 27 speakers, accompanied by 3 coaches and 4 facilitators. Five projects were presented in the last module and one of which was awarded the seed grant to aid the implementation of its whole systems design. The final projects are diverse in focus and approach, ranging from anthropology research; island ecosystem regeneration, to green spaces for youth education, community eco-labs and SMEs empowerment. The project “Green Innovation & Empowerment community for the SME Family Businesses” from China has received the final seed grant. 

Participants Project Presentation

As the host of the programme, GEN Oceania & Asia sends our warmest gratitude to all the trainers, speakers, facilitators, partners and dedicated participants that have shared their part to make this course possible. We are looking forward to exploring different ways of integrating REGEN-Nations into different languages and topics and collaborating with educational institutions and schools to bring REGEN-Nations to a wider audience. Please reach out to us at regen.nations@ecovillage.org if you are keen to collaborate with us.

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).

Journeying Full Circle

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The Story By Trudy Juriansz, former GENOA coordinator and GEN Networking Director,
and co-initiator of ReGEN-Nations learning program.

As I reflect back on my nine years with GENOA, I feel a sense of peace as I have come full circle with this beautiful network and organisation. I had no idea when I met the GENOA community in 2012 in Sri Lanka, that I would embark on a deep spiritual journey that would test all my boundaries of friendship, work and collaboration. I have unlearned and learned so immensely that I will never be the same person again, as I have grown and evolved to be more conscious and embracing. I have had the honour to have met, lived and worked with, and developed friendships with so many inspiring people, communities, organisations and projects from all over Asia and Oceania, and beyond. I pay my respects to all my teachers, elders and wisdom keepers, who have guided me in this journey. 

My journey in GENOA evolved from learning and understanding networks and organisations, to building a solid foundation and core team – our virtual ecovillage, while integrating insights and learnings into my personal life and character building.

Building a Resilient Web

A key question that came up for GENOA during the period of 2015-2017 was how do we ensure the web of a network is strong, knowing that the network exists with or without you, that you as an organisation, is simply a node in the network; and our role is to help make that web visible so exchange and cross-pollination can happen with ease and so resilience in the web can become stronger.

To answer this question, one of the most significant learnings was understanding the difference between a network and an organisation. I was guided by Chris Gibbings (former GENOA Vice-president and IT Support) who helped me see that the network already exists, independent of GENOA. The network is not owned, or even created, by our organisation. Before GENOA or GEN existed, there were ecovillages and other regenerative organisations and projects and they were already connecting with each other or others in various ways. GENOA as an organisation (or community) engages in the network as a participant and helps to enable the network further. So we had to find out what our niche was within the ecosystem or network, so we could feel fulfilled in carrying out our mission. We discovered that our niche was to hold space and bring people together, to support and care for ecovillages and eco-projects on the ground, and to enable the dissemination of information, knowledge and skills as widely as possible. In the last four  years, 2018-2021, GENOA as a network has grown steadily, gathering energy and support from individuals, communities, organisations, projects and other networks.

Another significant change we made in 2014 was to transition from a hierarchical structure to a network based system, moving away from the traditional president/vice president positions, to a more horizontal governance structure that enabled working circles and the workload to be spread out. We made this decision in 2014 and didn’t realise how hard it would be.

GENOA went through a period of panarchy for a period of about three years. Panarchy is a natural process in nature, and therefore part of the natural movement of any organisation as it goes through a significant period of reassessment and change. GENOA was in a place of confusion, conflict, reflection, learning, inner growth and restructuring. Since then, GENOA has become stronger and more resilient, and able to provide authentic support to the network in our region. 

We also realised that the network’s energy or participation was low in 2015, so we focused on facilitating spaces for people to engage with each other and GENOA as the organisation. We found that as engagement increased, participation also increased and as people felt comfortable and secure, they were able to contribute more, in line with their passions and energy.  We held Emergence Convergences, which were gatherings of hearts and minds from multiple disciplines, in various locations in Asia and the Pacific, between 2016 to 2018. One of the success factors with these convergences was that we held space for people to come together, supporting dialogue in order to be able to see what would emerge. Dialogue without an agenda or set outcomes, allowed for creativity to flow and authentic communication and sharing to happen, which in turn, led to multiple collaborative projects to emerge, across various nations.

