Ecotopia 10-24 Aug, Ireland
The Dingle Peninsula has been chosen as the venue for Ecotopia, a major international gathering on sustainable living, to be held this summer. Several hundred people from all over the world are expected to attend a specially constructed "village" for the two-week long "Ecotopia" festival and conference from August 10th to 24th. During these days the participants will live as a sustainable community using renewable energy resources and leaving as little of the impact on the local environment as possible. A number of temporary structures will be built for eating, meetings and sleeping and a vegetarian kitchen is planned for which vegetables have already been planted on site. Groups will leave the camp every few days to take part in local projects - including area clean-ups and participants are encouraged to give a workshop on a topic of their choice. Workshops will be held on environmental awareness, alternative medicines, vegetarianism, and ecological building, among others. Sessions listed so far include workshops on environmental law, nuclear power and energy, energy efficiency, geology, geography, ancient Irish history, sustainable living, music, dance, permaculture, climate change, and global social issues.
This year there's going to be a parallel program of workshops about Conflict Resolution. Therefore we invite groups / individuals who would like to organise one or more workshops on this issue to contact us. We've already put down some ideas of related topics:
· consensus based decision making
· one to one mediation
· peace activism
· "terrorism" and global conflicts
· intercultural differences
· racism/age/gender conflicts
· environment and conflict.We encourage role-play based workshops in which the use of imaginary conflicts enables the participants to deepen into the role of the mediator and the power dynamics.
The exact location of the conference has yet to be disclosed, however, as the organisers are keen to maintain control over the gathering. In the past Ecotopia has been held in a number of European venues. It was held in Bulgaria in 2001 and Finland in 2000. It was in Scotland a number of years ago but this will be the first time it comes to Ireland. The organisers say they are seeking volunteers to help tend the vegetables or to join one of a number of teams set up to build the village, and carry out other essential tasks. Actually everybody that will join Ecotopia is expected to put some effort for the organization and the effective running of the gathering.
A few things that you should into consideration, is that we always use consensus based decision making in our gatherings, and we strongly disapprove discriminatory types of behaviour such as sexism and racism.
There is going to be a participation fee of approximately 7 euros per day, for the food and accommodation costs.
In some cases of participants with difficulties in attending the gathering (e.g.due to economically disadvantaged country of origin), there's a limited budget for travel reimbursement. In this case people will have to fill-in in advance an application form explaining in which way they 're planning to be active in / to contribute to Ecotopia and the reason for the travel reimbursemet.
Further information you can request at ballyhaunis@care2.com
An Ecotopia website is also to be set up at www.ecotopia2002.org where there is going to be an application form.
More info about the bike tour 2002, starting from Dover, England and ending to the Dingle Peninsula, Ireland, you can find here. www.thebiketour.net