The BEN NETWORK
The Baltic Ecovillage Network brings together national ecovillage networks, ecovillages, community-led initiatives and associations around the Baltic Sea. Explore the map, click a marker for a short introduction, or scroll down for each member by country.
● National network ● Ecovillage or community.
Around the Baltic Sea
Denmark
Landsforeningen for Økosamfund (LOES)
National network · Denmark
LOES is an association for all Danish ecocommunities – both established communities and those in the making. It includes around 30 ecovillages and eco-communities, and it is organised sociocratically.
LOES unites the Danish ecocommunities. Our vision is a sustainable Denmark where ecocommunities, eco-communal values, and lifestyles are widely embraced.
The mission of LOES is to promote ecocommunities in Denmark and inspire the wider society toward a more sustainable way of life. They do this by running courses, festivals and online gatherings, and an adult education programme for newcomers to the ecovillage movement.
Hallingelille
Ecovillage or community · near Ringsted · Denmark
A community near Ringsted that hosted the BEN seminar in November 2021.
Estonia
Eesti Ökokogukondade Ühendus (GEN Estonia)
National network · Estonia
The Estonian Ecovillage Association. It promotes the creation and growth of eco-communities across Estonia.
Visit Eesti Ökokogukondade Ühendus website
Estonian Permaculture Association
Ecovillage or community · Estonia · Estonia
Spreads knowledge of permaculture in Estonia and brings together people and groups who practise it. Its activities include events, training courses, projects, learning materials and the LAND network.
Visit Estonian Permaculture Association website
Gaia Akadeemia
Ecovillage or community · Tallinn · Estonia
Based in Tallinn, Gaia Akadeemia supports co-creation in projects and initiatives that benefit people, communities and the planet. It works under a non-profit ethics code and is linked to the Estonian ecovillage association.
Parmu Ökoküla
Ecovillage or community · Parmu, Estonia · Estonia
Parmu Ökoküla is a small but growing micro-community in the Taheva region, on the Estonian-Latvian border. The farms of the Ökoküla community members are located in five different villages – Kalliküla, Hargla, Sooblase, Tsirgumäe and Laanemetsa.
The element that binds the members of Parmu Ecovillage is not so much the territory but rather shared core values, attitude to life, and working together.
The common principles and goals of the members of Parmu Ecovillage are a lifestyle that is close to nature and preserves nature; a way of life that respects and preserves Estonian and regional traditions; and a community that is frugal, self-sufficient, and preferably based on a natural economy.
Finland
Suomen kestävän elämäntavan yhteisöt ry (SKEY / GEN Finland)
National network · Finland · Finland
SKEY promotes sustainable lifestyle and community in all its networks locally and internationally. It strengthens the cooperation of Finnish ecovillages and other local communities that are striving for a sustainable lifestyle. It hosts events, offers education, promotes student exchange programs, operates in self-sufficient permaculture gardening projects and serves as a coordinator in the ecovillage network. Its vision holds an increased amount of active ecovillages in Finland that co-operate with each other. In a long-term vision on a societal level, a transition to social, ecological, economic, and cultural sustainability has been achieved.
SKEY brings local eco-communities together nationwide in annual Communality Festivals that have inspired many people to join in and form new eco-communities in Finland.
Latvia
Zadiņi (Latvian Permaculture Association)
Ecovillage or community · Smiltene region · Latvia
An open homestead run as a member initiative of the Latvian Permaculture Association. It works with permaculture ethics, traditional skills and regenerative farming, and welcomes visitors year-round.
Lithuania
Lithuanian Ecocommunity Network
National network · Lithuania
The Lithuanian national network of ecovillages and eco-communities.
Kardokai
Ecovillage or community · Kazlų Rūda · Lithuania
An ecovillage community running eco-settlement housing, straw-house construction, a school, volunteer programmes and annual ecovillage gatherings.