GENOA learned the art of collaboration and how to become part of a meta-network supporting other like-minded networks, communities and organisations, that could lean on one another when times get tough or if there was stagnation. We learned that you could join in with other networks and organisations, and piggy back off each other until you felt strong again and could stand on your own. And most of all, learning that we didn’t have to start from scratch or to build something new all the time, but could build where others left off and that we could stand on the shoulders of those that came before us.

Our Virtual Ecovillage

When former President Michiyo Furuhashi stepped out of her role at the end of 2014, she asked me to take care of GENOA. I have never felt such a sense of duty. Being of Sri Lankan origin, this is a quality that comes from my culture and family, to be dutiful, responsible and accountable. I also felt honoured to work with amazing people and communities from our region, to share and to learn together. So realising that GENOA is an organisation whose role is to support the healthy growth of networking between ecovillages in Asia Oceania region, we embraced that we are also a virtual ecovillage whose community members are the people who step forward to do the work to make GENOA function. As such, community building processes amongst GENOA’s volunteers/staff are as important as the mission of GENOA. As they say, “It takes a community to support a network”. And as a GENOA contributor, Pi Villaraza, once said to me, we need to learn how to become a global village, a community of 7 billion people, who care and support each other.

The art of forming a virtual ecovillage takes time, patience and perseverance. It also requires a level of simplification and efficiency, so energy can be conserved and used in more appropriate ways. Since in GENOA we are spread apart geographically, we worked on developing efficient internal systems so we could work and collaborate across time zones and cultures. In all our organisation and network meetings, we always started with an attunement or mediation, to bring us all to the present moment of being together, appreciating our space and to allow for the work that was ahead of us. We always checked in at both personal and work levels, so we could support each other through times of stress and upheaval and also as a way to celebrate and appreciate the good times. 

Another important part of becoming more efficient and accountable in GENOA, we became very conscious of our budget, choosing to limit spending funds on international travel just purely to attend conferences and gatherings. Instead, we stretched our budget between the period of 2015 to 2018, partnering with like-minded organisations and communities to co-host the Emergence Convergences and supporting a small team in the organisation to carry out the critical functions and the engagement of the network. We discovered that being mindful of how we use our funds, we could get maximum benefit with the most impact. 

There are always challenges that arise from being a virtual community, so having a compass to guide us was invaluable. As a network in 2014, GENOA determined seven key values – Integrity, Diversity, Trust, Service, Participation, Evolving, Oneness – that would be our compass in the coming years. This helped me immensely, as I would always come back to my center when I felt off track, to these values and why I was doing this work. I also learned the value of stillness, to take a breather from all the events and outward presence of the organisation in order to reflect internally and clean our inner house, so we could process, identify gaps in our systems and community, and be ready for all the outer work and outreach later. 

Another important aspect of being a virtual ecovillage is compassionate communication. We realised quickly during our period of panarchy, that working online with people from different cultures, time zones and languages, was not just challenging, but could bring tension and conflicts. So we developed a set of compassionate communication guidelines to support our team to work more effectively and harmoniously together.

Garden of Inner Resilience

Working with GENOA over the years has helped me become more resilient in the face of challenges, disturbances and chaos. I have learned to accept situations the way they are and to let go, and not be attached to an outcome. By being able to let go, I was able to dive deep into several projects and events for GENOA, not being afraid, but excited to experiment and see where the path would take us. I learned that standing strong in a sea of turbulence, bringing consistency and integrity to the center would eventually bring people back and together again. 

