EKOplan IKI-GAIA

SUSTAINABLE ECO VILLAGE MODEL

ECO-COMÚN-HERENCIA
PLANETARIA GAIA
1
Index

INTRODUCTION 3
EKOplan "IKI-GAIA"
ECOmún GAIA PLANETARY INHERITANCE 4

VISION 6

OUR MISSION 7

MAIN GOAL 8

GENERAL OBJECTIVES 9

KEY PROJECTS AND CONCEPTS 19

ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITY AND HEALING BIOTOPE 19

PERMACULTURAL GARDENS, EDIBLE FORESTS,
MEDICINAL AND SENSORY GARDENS 22
ENVIRONMENTAL INTERPRETATION CENTER 24
HOLISTIC ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 25
FARM SCHOOL 26
CAMPING AND BIOCLIMATIC HOUSING 27
COHOUSING FOR THE ELDERLY 38
HOLISTIC SAN-ACCIÓN AND RETREATS CENTER 39
NATURAL BIRTHING HOUSE 40
CENTRO DE INSPIRA-SAN-ACCIÓN IKI-GAIA 41
IKI-GAIA ECO-SCHOOL 42
PERMACULTURE ACADEMY 50
DREAM ACADEMY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER 54
CO-WORKING AND SPACES FOR WORKSHOPS, STORES AND OFFICES 55
LIFE CENTER AND FAREWELLS IN PEACE 56
LAND BANK AND LAND STEWARDSHIP CENTER 57
ANNEX I: OUR ASSOCIATION Semilla Monte Alegre 59
ANNEX II: IKI-GAIA ECO-LEARNING COMMUNITY 64
ANNEX III: GAIA SCHOOL IN ESTONIA: the first Gaia school in Europe 86
ANEX IV: ORIGINS and DEVIRTUATION OF THE EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT 91

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 INTRODUCTION
This holistic project is born from the recognition of the central role of Education in the creation
of VALUES and SOCIAL ACTION and from the total commitment to the transformation of the
educational process, to promote a NEW PARADIGM that favors the replication of sustainable
and equitable societies.

The preparation for the necessary changes always depends on the collective understanding of the
systemic nature of the crises that threatens the future of the planet and our society. The destruction of
basic values, alienation, loss or disconnection with the purpose of life and the non-participation of
almost all individuals in the construction of their future, are factors inherent to the crisis that we must
reflect upon and discuss how to reverse.

This great social challenge requires individual and collective responsibility at the local, regional, national
and international levels for its achievement and will depend on more and more people and institutions
aware of the importance of taking the leap, joining the path of ecoheritage and self-responsibility. We
consider that facilitating communities to plan and implement their own alternatives to current policies,
together with environmental education for an equitable sustainable society, are fundamental lines of
action for the necessary systemic transformation required to respond to the challenges we face as a
society and planet.

. Environmental education and Permaculture, key pieces in this process, are part of a permanent
learning process based on respect for all forms of life that must be accompanied by coherence,
changes in the quality of life and greater awareness in personal conduct, as well as harmony between
human beings and their environment, and of these with other forms of life. Such an education affirms
VALUES AND ACTIONS that contribute to human and social transformation and ecological
preservation.

Inspired by the EDUCATIONAL CURRICULUM "EDE" 1 and a multitude of schools, ecovillages and
Permaculture and alternative educational projects that apply active pedagogies, as well as by the
TREATY2 ON ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES AND GLOBAL
RESPONSIBILITY signed in Brazil in 1992, our great impulse to develop this model is to stimulate the
formation of socially and ecologically balanced societies, which maintain a relationship of
interdependence and diversity among themselves.

1
EDE: EcoVillage Design Education (https://www.gaiaeducation.org/face-to-face/ede-programmes/)
2
For more information about the Treaty signed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, watch
http://www.eurosur.org/NGONET/tr927.htm
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 EKOplan "IKI-GAIA"
ECOmún PLANetary GAIA PLANETARY INHERITANCE
THE "STRATEGY" TO BE HEALTHY AND HAPPY

"Living in community, feeling useful and being always busy doing what we like following a
purpose brings happiness".

