It is easy to imagine a sustainable community of 350 people on the island of Kauaʻi by looking at a representation of an ahupuaʻa in Hawaiʻi when Hawaiians cared for the land.

What is Permaculture?

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"Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a stable social order... Cooperation, not competition, is the very basis of existing life systems and of future survival.

"Life is cooperative rather than competitive, and life forms of very different qualities may interact beneficially with one another and with their physical environment. Even 'the bacteria… live by collaboration, accommodation, exchange, and barter' (Lewis Thomas, 1974).

- Bill Mollison, Permaculture: a Designer's Manual

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The original community of humans is not the family but the tribe... It is an integral part of our human social existence that lies beyond history... it is only when we have found a full equivalent to it that is aligned with our times, that we again can enter into full and wholesome relationships with each other.”  
 - Dieter Duhm, in the essay, Community as a Universal Way of Living

What are Egalitarian Principles?

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An egalitarian community:

1. Holds its land, labor, income and other resources in common.
2. Assumes responsibility for the needs of its members, receiving the products of their labor and distributing these and all other goods equally, or according to need.
3. Practices non-violence.
4. Uses a form of decision making in which members have an equal opportunity to participate, either through consensus, direct vote, or right of appeal or overrule.
5. Actively works to establish the equality of all people and does not permit discrimination on the basis of race, class, creed, ethnic origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
6. Acts to conserve natural resources for present and future generations while striving to continually improve ecological awareness and practice.
7. Creates processes for group communication and participation.

The Federation of Egalitarian Communities (the FEC) is a network of intentional communities across North America which have joined together in an effort to create a lifestyle based on egalitarian values.

"We share a common desire to create a lifestyle based on equality, cooperation, and harmony with the earth."

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