I have learned not to take anything personally, even though it is still a hard practice, it is so valuable to know and understand that everyone has their own traumas and triggers and most of the time, when there is a tension, conflict or outburst, they are not intentionally out to hurt you. So it has helped me to hold space for others, keeping love and care in my heart, and not internalising their pain. My inner resilience has helped me to stay creative, flexible, collaborative and be adaptive in the face of a changing environment and the drastic shifts of ‘business as usual’.

I have learned to trust deeply in GENOA as a network and an organisation, and also in myself.  GENOA is a space for people to come together, to participate and contribute at whatever level feels comfortable. It is a community of beautiful souls who work tirelessly to regenerate our human connections and our ecological systems, through education, events and storytelling. I have learned the strength of friendships and how they can be resilient in times of turmoil and the importance of reciprocity and having people who love and care for you, to work with everyday. 

GENOA has been a garden of possibilities, and like all gardens, it takes patience, attention and consistency. When I left GENOA earlier this year, I felt I was walking away from an abundant garden that is producing delicious fruits for everyone to be able to savour and enjoy. I feel so much joy and gratitude in my heart to know that this garden is held with love and care. May GENOA continue to grow and flourish for many more years to come.

About the Author

Trudy Juriansz, Australia/Sri Lanka
Trudy is a key contributor in bridging together communities, organisations and individuals in Asia and Oceania. She is currently working with Permaculture for Refugees and an indigenous community in Queensland, Australia. She was GEN’s Networking Director, GENOA coordinator for several years and co-initiated the ReGEN-Nations learning program. Trudy is an accredited trainer of Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) and Analog Forestry (a design science for ecosystem restoration). In addition, she has studied, practiced and taught permaculture and deep ecology for many years. She has been the head of a democratic school in Thailand for migrants and refugees, managed a sustainability education centre in Sri Lanka, and facilitated a variety of workshops across Asia and Oceania, for communities, youth and women. Originally from Sri Lanka, Trudy has lived in several traditional villages and communities, and visited many ecovillages around the world.

Ecovillage Transition in GENOA

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This article is a short summary of the GENOA community call written by Roky Biswas and Thao Kin

On 21st September 2021, GENOA conducted its monthly community call for restoration and transformation of the earth as a global ecovillage. The topic of this month is Ecovillage Transition – transforming existing communities into regenerative communities. At the beginning of the sharing and discussion Amena Bal – GENOA Network steward & Fundraising Coordinator – led the whole group into a meditative spiritual prayer. After that, Thao Kin – GENOA Networking coordinator – described the purpose of this call where she emphasized that a lot of the work in the Oceania & Asia region are with existing communities; supporting and working with how the communities can be more regenerative.  Anna Kovasna from GEN International took us through a tour of the Ecovillage Impact Assessment which is now officially launched, every community and project with a profile on GEN website can now take this impact assessment either as individual or collective.

The focus of this call was to learn from the practices of Ecovillage Transition around the region. We welcomed Thalea Tane – Aotearoa New Zealand, Hiroko Katayama – GEN Japan, Hai Chao Wang – Sunshine Ecovillage Network, China, Karen Wang – Sunshine Ecovillage Network, GEN China, Tanya Mottl – Narara Ecovillage, GEN Australia – five-speaker from four different countries have shared their experience about the regenerative activities in their communities.

Marrying the ecovillage map of regeneration with the local/indigenous wisdom 

Thalea Tane from Aotearoa/New Zealand, shared about her research and experience on ecovillage, she showed how to incorporate the concepts, tools, ideas from GEN to communities in Aotearoa. She said, “In our traditional communities, they already have this regenerative sense.” She is a tutor for sustainable living courses, builder of earth brick homes, facilitator of workshops, developer of people and communities.  The Universal Maori Principles – Mana, Tapu, Mauri, Kaitiakitanga –  are the same principles that the GEN cards have. When she uses the Ecovillage cards, it speaks volumes to her people as it resonates with the Maori principles. They have the belief system that we are the guardians of their landscape – the land, the rocks, the trees, the animals, etc. in their surrounding environment. One of the things that they have realized in Maori culture is that we need to re-indigenize ourselves and the community. People need to go back to the principles passed down by our ancestors and these principles are no different than the GEN principles. She has been incorporating the GEN playing cards for her community, this made the community feel that they are one with GEN.