We believe that another world is possible. A world of safe and nutritious food; of clean drinking water; of
universal access to holistic education in values and for sustainable development; of physical, mental
and social well-being. A world that uses energy and materials more efficiently, distributes wealth fairly
and strives to eliminate the concept of waste. A world of universal respect for human rights and human
dignity; of justice and equality; of respect for race and ethnicity that values ancestral customs and
traditions; and of equal opportunity, enabling the full realization of human potential while promoting
shared prosperity.

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5
 VISION

To create a great mycelial3 Network of Communities and Ecovillages all over the WORLD
-integrated in Healing Biotopes that cooperate and inspire each other- to promote the
expansion of the NEW HUMANITY...

...from Ecoherence, Environmental and Values Education, Permaculture, the Integral

Development of the Individual and the flourishing of their gifts and talents so that,
guided each one by our IKIGAI4, we can be HAPPY while we cooperate with our
MOTHER GAIA and Nature in its mission to regenerate, restore balance and generate
ABUNDANCE for all.

Our main goal is to achieve polysufficiency -or self-sufficiency of a collective of individuals with similar
vision and values- in the areas of food, health, energy, technology and economy, while meeting the
educational, social and personal and collective development needs of its members.

We want to promote and facilitate from our

own experience, the replication of the New
Paradigm in all areas of life, aware of the
central role that individualized and respectful
education plays in the formation of FREE
BEINGS with a critical spirit.

We know that the recovery of our

SOVEREIGNTY in the areas of HEALTH,
EDUCATION and FOOD5, including the

3
Mycelia are the "hidden" part of fungi that form mats made up of tangles of interconnected filaments
stretching hundreds of kilometers - the equivalent of a square foot - capable of connecting the world's
forests with soil nutrients.
4
Ikigai (生き甲斐) is a Japanese word or philosophy that can be translated as the reason for being or
living, the reason for getting up every morning. In other words, it is a person's purpose or meaning of
life. The term comes from a combination of two concepts: Iki: "to live" and Kai: "the realization of what
one hopes for". The combination of the two created the concept of ikigai or "the reason or purpose for
living". People who have it apply it as a philosophy of life; that is, when you know your ikigai it influences
everything you do, it is your reason for being. There are so many benefits to having it in mind that it is
associated with longevity, happiness and self-realization.

Food sovereignty recognizes the power of every community to establish agrarian and food policies in
accordance with its purposes of security, responsibility and sustainable development.
5

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INDIVIDUAL, are the basis of any successful process of profound transformation of society.

OUR MISSION
JOURNEY OF SELF/ POLYSUFFICIENCY IN A NEW MODEL OF HUMANITY

Guided by our individual and group IKIGAI (reason for being, life purpose...), we COOPERATE with our
MOTHER GAIA in her mission to regenerate herself, restore balance and generate abundance for ALL.

EKOPLAN "IKI-GAIA" is a holistic R+D+6i project where we co-create a HEALING BIOTOP that is
developed and designed around an intergenerational, multidisciplinary and multicultural
Inspira-San-Action Center called IKIGAI and in a natural environment with inspiring and
coherent eco-educational, work and experiential spaces that allow the beings that live, train and
work there to be connected with their IKIGAI or life purpose.

We integrate in a transversal way in all our

actions/decisions the look of the four dimensions of
sustainability -social, ecological, cultural/worldview and
economic- promoting the Circular Economy based on
Resources (according to which, these are not
exhausted, but reused in an endless circuit) as a factor
that generates the symbiosis and feedback of its parts.
By becoming aware of our environmental dimension, of
our knowledge of our surroundings and of the
socioeconomic and environmental crisis, as well as of
our motivation and desire to change, we encourage the
exploration of practical solutions at the individual and
collective level to the systemic crisis we are
experiencing.

