GEN-Europe is bringing a "Call for an international dialogue on the concept of 'Ecovillage'" to Cancun.

Summary

Ecovillages are gaining global recognition for the innovative and practical tools they offer to simultaneously tackle the many social, environmental, cultural and economic challenges in the face of climate change. In the context of development cooperation, the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) is in an excellent position to establish partnerships between sustainable living projects in the North and South. This is a letter to express and share the vision of GEN to deepen and broaden its role as a platform for South-North and South-South exchange of knowledge and experience. The good intentions and creativity of citizens, and their willingness to make a difference, is one of the most underutilised resources we have today. The power of human communities to come together and co-design their own pathway into the future is seen as a major driving force for positive change. Through sharing of best practices within the wider network, while honouring deep-rooted traditional knowledge and local cultures, we move towards a diverse yet shared pool of wisdom for sustainable living at a global scale. 

Read more

Click here to follow GEN-International's participation

Since 2000 GEN has United Nations ECOSOC consultative status and is represented at regular briefing sessions at UN Headquarters.

UN Ecosoc is the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. (see history of GEN, 2000-2001)

The Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC means GEN has a special competence in, and is concerned specifically with some of the fields of activity covered by ECOSOC.
This status gives GEN the chance to join in the work of various committees relevant to its concerns to promote sustainable communities and practices worldwide.

GEN’s activities at the UN during the period 2007 – 2009 have been dominated by participation in the preparatory stages of the 15th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC CoP-15). GEN’s principal representative at the United Nations, Albert Bates, has participated in the COP meetings in Bonn, Accra and Poznan.

Albert is presently part of the NGO caucus on climate change (ClimateCaucus.net). In furtherance of the Declaration of the 60th Annual NGO/DPI Conference, he co-authored the chapter on Tipping Points (http://excelser.net/climatecaucus/tipping_draft.htm) for the Civil Society’s Report to the Secretary General on Actions to Eliminate Climate Change.
The NGO/DPI Executive Committee and the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO) oversee progress of the Report and its Working Groups. GEN’s Albert Bates is part of the Working Group on Tipping Points. If that report is delivered to the Secretary General with an oral presentation at CoP-15, as it may likely be, Mr. Bates would possibly participate in the reading or oral summary.
Albert Bates has been involved with UN-NGO processes since the UN World Conference on the Environment in Stockholm in 1972. After publication of his seminal reference work on climate change, Climate in Crisis: The Greenhouse Effect and What We Can Do (1990, foreword by Al Gore), he actively participated with NGOs in association with ECOSOC during the Second World Conference on the Environment in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. He was the credentialed representative for GEN in Istanbul in 1997 and for a coalition of environmental NGOs with consultative status at Johannesburg in 2002.

You can download GEN's annual report 2007-08 by clicking here (pdf 528kb).