Modeling a new world that we can live in

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Hiroko Katayama from As One Community shared that Japan has a capitalistic economy and people do not have much interest in environmental or ecovillage issues. In Japan, her community has been networking with different communities and ecovillages. GEN Japan works on networking to connect, raising awareness, education and supporting domestic initiatives around the country. They have also been trying to engage young people in the ecovillage activities and teaching the ecovillage concept. 

ScienZ Method

Communities like As One Suzuka are experimenting and creating a model to showcase a “new world” – showing how eco-communities are the gateway of the next civilization. They are interacting with mainstream society through trade, selling goods, education programs, workshops and other activities. The As One Community has developed the ScienZ Method for living together – learn more about ScienZ Method here.

Demonstrating and educating the ecovillage lifestyle 

Haichao Wang is the co-founder of Sunshine ecovillage in China. Together with Karen Wang, he shared a very motivating experience from his ecovillage concept and practice. In 2015, Sunshine Ecovillage ran the first international ecovillage forum in China. This is the first time the ecovillage network was introduced to China. Now there are already more than 100 aspiring ecovillages in China. People living in the cities are slowly realizing that they need green life. While city people would like to bring their city life back to villages, Haichao and his team bring the ecovillage concept to them to show that there are different ways of development. They wanted to demonstrate what eco-living really looks like by the life in their ecovillage. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the community created online programs for people to learn about ecovillages.

This ecovillage has about 20 ecovillage-related online courses and workshops on permaculture.  The community organized a eco-person gathering activity every new year (Jan 1st). In this gathering the community awarded one person who has outstanding contribution to the regeneration of China for the ecovillage transition. With the high rate of urbanization, the Chinese government is trying to promote rural revitalization. The Ecovillage team in China are building a model ecovillage (like Sunshine Ecovillage) for people to see and learn from. 

Envisioning with the aboriginal community

Tanya Mottl shared how GEN Australia has been engaging with the Jumbun Community to look at the way that the community wanted to come back to their traditional values and not depend on the government so much. They held a 3-day workshop which led to envisioning and strategizing with the local community. A key initiative they are undertaking is a truth-talking circle. The message that came out is strong and clear: we have the power to change this. GEN Australia  is also supporting Permayouth working with the local school in Jumbun. They have created the ecovillage design cards to be culturally appropriate to the community. The Jumbun Community shared that the ecovillage cards align with their community values. What they’d like to work on is to engage their youth in the regeneration of the community. 

The rich sharing from representatives around the network has sparked interest in all of us. It is important to realize that the process of Ecovillage Transition is very much context-dependent, we can utilize the sharing from our network, with the guidance of the Map of Regeneration and adapt it to our local context. As shared from the group discussion, building ecovillages is challenging in many countries and people who are living in urban areas would like to seek ways to live regeneratively where they are as well. This gives us the opportunity to explore how members of the ecovillage network can engage the urban sector and communicate eco-living to more people in different contexts.

For more information, you can watch the replay of this call on youtube here.

Below are some resources to dive deeper and explore other Ecovillage Transition work in the region:

We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce and invite you to take the Skills and Capacities Mapping, this will help us to understand and map the abundant skills and expertise of people within the GENOA network. With the results of the survey, GENOA will build future connections, projects, and consultancy services, which in turn will strengthen resilience for each member and also the network as a whole.

