International meeting of ecovillages in Russia on february 27-March 2, 2009
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4-th meeting International meeting of ecovillages brief info
4-th meeting of living ecovillages was finished in Russia.
4 days participants from 6 countries (Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia,
Moldova, Latvia, Finland) take part in sections and presentations.
There was representatives from 24 our eco-villages and Heikki H
Attila from GEN Finland (25 totally).
Due to fast growing number of eco-villages there was restriction:
only participants permanently living in eco-village where live at
least 3 families was invited. Maximum 2 participants from one
eco-village was invited (~50 totally - see photo). There was
participants from Sibiria to Moldova (6 hours time difference).
Two videos with eco-villages self presentation (~9 hours) and
practical experience presentations (~8 hours) are planned.
Video from previous 3-rd meeting with self presentation of 15
living eco-villages can be found on
http://eco-kovcheg.ru/video.html (in Russian, 7.5 hours, 786 Mb web
version).
More than 30 living ecovillages (with permanently living 2+
families) planned on next meeting.
International meeting of ecovillages in Russia (additional information)
On february 27-March 2, 2009 the fourth annual meeting ecovillages from
Russia and NIS countries took place in the Kovcheg ecovillage, located not
far from Moscow in Kaluga region. This year the organizers of the meeting
again invited representatives of the "alive", or functioning, ecovillages to
the meeting. That means only those living in the communities where minimum
two families were living permanently (the whole year long) could come to
this gathering. This requirement emerged due, firstly, to the main goal of
the meeting, which was sharing the experience between those who were
actually living on their own lands in their villages, as well as summarizing
and spreading this experience of creating ecovillage and establishing
sustainable life in it. The other reason of such a restriction was the
limitation of Kovcheg winter accommodation facility.
Representatives of 25 ecovillages coming from 6 countries - Russia,
Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia and Finland, arrived to the meeting.
First day of this four-day meeting was the day of arrival, first contacts
and informal networking. The guests could communicate with each other either
in the Kovcheg Common house, or during the excursion organized for those
coming for the first time, or in three baths, as according to Russian
traditions "one should first feed guests and steam them out in the Russian
steam baths, and only after this ask - what they have come for." This time,
the host of the meeting not only fed and steam out the guests, but also in
the evening organized for them the beautiful concert, as Kovcheg is famous
with their musicians and the choir.
Second day was dedicated to presentations of the ecovillages. The
participants who came for the first time presented their places, and those
who were present the last year focused on the past year new results. Before
the meeting the participants making presentations were asked to focus not
only on they achievements and progress, but also tell about actual problems
and the ways to solve them. For this, they get from the organizers a
questionnaire with main questions to be reflected.
Next day a new format of conducting the meeting was tested which were
thematic presentations on concrete positive practices of the ecovillages
(building houses, solving management and decision-making problems, farming,
horse and livestock breeding etc). The last day of the meeting was that of
summing up and sharing impressions in a circle.
When summing up many participants noted that if compared with the last year,
this year meeting was more informative, rich in news and interesting facts,
which demonstrated some real achievements of this new form of community in
Russia. The participants had opportunity to be acquainted to ecovillager's
experience in house building, environment friendly technologies, farming,
decision-making schemes, natural delivery, organization of the autonomous
children education. For the first time the horse and cattle breeding
experience was presented by four ecovillages. The Kovcheg ecovillage shared
their experience in solving problems with cutting their nearby forests by
forest companies (by persuading those companies to turn to the selective
mode of cutting).
Many participants noted that during such meetings they get inspiration from
their associates, and especially from more developed ecovillages, whose
experience help them to understand the right direction of their efforts and
avoid possible missteps. In spite of very compact schedule of the meeting
the participants could keep their clear minds and digest huge amount of
information dues to big variety of presentation forms - from multimedia
presentations to brief lyrical movies and simple laconic answers to
questionnaire prepared by organizers to structure oral presentations. Two
evening events also contributed to mind clearness and joyful mood of
participants: the concert of Indian music and traditional Russian songs and
dances party, which was conducted in the evening of Mardi Gras.
The materials of two working days of the meeting will be reflected in a
two-part detailed documentary (9-hour and 8-hour films) which will be in a
free access for each interested person.
All the best to all of you!
Laysan Mirzagitova
Additional information available in Russian!
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