Norway
Norske Økosamfunns Forening
National network · Norway · Norway
The Norwegian association for ecovillages and sustainable living. It shares news on permaculture, events and its networks.
Hurdal Ecovillage
Ecovillage or community · Hurdal · Norway
Mikkelstjenn Økogrend
Ecovillage or community ·· Norway
Poland
Fundacja Truskawkowe Pola (Strawberry Fields)
Ecovillage or community · Poland · Poland
A foundation focused on permaculture. It offers permaculture projects, garden installations, eco-construction and workshops, and runs an educational farm and the settlement Osada Truskawkowe Pola.
Kooperatywa Izerska
Ecovillage or community · Izera Mountains · Poland
A cooperative focused on food sovereignty. It organises the Izerskie Forum of Food Sovereignty and coordinates a food sovereignty movement with member groups.
OSADA Center for Regenerative Living
Ecovillage or community · Poland · Poland
Sweden
Ekobyarnas Riksorganisation (ERO)
National network · Sweden · Sweden
The oldest national ecovillage network in Europe, founded in 1987. It connects 10 member ecovillages and shares information on project funding, education and courses.
Charlottendal Farm and Ecovillage
Ecovillage or community · near Järna, south of Stockholm · Sweden
A small land-based ecovillage on a farm with about twenty residents and volunteers. It runs a kindergarten open to the wider community and adult courses on environmental, health and local-solutions topics.
Earthbound
Ecovillage or community · Sweden
Earthbound is an upcoming ecovillage and think tank for rural community – and regenerative living in Southern Sweden. They are creating a community of 30 people stewarding 73 ha of land with a lake, ancient forest and 9 buildings.
Grönbo Ekoby
Ecovillage or community · Rödbo, Hisingen, Gothenburg · Sweden
A planned eco-village combining owner-built homes, cooperative rentals, collective housing and small houses, guided by permaculture. The project is in planning, and the site already has a restored cottage, communal gardens and community events.
Hästekasen Gård
Ecovillage or community · Swedish west coast · Sweden
A small permaculture farm and tiny house village of green entrepreneurs. They experiment small scale permaculture farming and natural building methods as well as self development through creative adventures in Swedish nature.
Hästekasen Gård offers hands-on learning in permaculture and natural building, plus nature experiences such as freediving courses and boat trips.
Suderbyn Ecovillage
Ecovillage or community · Gotland, south of Visby · Sweden
An experimental intentional community that began in July 2008. Suderbyn is an intentional community of between 15-25 people from many corners of the world, working and living together to create and maintain a more socially and environmentally sustainable lifestyle. Suderbyn is a pilot site for applying a holistic approach to create a small-scale regenerative society. Specifically, they focus on sustainable development, transition initiatives and permaculture practices.
Suderbyn is located on Gotland (Sweden), which is an island in the middle of the Baltic Sea. The island has recently been appointed as a pilot region for the new Energy Transition of Sweden. Besides prototyping an alternative kind of lifestyle, they also work with regional and transnational networks, projects, communities and initiatives around Europe and the rest of the world.
Ängsbacka
Ecovillage or community · Molkom · Sweden
For more than 25 years, since the start in 1996 thousands of people have visited Ängsbacka with the longing to explore and celebrate life through openhearted connection and presence. Today they are a well-established venue and source of inspiration with world-wide visitors and a thriving network of renowned teachers and musicians. Their offers include supportive and holistic tools and practices such as yoga, tantra, meditation, dance, coaching and much more!
Ängsbacka is more than a venue for courses, festivals and volunteer programs. The daily running is secured by a core working community of predominantly volunteers, who offer their dedication and service to the vision of this unique meeting place. Countless people relate to Ängsbacka as a safe haven and a home away from home; a place where they are welcome exactly as they are.
Germany
GEN Deutschland
National network · Germany
A network of 23 ecovillage and community projects working on sustainable, regenerative ways of living.
