Regenerating land. Regenerating lives.

REGENERATION PROJECT: GRANADA

Regeneration Project: Granada has grown out of the collaborative work of participants from Eroles Project’s 2016 Camp As If People Matter residency.

We are at the early stages of developing a project that seeks to find new ways to respond to migration. We are forming a group with refugees/migrants, local people and others interested in participating in the co-creation of small scale viable solutions, lifelong friendships, skill sharing and living as human to human. Our vision is to repopulate a village in the province of Granada, Spain which once was thriving and is now at risk of extinction due to depopulation. Together as a diverse group, we aim to collaboratively work the land, create viable and sustainable livelihoods, and regenerate both the ecosystem and the economy of the area. This is a long term project that aims to be a positive, inspiring and replicable example of: 1) Land regeneration: Identifying neglected or unused agricultural land and making it productive again. Using regenerative agro-ecology and permaculture principles to cultivate organic crops, bringing back ecological diversity to degraded land. Mixing traditional techniques of farming with modern/renewable technologies and techniques of regenerative agriculture. 2) Regeneration of lives: Improving the wellbeing of all participants through working in nature, taking part in creative community activities and self realisation in a supportive and respectful environment. Giving refugees/migrants who have left their countries of origin an opportunity to build a new life for themselves and their families. 3) Creation of new livelihoods: Developing new and viable productive activities that provide sustainable livelihoods for project members and local people and contribute to the economical dynamisation of the area. Using new models of economy and seeking out under-utilised resources in the area. 4) Co-creation of new cultures: Celebrating intergenerational, multicultural living and working. Creating a thriving example of diversity; a place where all people, regardless of their background, are equal members, and treat each other with respect, appreciation and support. 5) Long term systemic change: By exposing the political, economic and (post)colonial systems that support inequality, and demonstrating a positive and tangible alternative to that system that utilises new social and economic models and a holistic approach, the project hopes to change consciousness and dialogue around the refugee "crisis" and contribute to change at a systemic level. Regeneration Project: Granada aims to be a win-win-win project taking ‘problematic factors’: the depopulation of Spanish countryside and villages, degradation of land, high local unemployment, migrants and refugees who need income and housing; and combine these factors to create a positive solution.

How to get involved?

Want to take part? We’ll need help with all aspects of the project from agroecology growers, refugee and migrant legal support, generous financial backers, filmmakers, reporters and media support, volunteers, translators, community artists, cooks.... If you are interested in keeping updated with the developments of this project please email info@labolina.org