• Programme
  • Documents
  • Co-operation area
  • Who are the partners?
  • Funding
  • • Fostering innovations
    • Internal and external accessibility
    • Baltic Sea as a common resource
    • Attractive & competitive cities and regions
    Priorities
  • ENPI
  • Management structure
  • Future period 2014-2020
  • EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region
  • Baltic context
• For projects
  • Programme Manual
  • Contracts
  • Progress report
  • First level control
  • Management Toolkit
  • Communication
  • Mid-term self-evaluation
  • Project Implementation Newsletter (PIN)
  • Presentations
• About projects
  • Approved projects
  • Project database
  • Energy cluster
  • Innovation cluster
  • Water cluster
  • Transport cluster
• 2014-2020
• Contacts
  • Joint Technical Secretariat
  • Monitoring Committee
  • Managing Authority
  • Certifying Authority
  • Audit Authority
  • Links
  • Other funding sources
  • Joint Programming Committee 2014–2020
• News
  • Newsletter
  • Publications
  • Press
  • Calendar
  • Galleries
  • Videos
  • Jobs

show/hide project search

---

---

---

Information Manager:

Lithuanian Institute of Agrarian Economics
V. Kudirkos g. 18-2
LT-03105 Vilnius
LT
Simona Griskute
E-mail: simona@laei.lt
Phone: +37052624156
Fax: +37052614524

---

Summary description of the project:

The Ecovillage Movement is an initiative looking for a more sustainable way of living in rural areas and promoting a lot of innovations which deals with climate change, environmental pollution, resource shortages and social problems people face nowadays. Project “Ecovillages for sustainable rural development” aims at fostering ecovillages development as a more sustainable way of living in rural areas of the BSR. Aim will be achieved by collecting and transferring innovative concepts and good practices of the Ecovillage Movement to the society. The knowledge transferred by project activities will help for inhabitants of BSR region to develop new nature-friendly ways of living together on the land in a genuinely more sustainable way. Sustainability in the project includes physical, environmental, economic, social and cultural aspects.

The overall objective of the project is to develop more sustainable ways of living in rural areas of the BSR by offering a toolkit for ecovillage initiators and developers of various technological and social eco-initiatives.

Project will create informal education system on eco-technologies and nature-friendly living models within BSR region based on Ecovillage Movement experiences and produce training materials with case studies of best practice examples from BSR.Recommendations for policy-makers resulting by project activities on new rural development measures will help to find innovative ways to increase sustainability of rural areas within BSR.

The partnership composition is based on integrated territorial development principles realized through the inclusion of partners from different BSR countries. Project has partners from Poland, Latvia, Sweden, Finland, Belarus. Lead partner is from Lithuania.Project also has associated partners from Germany,Belarus,Russia,Finland,Sweden.

Key messages of the project:

• Ecovillage movement suggests an alternative idea to the individualistic, materialistic and consumer-oriented lifestyle.

• Ecovillage principles aim at combining sociocultural environment with a low–impact way of living.

• Ecovillage is one of the innovative concepts, which deals with climate change, environmental pollution, resource shortages and social problems people face nowadays.

• Project aims at fostering ecovillages development as a more sustainable way of living in rural areas of the Baltic Sea Region.

• Ecovillages are important element of sustainable rural development in BSR and beyond.

• Project contributes to the EU’s Baltic Sea Strategy and its Action Plan by proposing environmentally sustainable ways of living.

Achievements of the project so far:

Over 45 ecovillages were interviewed in each PP country, Russia and Germany, assessing demographical, social, economic and ecotechnological aspects of ecovillages. Based on the results, topics for case studies were identified and collection of data completed. The collation of material continues, aiming to have manuals on ecovillages technologies, practices and social development designed and translated to 6 BSR languages during period 5. Manuals will be distributed in PP countries in order to spread the knowledge about sustainable ways of living and practical examples among members of society.

Information on project implementation progress is published and internal project documents are stored in the elaborated multilingual project website. The main project outputs are or will be available on the website too therefore it is considered as one of the tools to spread the knowledge about the project, ecovillages and its best practices around BSR. Website address: www.balticecovillages.eu

Ecovillage sustainability self-evaluation test is available on the project website in 6 languages. It serves as a tool for leaders of established or initiated ecovillages to: a) form a vision of the ecovillage; b) diagnose the real ecovillage situation; c) assess the gap between vision and reality; d) identify what aspects of the ecovillage governance should be improved. There are short and long versions of the test which measure ecovillage’s real and desirable situation on six main dimensions by using a 5 point scale.

The Ecovillage road website is elaborated and ready to use for Ecovillage road virtual network members and external visitors. Members – ecovillages, other eco-projects, consultants – already started their registration and are visible as services/activities providers on the website. The Ecovillage road formation will be a focus in further project stages.

1st newsletter was released, presenting the issue of Ecovillage movement as well as illustrating project progress.

A proposal for a Regulation 2014 - 2020 on support for rural development was prepared and submitted to respective bodies, which aims at highlighting the growing role of ecovillages in the development of rural regions in the EU as well as designating how ecovillages could contribute to the sustainable rural development by transferring knowledge to the rest of society. The online petition to support the proposal was organized and reached over 1000 signees.

SWOT analysis of main factors influencing Eco-village movement in BSR countries was performed. It will be used as bases to prepare recommendations for politicians regarding the role of ecovillage movement in strengthening sustainability of rural regions.

Guideline for establishing an internship programme in ecovillages was finalised and is available for public in the Ecovillage road website. WP5 leader has offered and implemented internship program in Suderbyn Permaculture Ecovillage (Sweden) in July/August 2012.

---

---

List of partners