Sieben Linden
Ecovillage or community · Germany
One of Europe’s best-known ecovillages. It runs seminars on community building, personal development, ecology and nonviolent communication, a conference house, and online courses.
Ukraine
GEN Ukraine
National network · Ukraine · Ukraine
The Ukrainian ecovillage network. Its main project, the Green Road of Ecovillages, is a network of countryside locations that has hosted internally displaced people since 2022. The NGO “Global Ecovillage Network Ukraine” was founded in 2018 to unite various types of ecological communities into a single network.
GEN Ukraine Mission: To unite and facilitate the development of ecovillages and other sustainable communities in Ukraine to promote environmental values and the philosophy of conscious living in society.
They unite various types of ecological communities: ecovillages, ancestral estates, art-homesteads, spiritual communities, co-housing and communes, as well as individual sustainable households and environmental initiatives, including “transition towns.”
Among Ukraine’s ecovillagers are representatives of completely different professions. Often, these are people with higher education and successful careers behind them. Some change their field of activity after moving, some continue to work remotely, and others adapt their knowledge to the needs of the local community.
Beyond the Baltic Sea
BEN is part of a wider movement. These networks are partners in our projects or close allies.
Europe
GEN Europe is the European network for ecovillages and sustainable communities. They are a non-profit membership association that supports existing ecovillages and encourages the development of new ones, while spreading the tools, resources, inspiration and culture of ecovillages across Europe and the world.
GEN EU is linking intentional communities, ecovillages and national networks. It supports them through capacity building, networking, IT tools, education and EU-funded projects, and maintains an ecovillage directory and map.
Belgium – Europe
ECOLISE is the European Network for Community-Led Initiatives on Climate Change and Sustainability. Since 2014, They have been supporting community-led initiatives, their networks and partners to catalyse systemic transformation within and across society.
ECOLISE’s purpose is to engage in, support, and facilitate accelerated learning and collaboration among community-led initiatives, their networks, and partners to catalyse systemic transformation within and across society.
ECOLISE finds hope in the solutions that are being developed by community-led initiatives across Europe and the world addressing the unprecedented ecological, social, economic, and political threats to dignified life on planet Earth. The organization aim to leverage the growing interest in these life-affirming approaches by bringing the demands of community-led initiatives to the EU level.
Vision: Achieving a just and regenerative future for all within planetary boundaries, thanks to a strong role of transformative community-led climate action.
Goal: At least 25% of the European population is engaged in transformative community-led climate action by 2030, reaching the tipping point for transformative social change.
Theory of Change: Mainstreaming and strengthening community-led climate action initiatives will allow them to achieve this goal and vision
Global
GEN Vision
The Global Ecovillage Network envisions a world of empowered citizens and communities, designing and implementing their own pathways to a sustainable future, and building bridges of hope and international solidarity.
GEN Mission
To innovate, catalyse, educate and advocate in global partnership with ecovillages and all those dedicated to the shift to a regenerative world.
The global reach of the network also facilitates the spreading of the Incubator programme to serve and strengthen our worldwide community.
GEN International serves as an umbrella organisation for ecovillages, transition town initiatives, intentional communities, and ecologically-minded individuals worldwide, providing information, tools, examples and global representation to the expanding network of those dedicated to developing and demonstrating sustainability principles and practices in their lifestyles and communities around the world. The organisation’s goals of empowering and connecting local communities, providing education, advancing active citizenship and community development and acting as a catalyst for projects that expedite the shift to sustainable and resilient lifestyles.
YES TO SUSTAINABILITY
Europe
Yes to Sustainability is a network of young people and youth workers whose aim is to bring together young people in ecovillages and sustainable projects in Europe.
YTS vision is of a world in which young people are empowered to create resilient communities, contribute to regenerative cultures, and take care of the planet.
They work towards this by organising Youth Exchanges and Mobility for Youth Workers, such as training courses and seminars. These activities are fully funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ scheme, which means that young people can get closer to sustainability completely cost-free.
