ECO-CITY WORLD SUMMIT 1996 THE 3 RD INTERNATIONAL ECO-CITY CONFER E NCE

1. ECO-CITY WORLD SUMMIT 1996THE 3RD INTERNATIONAL ECO-CITY CONFERENCE HOST ORGANIZATION: CITY OF YOFF, SENEGAL CONVENERS : JOAN BOKAER- SERIGNE MBAYE DIENE 320 PEOPLE FROM 27 COUNTRIES  • How do we build communities in balance and harmony with nature?

2. Past International Ecocity Conferences: • ECOCITY 1 Berkeley, California, 1990 • ECOCITY 2 Adelaide, Australia, 1992 • ECOCITY 3 Yoff, Senegal, 1996 • ECOCITY 4 Curitiba, Brazil, 2000 • ECOCITY 5 Shenzhen, China, 2002 • ECOCITY 6 Bangalore, India, 2006 • ECOCITY 7 San francisco, 2008 • ECOCITY 8 Istanbul, Turkey, 2009

3. CONVENERS..... Serigne Mbaye Diene Joan Bokaer, • Serigne Mbaye Diene, youth leader of the Village of Yoff, Senegal • He is known in the village of Yoff, Senegal as Khalifa, an honorary title which in Yoff bestows leadership on a man who is not yet an elder. While getting his PhD at Cornell, Serigne became involved with a community building Eco-village at Ithaca. He now works on a US AID project in Dakar. He is the Director of the Association for the Economic, Cultural and Social Promotion of Yoff. Now active for over 10 years, APECSY has the full support of the village elders, and has successfully negotiated the return of tribal land from the government. APECSY also hosted the Third International Eco-City Conference. • Joan Bokaer, co-founder of Ecovillage at Ithaca, largest ecovillage in the United States • Joan Bokaer, co-convener of the Third International EcoCity Conference in Yoff, Senegal, 1996, is a founding member of Connect Ithaca, a development corporation for reversing auto-centric sprawl by developing high-density, mixed-use urban village nodes linked to Ithaca’s vibrant city center by bicycle and pedestrian corridors and rail.. In 1990 she organized the Global Walk for A Livable World -- 100 people who walked from Los Angeles to New York raising environmental awareness. On that walk she conceived of EcoVillage at Ithaca where she currently resides.

4. The choice of Yoff as the site for the Third International Eco-City Conference is largely due to the work of one highly active and talented individual, Serigne M'Baye Diene. Serigne is known in the village as Khalifa, an honorary title which appears to bestow a great deal of respect, leadership and trust in a man who is not yet an elder. . Serigne has a PhD in Nutrition from Cornell University, and his thesis presented ground-breaking insight into local community process as it relates to health and nutrition.

5. ITHACA ECO-VILLAGE Eco Village at Ithaca, located in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of upstate New York , is part of a growing global movement for a saner, more sustainable human culture. Comprising an intentional communityand a non-profit educational organization , the project is developing an alternative model for suburban living which provides a satisfying, healthy, socially rich lifestyle, while minimizing ecological impacts. Eco Villageat Ithaca is unique in that it includes three co-housing neighborhoods.

6. ABOUT YOFF... Yoff is a 600 year old traditional fishing village situated on the western-most point of the African continent, known as Cape Verte, Senegal. It was a black African, mainly Moslem, French and Walof speaking community, friendly, open and clearly communicating across innumerable distances – all reduced to face-to-face. The people of Yoff have traditionally lived sustainably from fishing, arts and crafts and subsistence farming. One striking impression is that Yoff, with its strong cultural traditions, has all of the "social software" of an eco-village. The social organization and cohesiveness as a community is as impressive as anywhere on the planet. There are no police and no jails in the village. A complex hierarchical structure of religious leaders, council of elders and council of wise elders, and women's economic cooperatives (out-dating many recent developments around the world), hold the village together remarkably like a large family.

7. PRESENTERS... Presenters there came from throughout Africa: Senegal, Mali, Egypt, Guinea Bissau, Swaziland and South Africa, the Indian Ocean – Comoros – and the broadest array of countries among the conferences to that date. The other countries represented included Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Chile, Brazil, Sarawak, Malaysia, Australia and the United States.

8. Lists some of the MAJOR TOPICS covered by presenters and panels at the Conference: • The model of the existing eco-city of Curativa, Brazil; • Traffic, transportation and the urban environment; • Traditional African village design; • Waste water treatment systems; • Food security and urban agriculture; • Women's cooperative banks; • Solar and appropriate architecture; • Population and urban stress; • Health and Nutrition; • Womens' role in development; • Modernization and pollution; • Appropriate technologies; • Permaculture Design.

9. 3major purposes of the conference: to study the traditional villages from all over the world. to look at emerging modern ecovillages and ecocities. to develop a network of people who are working on these issues and who will stay in touch.

10. Permaculture Design Certification Course The Permaculture Design Certification Course was conducted just following the Eco-City Conference, from January 14 through January 25th, 1996. The course was comprised of 45 participants from the three villages of Yoff, Ngor and Oakam. The course was conducted within the old village of Yoff at the headquarters of APECSY (Association pour la Promotion Economique, Culturelle et Social de Yoff).

11. The classroom time, generally two short lectures per day, covered the basics of the Permaculture Design Certification Course: • Earth Care Ethics; • Observation and Pattern Recognition; • The Elements and Bio-cycles; • Design Principles and Design Methodologies; • Zone and Sector Analysis; • Energy Accounting and Ecological Auditing; • Soil Regeneration; • Water Harvesting and Management; • Erosion Control; • Drylands Strategies; • Waste Treatment; • Small Animal Systems; • Homestead and Home Design; • Environmental Restoration Strategies; • Forest Gardening and Regenerative Forestry; • Economics and the Biological Resource Base; • Community Enterprise and Development Strategies; • Urban Design Strategies.

12. In conclusion, valuable groundwork was laid in West Africa through the Eco-City Conference and the Permaculture Design Certification Course. By all standards the conference was a huge success. It stimulated a great deal of an ecological approach to future development. Most remarkable was the sharing of cultures. It became apparent how much traditional village cultures have to teach the global eco-city and eco-village movement.

13. What they've had for many centuries is what we're now trying to re-create……