Catalogue of Ecovillages

Hello, friend!

You are holding the third edition of our catalogue of settlements and locations across Ukraine. It has been created by our small team to open a window into the remarkable stories of alternative communities that, in one way or another, are creating and bringing to life their visions of a harmonious relationship between people and the environment in many different forms.

Alternative ways of living are never easy!

Behind every location, space, or community are courageous activists and proactive people who, despite the difficult circumstances of today, continue along their path — sometimes with remarkable successes, and sometimes with painful failures and losses. Every project carries experience and a desire to make the world a better place, faith in goodness and a brighter future for ourselves and our descendants, the revival of old and sometimes forgotten traditions and crafts, research and observation, and the planting of seeds for future forms of human life and our relationship with the environment.

Our communities are an expression of resilience!

This catalogue introduces you to locations and projects that have often survived and transformed from old settlements, hamlets, struggling villages, and abandoned territories. Some of them are located in regions close to the front line. Their residents have suffered materially, physically, and psychologically as a result of the war and occupation; they have lost loved ones, yet they have not stopped. Instead, they have continued to live and develop, welcomed and sheltered displaced families, helped them adapt, and given them hope for a new life.

These are spaces that need you!

This catalogue opens a window onto our Ukraine — an alternative Ukraine that has had the courage to be different and diverse, with a rich variety of ideological beliefs, perspectives, and unconventional subcultures. These places and people may become an unexpected discovery for you on a philosophical, emotional, or practical level. You can visit these locations not only as a traveller, but also join them as a member of a community, volunteer your time, or contribute your skills, knowledge, or a donation.

We exist to create a shared future!

Alternative communities, settlements, spaces, art homesteads, estates, ashrams, eco-centres — we all exist, and by doing so, we embody the diversity of our society and the world we live in today. Who knows, perhaps tomorrow everything will be different, and we have captured only a moment of this expression. Yet this is how we write our history — a history that stretches across decades and perhaps even throughout the entire history of humanity’s development through its small communities.

And while life continues to exist in the Universe, perhaps we will continue to express ourselves within it in one form or another.

So may this catalogue become yet another small expression of that alternative way of life.

Be inspired, friend! And have a wonderful journey.

Maksym Zalевський, President of GEN Ukraine

You can download the electronic version of the catalogue in two formats: individual pages (convenient for viewing on mobile phones) or spreads (convenient for viewing on a computer).

You can support the team that created this catalogue and help us share it more widely by making a donation.