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A Vision of Ecological Design
Article Series: Ecological Design for Sustainable and Regenerative Futures. Read about the series below.
by Declan Kennedy
Declan demonstrates the vastness of his experience with a truly comprehensive vision of Ecological Design — a vision as enticing as it is practical. Since this vision is listed as so many points, it also could be considered a comprehensive checklist of design criteria for sustainable settlements. Declan emphasises that ecological design is a process, and since the bigg…
Glocal Learning Centre in Lahel for a Thriving Senegal River Valley
A comprehensive education programme aiming to establish a fecund partnership within and between local communities to reverse the current ecological and socio-economic climate in the Senegal River Valley.
by Dr Ousmane Pame, President of GEN Africa & REDES |
The Senegal River Valley lies on the borders of the Sahel Region and the Sahara desert. It is at the front line when it comes to dealing with the entangled challenges of desertification, climate change, mass impoverishment and immigrati…
Zambia’s Youth applying Whole Systems Design for Sustainability in their Central Province
Agriculture is the lifeblood of Zambia’s rich resource-based economy, contributing significantly to employment, economic growth, exports, poverty reduction, food security and nutrition. Agriculture also plays a critical role in ensuring sustainable use of natural resources.
by May East
Exposing mental models to the open air – fiiS in Santiago
Gaia Education recently joined fiiS Santiago, the most engaging International Festival of Social Innovation in the Americas.
Over the last five years fiiS has become a movement of people and organisations generating progressive changes in society in surprising ways. Through radical collaboration, young innovators are dreaming up solutions to the tough social challenges of our times.
Combining Latin American music, passion and strength, thousands of innovators between 16 and 34 years old, gathe…
New MOOC Coming in February 2018: Local Water Solutions for Global Challenges
Launching new free online course covering a number of water-related challenges that must be addressed to achieve sustainable water solutions at the local level.
According to Wateraid.org, in 2017 there were 844 million people living without access to safe water, and 2.3 billion without access to improved sanitation. Furthermore, one million people are killed by water, sanitation and hygiene-related diseases each year, and 31% of schools in the world don’t even have clean water on site. In addit…
Designing with Deep Respect: Deep Ecology in a Karen Village
Article Series: Ecological Design for Sustainable and Regenerative Futures. Read about the series below.
by Omsunisa Jamwiset — Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand
Omsunisa Jamwiset, from Wongsanit Ashram in Thailand, provides an ethnographic account of life in Soblan village of the Karen hilltribe on the Thai-Burmese border. The Karen have developed life ways deeply integrated with the forest ecology of their home. Omsunisa describes how the villagers of Soblan have developed daily life patterns f…
Rewilding the Fertile Crescent, the concept and practice and what happened during the first week of the Farsi EDE
Gaia Education Certified Trainer Pupak Haghighi recounts the story of the first EDE in Iran within the context of the emerging call for rewilding the Fertile Crescent.
By Pupak Haghighi
The word ‘rewilding’ has been increasingly gaining popularity in the Western World over the last two decades. Hidden in the story of rewilding, though is a world of devastation. Perhaps we don’t need to linger on why we need to rewild the Fertile Crescent. Let us turn our attention instead to why we choose to s…
The seeds of Gaia Youth and Schools are sprouting
At the end of the summer, representatives from the Youth and School projects gathered in Estonia firstly to share and learn and secondly to take steps towards developing a certified youth curriculum. Highlights of this gathering were visiting the Gaia Kool (school) in Tallinn where children are learning through a curriculum based on the 4…
Gaia Jovem: harnessing the power and vitality of youth
Gaia Jovem is the pilot project for implementing the Gaia Education pedagogy with youth in Brazil.
By Aline Satyan, facilitator of Gaia Jovem Brazil |
In the transition from mere ‘sustainability’ to a ‘regenerative culture’ perspective, youth is a key factor. The future is for them and we, as facilitators, need to be led and directed by the inspirations and drivers of young people of the world.
The Gaia Jovem project emerged from the Ecovillage Design Education programme…
Whole Systems Approach to Ecological Design
Excerpt from the Ecological Design dimension of Gaia Education’s online course in ‘Design for Sustainability’
Before looking at applied and tested solutions in the areas of energy, food, water, and building, it is essential to explore and understand a whole systems framework for design that reminds us to link products, to buildings, to communities, industrial systems, cities, bioregions and into national and global collaboration. Design for sustainability is about creating synergies between…