We accompany change agents of all generations to become the main actors of their own
learning under the principles of ethics and the common good,

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The product resulting from R&D&I (Research, Development and Innovation) is the heart of information
and communication technologies. It is a union of pure and social sciences because the term
development comes from the world of economics while the terms innovation and research are
respectively from the world of technology and science. It can be said that some terms end up "being
necessary" to the others in R&D&I, since in this context research is defined as the investment of money
to obtain knowledge and, in turn, innovation is investing knowledge to obtain money. R&D&I
continuously feeds back.

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 respect for their environment and each rhythm/individuality.

MAIN GOAL

We undertake our dreams in close cooperation and collaboration with a multitude of social
actors aware that the time is NOW!To create an extrapolable model of Ecovillage and
INSPIRASAN-ACTION CENTER - with an internationally approved GAIA7 eco-school as the
HEART of the project - for children of compulsory school age - in a sustainable human
settlement integrated in a HEALING BIOTOPO in MÁLAGA, where the multicultural,
inter-generational/disciplinary exchange allows us to cultivate our GIFTS and TALENTS,
developing us as free, coherent and sovereign human beings, who follow their IKIGAI8 - reason
for being, purpose/meaning of life that is born from the heart-.

With the launching of our free eco-school inspired by an innovative eco-pedagogy called GAIA
as the seed and driving force of a holistic INSPIRA-SAN-ACTION Center that we are designing called
IKI-GAIA, we give the REASON OF BEING and the MEANING to gather resources and collaborate
around a holistic educational project and a healthy and dignified life integrated in an ECOALDEA. An
integral project for all ages that allows us to develop our capacities and be HAPPY while we put our gifts
at the service of the continium cambium, promoting new ways of using resources, living and relating to
others and our environment to co-create a more coherent and resilient future.

Through alternative ways to the imposed system, we value individuality and the recovery of different
traditions/cultures and beliefs with respect for freedom of thought and individual choice.

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Innovative active pedagogy that focuses on environmental education for the sustainable development
of the planet and on values where we work in a transversal and holistic way with the mandala of the 4
dimensions of sustainability at a social, economic, educational and world vision level.
8
English translation: raison d'être or purpose of life. It is said that ikigai is the secret of the Japanese
who live a long and pleasant life because having a purpose in life is very beneficial and losing it is not
good for our health. In Japanese culture, ikigai occupies a central place and this has allowed many of
the Japanese to continue working doing what they like all their lives.
The island of Okinawa is located in Japan, a place classified as a blue zone where the largest
population of centenarians in the world is concentrated. Specifically in Ogimi, "the village of
centenarians" which is located in the north of the island, it is believed that the cause is due to their way
of life: being in community and doing what they like until their health asks them to stop, the feeling of
being useful and being able to help each other provides them with the fuel that keeps them active.

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 GENERAL OBJECTIVES

1. CREATION OF ENERGETICALLY OPTIMAL SPACES FOR FAMILIES, EMPLOYEES

AND VISITORS WHERE THEY CAN GROW, LIVE AND BE EDUCATED
HOLISTICALLY

In a place full of nature and free of pollution -where electromagnetic pollution is minimized-, we
provide to those who are interested in approaching -and those already prepared to
participate/collaborate- and offer their children a practical and quality holistic education based on
example, the possibility to try and make the leap towards a more sovereign, healthy and sustainable
lifestyle. A healing space where we can spend time, and even live, train, share parenting, experiment,
work...while meeting the educational/social needs of our children of compulsory school age.

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 2. DEVELOPMENT AND FLOURISHING OF THE “IKIGAI”

We create optimal conditions for the physical, psycho-social and emotional development of
children - and all generations - in a way that facilitates all project participants and collaborators to
remain connected - or reconnect - with the IKIGAI or life purpose with which they are born. This will
automatically turn them/us into critical social actors and proactive agents of change, capable of
discerning and seeking resilient solutions to the challenges that the planet and our society are facing
and will face.

3. PROMOTING ALTRUISM AND COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

By creating energetically optimal spaces where people of different generations and nationalities
can interact, work, and even live together in a peaceful environment, creativity, altruism and
collaborative learning are fostered; as well as the synergies that will naturally arise from intercultural,
interdisciplinary and inter-generational exchange of knowledge.

