Before the Ecovillage

Timothy Miller analyzed the communal movement in the 1960s in his book, The 60's Communes: Hippies and Beyond. He states that during the early 60s a counter culture of youth began to live communally in cities and soon after moved out to rural areas to settle there. As the environmental movement began to take shape in the late 1960s, early 1970s, an alternative lifestyle began to emerge as well. People became concerned with the state of the environment for the first time on a great scale. Over the years the rise in communes and intentional communities grew. It was not until 1990 that the Gaia Trust initiated a study to explored ecovillages around the world. In 1991 the first meeting on how to develop and spread the ecovillage concept occurred. Great interest was shown during the meeting and in the subsequent years, community members from around the world gathered to discuss a global ecovillage strategy. The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) was set up in 1995. Three regional networks were set up to cover the globe: one in the Americas, one in Europe, and one in Oceania. Over the years, the GEN has been placed on the international radar by attending international conferences on Sustainable Development and Human Settlements. Not only do ecovillages practice sustainablity in their own communities, but they educate people on ecovillage living through courses and workshops. A full history of GEN can be found on their website. A link is provided on the left sidebar.