What's an ecovillage?

An ecovillage is a community of people living in a full-fledged settlement, in which human activities are harmoniously integrated into nature in a way that promotes healthy human development which can sustainably continue in the future.

People in an ecovillage:

• They participate in local decision-making, so-called participatory decision-making

• They connect ecological, economic, social and cultural areas into comprehensive sustainable local systems

• They actively restore a local social and natural environment

• They are a living laboratory of wonderful pioneering alternatives and innovative solutions

Thanks to participation in local decision-making, each ecovillage is unique. Its diversity is determined by the individual abilities and characters of people, the social and natural environment, and local sustainable systems. The unifying element of all ecovillages are their activities, which lead to a high quality lifestyle with low impact on the planet Earth.

The Global Ecovillages Network perceives three types of ecovillages - urban, traditional and intentional, respectively deliberate.

• An urban ecovillage is created by a new or existing community or neighborhood, which is united by a common vision of the renewal of life in the city based on sustainability, cooperation and participatory decision-making. More cooperating urban ecovillages in one city can create a so-called Transition Town.

• Traditional ecovillages are mostly the ones of the village type with the existing community, which decide to participate in local decision-making and combine the traditional wisdom of the community with new positive innovations to achieve a sustainable way of life and greater self-sufficiency.

• Most ecovillages are intentional and deliberately created. They are created by people who purposefully gather and create new collaborative participatory sustainable communities and local cultures based on a common vision and intention.

Ecovillage in world