To stay updated with our events and news, please subscribe to our newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/gxtA65

Cover picture credit: GEN Japan

Welcoming Amena Bal into the Role of Fundraising Coordinator

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After reaching a collective agreement in the GENOAcouncil, we are excited to share with you the news that Amena Bal, one of our network stewards and GEN ambassadors, is stepping in into our office circle as Fundraising Coordinator. Amena has been actively involved with GENOA this year and understands deeply GEN and GENOA values and how we work. She is very keen and energized to build our economic dimension stable and abundant. With her economic background, experience and networks, we think Amena would be the best fit to take on this role in GENOA. Below are some words from Amena, as she steps into the role.

Dear Family, 

As I step into this role, I am remembering my university days majoring in conventional economics, never thinking that decades later I would be working towards creating an economy in service to ecology that unites all spiritually. For this, I am grateful for the work of GEN in our world. 

I currently serve as GEN Network Steward and am humbly honored to coordinate the fundraising energy of GENOA, making our economic dimension stable, healthy, abundant, and wealthy – attracting and generating funds to fulfill all our dreams, projects, purpose and to offer support to all those who serve GENOA. 

Before moving to India in early 2020, the Philippines was my home for over 10 years. It provided a nourishing ecosystem for my personal regeneration through which I was able to serve as co-creator and steward of Kai Farms. Birthing Kai Farms- a permaculture farm, was like giving birth to life, an outcome of my personal rebirth into the path of regeneration. Working with land and communities in the Philippines gave me immense experience on how to create and sustain regenerative business models. 

The GEN restructuring process envisions us to be financially self-sufficient anchored in networks. I sense this to be a very creative time to move ourselves and our networks into an entrepreneurial mindset, creating win-win-win projects that regenerate finance and add value to local and national economies – creating systems that view wealth holistically, are in the right relationship, seeking balance and honoring robust circulation and edge effect. 

I am keen that our fundraising circle and solutions, widen our relationships with mainstream and add value by creating a regenerative shared economy slowly transitioning us from donor dependency to self-sufficiency and in the long term building capacity to fund ecovillages, also creating systems to enhance ecovillage to ecovillage support, weaving more friendships. 

Our first step would be to create a CoP – Community of Practice for fundraising and financial sustainability. We welcome all those who are interested in learning about creating a fundraising network focused on generating personal and community wealth and also exploring social enterprise and impact investment. 

If you are inspired to volunteer with us and work as a fundraising freelance consultant, join our journey of reimaging, restructuring, and regenerating together.  

Excited to connect and co-create abundance write to amena.bal@ecovillage.org 

With a grateful heart, Love, and Light to all

Amena Bal

Introducing GENOA’s Network Stewards Circle (NSC)

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The restructuring of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) ecosystem has created at its heart the Network Steward Circle (NSC) which links the Regional, Global Nodes, NextGEN, and GEN Elders together. It is made up of 3 members from each Node/Circle. Its core purpose is Network coordination, stewarding GEN’s shared purpose, and to serve as the General Assembly of GEN International. The Circle is also a forum where geographical and cultural diversity, diversity in age, race, voice can work together in balance and harmony, truly anchoring GEN as an inclusive network.

Meet GENOA Network Stewards!

Network Stewards are engaged, trusted individuals, network weavers/leaders in active communication and collaboration within their Node or Circle. They are network weavers ready to work in a global team and deeply committed to GENOA’s purpose and the Ecovillage movement.

Thalea Tane, Aotearoa New Zealand

Thalea has served as an integral member of the GENOA council and is pleased to continue a role as one of the three NSC members representing the GENOA circle for 2021. As an active indigenous member of her Tribe(s) in Northland, Thalea continues to educate and advocate for the revitalisation and co-creation of regenerative communities across Aotearoa, Oceania and SE Asia. As a tutor in Sustainable Living and speaker in national judicial conferences, International forums and summits, Thalea has also represented GEN/GENOA in the United Nations COP25 Climate Change Conferences in Madrid. Thalea will continue to dedicate herself to working alongside circles, indigenous nations, governments and key stakeholders who align themselves with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and are responding to the Climate Change emergency in solidarity with grassroots communities.

