Living soil
Food grows close to the houses. Compost and canopy feed the ground back.
Regenerative living, explained
What is a regenerative village?
A plain answer to the question, and how one is taking shape in Dominicalito, Costa Rica.
In one paragraph
The short answer
A regenerative village is a community whose ordinary life leaves the land richer each year. People own their own homes. The forest, the water and the growing places are held and cared for together.
The word regenerative carries the weight. A sustainable place holds steady. A regenerative place gives back more than it takes: more soil, more water, more forest, more birds than the season before.
Most regenerative villages are also called ecovillages. The two words point at the same thing.
What to look for
Six marks of a regenerative village
Water kept whole
Rain stays on the land long enough to soak in. Rivers leave cleaner than they arrived.
Forest left standing
The trees that are there stay there. Where the forest is broken, it gets planted back.
Homes that suit the climate
Shade, airflow and local materials do the work that machines would otherwise do.
Decisions made together
A clear way to decide, agreed and written down before it is needed.
Every generation present
Children, working adults and elders share one piece of land and one table.
Words that get mixed up
Ecovillage, intentional community, co-housing
Is an ecovillage the same as an intentional community?
Every ecovillage is an intentional community. The reverse is looser. An intentional community is any group that chooses to live together around something shared, which might be faith, age, craft or simple friendship. An ecovillage adds a second commitment: the land itself is part of what the community is for.
How is it different from co-housing?
Co-housing is an arrangement of buildings. Private homes sit around shared space, usually in a town, and the shared part is a kitchen, a garden, a laundry. A regenerative village holds a whole landscape in common, and the forest and the water are members of it. Co-housing asks how neighbours live near each other. A village asks that, and also what the land needs.
How is it different from a gated community or an eco-resort?
A gated community sells separation, and the shared ground is a service you pay for. A resort sells a stay. A regenerative village is somewhere people actually live, and the shared ground is owned and tended by the people who live on it. The test is simple: ask who decides, and ask who is still there in twenty years.
One example
How Amora does it
Amora is an ecovillage taking shape in Dominicalito, on Costa Rica's South Pacific coast. We call it a village, because that is how it feels to live here.
The land runs to over 100 hectares of primary and secondary rainforest. Dominical is five minutes away and Uvita fifteen. Rivers cross the land, and the beach is a ten minute walk.
Most of the land stays forest. Over 1,500 fruit trees and native hardwoods are already in the ground, and one green thread of forest runs through all of it so animals can cross.
Each household owns its home. The forest, the water and the gathering places are held whole and stewarded in common.
Some details of the legal structure are still being shaped. When you ask us about them, we'll tell you what is settled and what is still in motion.
Keep reading
Come and see what it looks like
The land, the people and the day-to-day are on the about page. Where Amora sits on the coast is on Dominicalito. The practical questions are answered in questions.