Ecovillage Social

Bogarka Nagy

Workshop holder

Between 2005 and 2020, I lived in Auroville, where I was introduced to Restorative Circles and became a regular practitioner, attending ongoing facilitator trainings. Since 2020, I’ve been based in Hungary, where I earned a PhD researching the role of intentional communities in sustainability. I also founded an Auroville-inspired community and have facilitated Restorative Circles trainings for its members and other communities.

Workshop title

Restorative Circles, the Auroville experience

Restorative Circles is a community-based conflict resolution process developed by Dominic Barter in Brazil, originally to support dialogue and healing in favela communities. The practice was brought to Auroville—one of the world’s largest intentional communities—by Laura Joy, who learned directly from Dominic. In Auroville, it proved to be an effective tool for addressing a wide range of community conflicts. The process creates a safe, structured space where those affected by conflict can listen deeply, express themselves authentically, and move toward mutual understanding and collective healing.

Taisa Mattos

Workshop holder

Taisa Mattos – Gaia Education Face-to-Face Programmes Coordinator & Gaia Schools Coordinator – is passionate about ecovillages and regenerative education. With 16 years of experience teaching Ecovillage Design Education (EDE), she has contributed to over 30 certified EDEs in Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Argentina and online. Lead facilitator for Gaia Education's Training of Trainers in Mexico. Co-founder of Terra Una Ecovillage. Author of Ecovillages: Building a Regenerative Culture.

Workshop title

Shaping the Future: Applying Regenerative Practices in Schools (Gaia Schools)

Join this participatory session to explore how the Gaia Education 4D Framework can support fostering sustainability and regenerative education in schools. We will introduce Gaia Schools and reflect on the current education system, while sharing best practices for transformation. Learn what it means to be a Gaia School and how it can nurture holistic, sustainable education. How can schools become spaces of transformative learning for regenerative futures?

With: Taisa Mattos, Margarita Hamatsu, Elide Salvemini (Usignolo), Macaco Tamerice

Gabriel da Rocha

Workshop holder

Gabriel da Rocha is living at Catfarm for over 4 years, and focuses on projects promoting a healthier lifestyle and envision transforming systems from within. He has implemented horizontal governance inspired by Holacracy to support sustainable, collective living.

Workshop title

Holacracy - horizontal governance
for transparency in decision-making

Discover Holacracy, a horizontal governance model that cultivates shared leadership, transparency, and well-being in decision-making. In this workshop, you’ll explore its core principles and practical applications, gaining insights from firsthand experience implementing it within the Catfarm Community.

Laura Kaestele

Workshop holder

Laura works as a network weaver, facilitator, project manager, and grower with ecological living and regeneration, permaculture design, community development and impact networks for ecosocial transition. Since living in an eco-community as a teenager to being part of the ECOLISE team and GEN Network Steward Circle now, she has visited and contributed to ~100 ecovillage, sustainable projects, and regenerative farms globally to connect, synergize, and take transformative action for regeneration.

Workshop title

Ecovillages as catalysts for
a just eco-social transition of society

What are ecovillages called to be & do now? How can ecovillages become hubs for bioregional development, connectors in mycelium networks and catalysts for a just ecosocial transition? What is possible if we step outside our bubble…?
Join us for an engaging, inspiring workshop to dialogue and discover systemic leverage points, strategies, stories and actions to widen & deepen the positive impact of ecovillages and community-led initiatives. You will learn about ECOLISE’s work (European network of community-led initiatives) in participatory advocacy, projects and specific engagement opportunities. Let’s explore social innovation, political influence, network weaving and collective actions!

Ashley Sheets

Workshop holder

Ashley Sheets is a degrowth and environmental labour activist and works as the Project Manager at Sunseed Desert Technology, a non-formal education project and international community in an off grid village in southern Spain. Her background is in degrowth/post-growth futures, education, and environmental justice. She is passionate about holistic sustainable living practices, and sharing knowledge that strengthens our collective communities. She is an experienced facilitator and educator.

Workshop title

Los Cuidados - an exploration of gender and care work in ecovillages through food, housekeeping and community care


In this workshop we’ll examine how we divide domestic and care work while building empowerment across a community, engaging with gender roles and the educational aspects of how we relate to one another in a community when it comes to essential tasks such as cooking, cleaning, organising, and other shared domestic labour. We see this work as an important tool in ecovillages in terms of how to “responsibilise” everyone in a community for these essential tasks, which often get divided across arbitrary divides of gender. We hope to create an open space where we can share our experiences, including successes, failures, and dream ways of being in mixed communities.

Elisa Chnana

Co-Facilitator

Elisa Chnana is half Spanish, half Syrian and raised in Spain. She studied professional cooking, working in kitchens in Madrid and Amsterdam for several years where she started combining her passions of agriculture, gardening, preserving food, folklore and traditions. Now living for more than one year as a committed member of Sunseed, she coordinates the sustainable living department to manage household aspects sustainably, giving workshops and living in a community aligned with her values.

János Kecskeméti

Workshop holder

I earned my degree in Economics, but soon after, I began to direct my focus toward self-awareness and consciousness. As I embarked on this journey, I became a member of a co-living community, where I have been actively involved for the past six years. I was fortunate enough to complete a community facilitator training, which further strengthened my belief that community-based societal structures are the future.

Workshop title

The Significance of Integrative and Unifying Energy in the Life of Authentic Communities - Towards the Communities of the Future with Community Facilitators

The community facilitator knowledge, developed in Hungary from the perspectives of ecology and psychology, enables integrative community leaders to build cohesive communities despite human differences. Community facilitators are guides of human processes, capable of steering group dynamics in a constructive direction.
This community function is essential for the survival of communities, as it helps manage the natural tensions and conflicts arising from human differences, transforming them into building blocks for community development.
At the same time, facilitators have another important task: to facilitate and structure discussions in order to maintain efficiency.

Mátyás Révai

Co-Facilitator

Humanecologist, community facilitator, environmental researcher, permaculture designer, CEO of PatternWise. He has been working in sustainability for over 15 years and in regenerative consulting for a few years. For two years he was an ecological expert and consultant at Manas Garden, currently he is the head of the Habitat HUB rural innovation space and the international coordinator of the Hungarian Permaculture Association. He is passionate about rural development and biodiversity conservation

"This gathering was transformative. I feel more inspired than ever to bring back these ideas and practices to my own community.”
Delegate & workshop holder