Amena Bal, India

Amena joined the GENOA NSC to serve Mother Earth and to be an active voice for wellness and oneness in our world through being part of meta networks. As a permaculturist, living in TI Ecovillage in South India, she is on a mission to spread the ecovillage movement and share regenerative living through creating synergy between loving-kindness and integral ecosystem sensing and designing. A spiritualist and devoted energy healer, her main purpose is to heal and compassionately harmonize communities with their environments. Working with land, youth and women is very close to her heart. Her life is dedicated to connecting and working with communities and projects that are creating circles of a new healed humanity living happily in beautiful balance with Gaia.

Thao Ngo (Kin)

Thao Ngo, often called by her friends and colleagues as Kin, is a learner and educator from Vietnam. Kin is passionate about ecology and is on a long exciting quest of her life learning from and caring for Mother Earth. Being a young soul in the network, Kin has been a member of NextGENOA since 2016 and joined the GENOA Office team in mid-2020. She is happy to step into the role of GEN regional liaison in GENOA and a member of the NSC. In addition to her role in GENOA and NextGENOA, Kin works with non-governmental organizations in Vietnam in organizing and facilitating training on ecological education and eco-lifestyle. Kin believes in the power of reconnection and re-enchanting the world. She is learning to be a Deep Ecology facilitator and trainer.

Karen Xingtong Wang, China

Karen has been living in Sunshine Ecovillage since March 2018 and working as the General Secretary until now. She is also the Secretary of China Ecovillage Network. In Sunshine Ecovillage, she mainly takes care of the community by building the ecovillage with 4 dimensions in a holistic system together with all members and in charge of public relations outreaching works as well as Sunshine Eco Academy. She has taken EDE twice and TOT once and organized EDE as the facilitator and translator in China twice. She is very familiar with Ecovillage building & designing and facilitating related workshops. 

Before joining Sunshine, she worked as a mandarin teacher for 9 years and organic farming for 4 years in Shanghai. In 2021, she will put most of her time and energy into building the international ecovillage-based education system in GENOA especially East – Asia, and start the Green School Program for children in Sunshine.

REGEN-Nations 2020

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Oceania & Asia hold many of the worlds climate vulnerable nations. With dense populations and great social and political divides, many countries already face challenges prior to the COVID19 pandemic and will face more vulnerabilities and challenges ahead. There is an urgent need for regenerative projects on the ground which both embody traditional wisdom and have a holistic and appropriate approach.

In 2020 the first REGEN-Nations course was run from September 2020 to March 2021 and welcomed 16 teams from around Asia and the Pacific, with 11 countries represented, Australia, Japan, India, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Each team joined with two lead members and several supporting members. They started with a project in either ideation or scaling stage and applied the learning from this program to develop and deepen their project design.

The program offered a wide range of online sessions from check-in calls, to leadership, mentorship, and coaching sessions, to workshops and webinars on the areas of regeneration of ecovillage design. In addition to the cohort of 16 teams (49 team members in total), the program REGEN-Nations reached over 120 participants through its open webinars and workshops in each dimension.

Through the ReGEN Nations program, GENOA was able to also engage a network of thought leaders, trainers, activists, ecovillages and kindred spirit organisations from the region. These were founders and spokespersons from Ahimsagram, Pun Pun Organic Farm, Moonshadow, Ecosystem Restoration Camps Gaia Education Course, Wellnessland Health Institute, Gaia Ashram, Permaculture Education Institute, Bahay Teknik, RetroSuburbia, Sunshine Ecovillage, Narara Ecovillage, BHW Lands Trust, the Good
Market Global, Transition Network, Slow Food Asia-Pacific and Regeneration International.

It was special to feature topics that ranged from Buddhist and Maori perspectives on right livelihood and economies, interfaith peacebuilding from Sri Lanka, Filipino innovations in disasters, to Permaculture design, popularized by Australians to offer more applicable solutions to the complex realities of countries in the region ranging from poverty, conflict, and the climate crisis, among others.

