FROM GARDENS TO ECOVILLAGE

The Expansion of the Ecovillage
Walking into Craig Gibsone’s whisky barrel, made from mostly recycled materials, the wood stove is burning and pottery in muted shades adds to the warm mix of furnishings. Interesting magazines lie on the dining room table and there’s a relaxed feeling of home. the permaculture garden surrounds the barrel, much of it self-seeded, and its creative nature matches the man who tends it, providing his family with organic food throughout the year.


Craig first visited Findhorn in 1968, and settled here in 1971. He has lived here ever since, closely involved in the community evolving into a centre of demonstration. He’s introduced programmes to look at how we live each day, with a focus on sustainability and permaculture to connect with the wisdom of the Earth and our own inner wisdom.

“The Caravan Park was a stark and barren place, when I first arrived,” he remembers. “The community has transformed over the decades from a family group in the 1960s, to the university of light in the 70s, the planetary village of the 80s, the ecovillage of the 90s and the holistic settlement of today.”

He traces the beginning of the ecovillage back, explaining, “During the 60s and 70s the spiritual and emerging environmental movements were very specialised and the intuitive and the rational were in direct competition with each other. In the 80s they started to come together and dialogue to explore their similarities.”

At the Earth Summit of Rio 1992, both sides started to appreciate each other and recognise they were working with the same agenda. Craig suggests their convergence created a new worldview. “Ecology is in essence co-creation with nature, and the spiritual, personal and cultural values of community living were embraced in a new way as valuable aspects.”

One of the key events of the decade here was in October 1995, when the Findhorn Foundation and Gaia Trust held an international conference, Ecovillages and Sustainable Communities – Models for the 21st Century. The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) was born out of this gathering of over 400 people. Craig recalls, “It was the largest event held at Findhorn, required special catering and was the first time men outnumbered the women.”

Ross and Hildur Jackson, who founded the Gaia Trust in 1987 to support the transition to a sustainable and more spiritual future through grants and initiatives, sponsored the conference and offered bursaries. “As well as presentations and discussions, various group projects took place, with participants building the straw bale shed for garden tools and the first earth lodge in The Park.”

After the ecovillage conference, May East said to John Talbott, author of the book Simply Build Green, “We’re late! We need to create an educational programme.”

The following year the first Eco Experience Week began, to deepen knowledge and experience of sustainable living on all levels and Craig speaks passionately about “. . . broadening the whole concept of co-creation with nature beyond the devas and making it an everyday reality. It’s all spiritual practice, based on observation of the self and of the nature around us.”

The first Ecovillage Training (EVT) was held in 1998, with Craig and May as the key initiators. The same year ecovillages first officially appeared on the United Nations’ top 100 listing of best practices, as excellent models of sustainable living. The Foundation was included on the list in that year.

During the 90s the ecovillage aspect of the community really expanded. “The first of the four wind turbines was built in 1989 and the three larger ones were added in 2006, creating a combined capacity of 750kW electricity, more than sufficient for The Park. The Living Machine sewage treatment facility was built in 1995 to purify our wastewater and creates a mini-ecosystem within a greenhouse environment.”

Chickens at Cullerne Gardens 2011

In 1994, a Community Supported Agriculture scheme called Earthshare began, in conjunction with Cullerne Garden, with the intention of the community becoming more sustainable with organic and local food production. It provided much of the vegetable and salad requirements for Cluny and The Park, as well as supplying 150 households with a weekly veggie box.

The Findhorn Foundation achieved a longed for aim in December 1997 when it became a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) associated with the UN Department of Public Information. Since the 70s there has been a strong link with the soul purpose of the United Nations. “Peter always wanted to forge links with the UN, which recognises the higher will of humanity, and gain NGO status. May East was determined to gain UN recognition for the Foundation and knocked on their door to pursue this.”

The process took several years of dedication. “May always wanted to be an international diplomat and eco-warrior. UN status was the fulfillment of a dream,” explains Craig. The Findhorn Foundation now attends the Sustainable Development Committee meetings and is a founding member of several NGO groups at the UN headquarters in New York. “Peter would be so proud of the ecovillage today, its very practical demonstration and the skilled transmission of knowledge. We weave together the technological and the spiritual aspects and we need both. We’re not just transforming the soul, we’re transforming our human waste too.”

In 2005, the first Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) Training was launched in Findhorn, as a programme of our GEN partner, Gaia Education. Held in different locations around the world, the four-week EDE curriculum is an official contribution to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development UNDESD 2005-2014, based on the GEN ‘living and learning’ principles.

In 2010 Craig introduced the Eco Exploring Community Life programme, with the emphasis on spiritual ecology. “There’s a deep sense of connection, expansion and awareness in meditation and I wondered, What do I do with that experience, how can I reflect it back? Programmes evolve from this inspiration, such as our Spiritual Practice weeks with the focus on permaculture, clay and primal painting.”

When people feel drawn to the Findhorn Foundation to live and work in a spiritual community, they are often wanting to immerse themselves in an environment to learn and also contribute. Living here they become more aware of the eco aspect and realise how closely ecology is connected with spiritual values, walking softly on the earth and living wisely.

Ecovillages function to consciously diminish their ecological footprint. In 2006, the community’s first footprint report concluded that, at just half the UK national average, The Findhorn Ecovillage footprint was the lowest recorded ecological footprint for any community in the industrialised world.

Craig believes, “We need to embed ourselves even more in the bioregion and Transition Moray further, strengthen local ties and focus on our local food and energy production, to draw our resources from here and not from the other side of the planet.”
A new sustainable development training facility, CIFAL Findhorn, was launched in 2006, as a joint initiative between The Moray Council, GEN, the Findhorn Foundation and UNITAR and we continue to build on these connections.

“We have 50 years of embodied wisdom, hard work, intention and love. We’re only just beginning to do the work our founders dreamt of all those years ago. We’ve done a remarkable job in ecological restoration on this windswept peninsula and the same transformation could be said to have happened within the hearts and minds of those who have co-created this vibrant, living community, holding up a beacon of light for future generations.”

Craig Gibsone, interviewed by Christine Lines