Working in a network integrated in a great Community of beings with similar objectives and values that
follow their IKIGAI and cooperate in an organic and collaborative way to BE the REAL change they want
to SEE in the world -and LEAVE AS A HERITAGE to future generations-, makes possible the necessary
alliances so that all DREAMS are achievable.

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 4. WALKING TOWARDS SOVEREIGNTIES

Generating a large network of people and collaborative projects that put their resources, skills
and gifts at the service of the paradigm shift, enables us to be self/polysufficient and increasingly
RESILIENT in a very short period of time. Depending less and less on food products/services from
outside, and exercising our right to choose the best education for our children allows us to focus on
continuing to learn/work to cover the other basic needs related to health, technological and energy
sovereignty.

● INDIVIDUAL

To promote and raise awareness about the right we have to control both our body structure and our life
in general, understanding that each being is the owner of oneself.

● EDUCATIONAL

In order to recover our

sovereignty in the field of our
children's education, our
association Semilla Monte
Alegre started 3 years ago a
pilot project of a free school
inspired by an innovative
pedagogy called Gaia. To see
more information about the
school, click here.

In our Gaia Eco-Learning

Community, parents are
welcome to accompany their
children during adaptations and
part of the day when and as long
as the little ones need it.
From the project we have set up
a co-working space for parents
near where their children interact
with other children and learn
through play. A conditioned room
from where they can telework
and take advantage of it to move
forward with their personal
projects.

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 Due to the growth and
demand of families
interested in joining and
participating in our project,
we have accelerated the
process of acquiring a new
space. A space of our own
that will allow us to grow
without limits and plan for
secondary school. We are
already working on the
financing and, at a
bureaucratic level, the
homologation of the
educational proposal and
the permits, even planning
the restructuring and
reforms that we need to
undertake in order to
become a certified
international private school as soon as possible.

We prioritize to become an homologated private school in a natural and sustainable surrounding to be

able to develop our activity in a healthy and safe environment with clean water, pure air, and free of
pollution and other toxic agents and thus, to be able to continue with the mission of promoting the new
educational paradigm in which we believe from the tranquility,
recognition of what we do and COHERENCE.

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 ● FOOD

Food sovereignty is one of the challenges to be faced from a change in the globalized
agri-food system, because in view of the great imbalances generated by it, it is essential to
promote an agricultural and food transition at the local level that favors inclusive territorial
development in a social, sustainable and plural way.

For more than 7 years we have been helping, training and advising projects and family farms in the area
to make the transition of their projects and farms towards more sustainable living projects focusing on
the care of people and the environment. In addition, we have self-sufficiency permaculture gardens for
our community and since 3 years ago we also have a school Permaculture garden to teach the whole
school community about agroecology and Permaculture, while self-supplying our educational project
GAIA.
In our new space the focus from the beginning will be on creating good vegetable gardens and
edible forests by regenerating soils through regenerative Permaculture techniques
-microorganisms, hot compost, key lines .... - which we are already planning taking into account
the characteristics of the soil.
Water retention techniques in landscapes will help us to create the ideal moisture and diversity
conditions to generate abundant, nutrient-dense food.

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 ● ENERGETIC
The gradual replacement of conventional energy sources with clean renewable energy sources
is probably the key element in ensuring a successful energy transition to a decarbonized
economy.

We understand energy sovereignty as the right of conscious individuals, communities and

peoples to make their own decisions regarding the generation, distribution and consumption of energy;
so that these are appropriate to their ecological, social, economic and cultural circumstances, as long as
they do not negatively affect third parties.

We will harness the power and heat of the natural elements, using them as a channel, to
generate electricity usable in the homes and human industries we generate.

The school, the bioclimatic campsite, the houses, as well as all the projects related to the Inspira
San-Acción Ikigaia center, will operate using clean and renewable energies. That is to say, non-polluting
-that do not emit greenhouse gases or waste as a consequence of their use- and that have unlimited
availability, constantly renewing themselves because they depend on inexhaustible natural energy
sources such as wind, water or the sun.