YTS also offer support and mentoring to ecovillages, networks, sustainable projects and young people wanting to organise a Youth Exchange.
Europe
NextGEN Europe is the youth branch of the European Ecovillage Network (GEN), which connects young people around the planet with ecovillage solutions, education, projects, and regenerative living practices.
NextGEN Europe is a youth-centred platform – the coming together of the younger generations of the ecovillage movement in Europe. It is not only for young people but for anyone who wishes to work with the next generation, also by connecting to the other NextGEN initiatives in all the other GEN Regions.
GAIA EDUCATION
Global
Educate participants of all ages and cultural backgrounds,
Give you the tools to restore balance to our world,
Respond to the interconnected challenges of our modern world,
Share grass-roots practices and wisdom via our learning communities,
Celebrate intentional communities and alternative lifestyles and share practices that are proven successful for the development and regeneration of ourselves and nature,
Restore ecosystems, learning to live in harmony with nature, not against it
Distribute wealth fairly,
Encourage systemic thinking to help you integrate holistic solutions for optimal results,
Improve the quality of life for future generations,
Create communities of change-makers capable of actively transitioning their local communities.
RIVE (Rete Italiana Villaggi Ecologici)
National Network – Italy
The association Rete Italiana dei Villaggi Ecologici (RIVE) was born in December 1996 with the intention of sharing experiences and learning about the many heterogeneous realities of ecovillages that exist in the Italian territory and to support the birth of new ones.
The diversity found in the members of RIVE is a characteristic of the association, as a wealth that inspires a multiplicity of lifestyles. Then the network grew into becoming the most important Italian reference regarding ecovillages and intentional communities and collaborating with other affine networks at a national and international level. The RIVE is an association constituted by the community, ecovillaggi, projects of the community and single people interested in knowing and sustaining community experiences
RIVE is BEN’s partner in FinEthiCom and FREE-IT.
GEN-NL (Global Ecovillage Network Nederlands)
Netherlands
The Dutch Ecovillage Netwerk (EcodorpenNetwerk or GEN-NL) was founded in 2015.
Its goal is to bring together community initiatives in the Netherlands, to share knowledge and experiences and work together on common fields. This includes research, lobbying, education (organising the Dutch EDE and other community development tools for different target groups, including schools); PR (newsletter, magazine, social media); help function, coaching and mediation; network meetings (bi-annual ecovillage meeting, annual national festival), exchange, visits, lobbying for ecovillage laws and funding.
In Netherlands, we have about 40 initiatives, of which ca 12 are member of GEN-NL.
Coopérative Oasis
France
Supports the emergence of ecovillages (oasis) since 2018, through training, a six-month incubator, loans and webinars.
All over France, citizen collectives are creating new ecological and solidarity-based places called eco-hamlets, participatory housing, collective farms, third places… We call them oases . The Cooperative Oasis supports those who live or wish to live in these ecological and collective places, the oases. It reveals the reality of the thousand projects that exist today in France, and offers the opportunity to stay or settle there. Supports those who want to create their own place. Finally, Cooperative Oasis creates connections between places so that they realise they are a true network they can rely on. This fosters a different way of life, a more intense, simple, and joyful way of inhabiting the world.
Oasis Cooperative is BEN’s partner in FREE-IT and associate partner in FinEthiCom.
The Iberian network for ecovillages and intentional communities. It shares information, workshops, projects and resources. The RIE is the network that relates, connects and brings together:
- The people who are living, searching, finding how to express themselves, to become concrete in this world: respecting the Planet, respecting People.
- The different Ecovillages that are operating in the Iberian Peninsula.
- The different Ecovillage projects that are trying to be created.
Join us
Does your ecovillage, network or initiative around the Baltic Sea want to be listed here? Send us a short description, a website and the location, and we will add it to the map.