By the end of REGEN-Nations 2020/2021, 10 prototype projects- covering areas of permaculture, community gardens, food forests, regenerative agriculture, peace-building, health and well-being, community education and social enterprise- were incubated and we’re able to grant seed funding for 3 teams to supplement the development of their project.

Hear from some of the teams who joined the REGEN-nations prototype cycle in 2020

The next cycle of REGEN-Nations is about to start, with new speakers and flexible access. Find out more here:

ReGEN-Nations homepage

“Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back and reasons to stay.”

The Dalai Lama

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Collaboration between GEN Africa and GENOA for Implementing Whole Systems in Ghana

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Thanks to the generous scholarship for the ReGEN Nations Webinar – Applying Whole Systems Design for Regenerative Communities, Mohammed Issahaku, and Iddrisu Abdul Salam Atom of the Dagomba people in northern Ghana got first-hand information over how ecovillages can develop in China and Australia. The Dagomba people are indigenous people of Ghana and it was a refreshing experience for Mohammed and Iddrisu to recognize that the international Global Ecovillage Network cherishes the values that come from working with the land and their people. Mohammed expounds,

”I learned to Identify aims, assets, needs and leverage, all three speakers talked about how they work with available resources on the land. Narara & Sunshine shared about zoning, they talked about working with the government, engaging with government policies. All shared about how we are able to work in stages. How we can create decisions that are safe enough to try good enough for now, and also to communicate better to work with policies. Working from dependence to interdependence – to frame the relationship of self – others .”

Mohammed Issahaku

As a GEN Africa Ambassador, I have been coaching Mohammed to expose his people to Syntropic Farming. In August 2020 his community planted a 10ha monoculture Cashew orchard. Over the winter season, we have developed a plan to add complementary plants to change part of his orchard into a Syntropic Food Forest. It was immensely helpful to hear from David Holmgren that Syntropic Farming evolved independently of Permaculture. We recognize that there are some similarities, and we were wondering if Syntropic Farming is an oversimplification of Permaculture. David explained that Syntropic Farming makes more sense in the Tropics and Subtropics whereas Permaculture is more suited for the temperate regions of our planet.

Design of the field project: Cashew plantation with complimentary plants

Since I am coaching the Dagomba people from  Switzerland. It was a great help that the ReGEN Nations team permitted Mohammed and Iddrisu to participate on a scholarship basis.  I do not live in a community, so it is impossible for me to demonstrate one. The Regen Nations seminar was an excellent substitute!

About Mohammed, Iddrisu and Alice

Mohammed Issahaku studies Tropical Agriculture at the Kumasi Institute of Tropical Agriculture. During his study at that school, he attended the Global Ecovillage Network Conference where he met and got into contact with Alice Güntert. Later Alice took on the role of becoming a coach for him to incorporate ecovillage principles and implement syntropic farming projects at his community in northern Ghana. Mohammed Believes that the combination of GEN ecovillage principles, syntropic farming and contour farming can be a vitalizing force for economic development.

Iddrisu Abdul Salam is a 29-year-old youth born in Gushegu region of northern Ghana. He attended agricultural school for high school and completed his studies in Damongo Agricultural College in 2017. He was introduced to the community farming project by Mohammed in August 2020 and developed interest in it. He was eager to incorporate orange flesh sweet potatoes that he’s been planting to the project as it is really beneficial for old women, children, and lactating mothers. With the support of his mom and his friend Mohammed, he wishes to take the project to a higher level.

Alice Güntert is a GEN Ambassador based in Switzerland. She has been involved with permaculture projects for over 6 years such as being involved in the development of board games in international economics called “Permapoly: The Game of Common Culture”. Alice is active in giving feedback and
recommendations for GEN including the idea that GEN should be on the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum. After GEN’s Communities for Future online summit, she got a friend request from Mohammed Issahaku and from then on they have been in correspondence. Alice is now coaching Mohhammed and Iddrisu to transform Mohammed community’s cashew orchard to be more diverse and abundant.