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.
● HEALTH

In recent decades, it has been observed that food has been the driving force behind the deterioration of
health, generating problems such as obesity, overweight and malnutrition. Given the close
interrelationship between food and food sovereignty, our main focus is to grow nutrient-rich foods that
are our best medicine and rely on integrative medicine and alternative healing systems so that we do
not depend on the conventional health care system to recover our health.

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 We encourage the creation of local and autonomous groups, to build a new Health Model that
empowers the individual and the groups, and makes them more self-sufficient outside the current
system based on imposition, judicialization, prohibition and sanction.

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 5. CREATING A NETWORK OF HEALING BIOTOPES WHILE REGENERATING OUR
MOTHER GAIA
We apply water
retention
techniques in
landscapes and
regenerative
practices to
contribute to create
more biodiversity
and ecologically
optimal
environments for
the planning of
more sustainable
study, housing and
work areas where
everyone,
especially children
and future
generations, can
live and develop in complete harmony with nature around a resilient, coherent and mutually supportive
social network where everyone is a reference.

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 6. REPLICATION OF THE IKI-GAIA SCHOOLS AND ECOVILLAGES MODEL

To serve as an inspiration and impulse for the replication of similar models throughout
the country -especially in the most depopulated and abandoned areas of the West- is one
of our most ambitious goals.

In the medium-short term, the

vision is to collaborate to
replicate both the Ecoaldea Eko
"IKI-GAIA plan" model and the
"Eco Learning Community
IKI-GAIA" model in other rural
areas to counteract the pressing
process of rural depopulation
caused among other factors by
the centralization of education
and the absence of educational
and health services in these
areas. In addition, with the
implementation of this model we
collaborate to reverse the
process of desertification and
erosion caused by man with the
monoculture and abuse of
chemical pollutants.

We accompany,
learn from and
benefit from the
interdisciplinary,
multicultural and
intergenerational
exchange that
occurs naturally
and organically
throughout the
entire
educational
community and
with all the
projects that
nurture it.

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 PROJECTS AND KEY CONCEPTS

1. ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITY 9 AND HEALING

BIOTOPE10

Focusing attention on the preservation, regeneration

and creation of natural environments and on the set of
species and individuals that coexist in it.

Although the word biotope is considered a technical term in ecology, in recent years it is being
used in civic and administrative activities. Since 1970, biotopes have received a great deal of attention
in Europe (especially in Germany) in reference to the preservation, regeneration and creation of natural
environments. In this context, the word biotope often refers to smaller-scale ecological issues that are
familiar to everyday life, such as

● reconstruction of rivers to restore their quality

● the creation of green roofs
● conservation of shrubs and trees in cultivated agricultural lands
● creation of natural parks along the roads and highways
● creation of environmentally friendly school gardens or ponds
● design of private gardens that take ecology into consideration.

Biotopes should not be isolated; on the contrary, it is necessary to have connections with surrounding
places so that organisms can circulate. One of the most effective strategies to regenerate a biotope is to
extend it and make it a point for animals and plants (or their seeds) to circulate. This is called a iological
corridor11. In this method, the center of the biotope network is a large tract of forest, a natural park.

9
ecological community (also called biocenosis, biotic community or simply community) is the set of
biological populations that coexist in space and time. These species occur in a defined space called
biotope, which offers the environmental conditions necessary for their survival. It can be divided into
phytocenosis (which is the set of plant species), zoocenosis (set of animals) and microbiocenosis (set of
microorganisms).
10
biotope: from the Greek βíος bios, "life" and τόπος topos, "place". In ecology, it is an area of uniform
environmental conditions that provides living space for an assemblage of flora and fauna. Biotope is
almost synonymous with the term habitat with the difference that habitat refers to species or populations
while biotope refers to biological communities.A term that in a literal sense means living environment
and applies to the physical, natural, limited space in which a biocenosis lives. Biocenosis and biotope
form an ecosystem.

11
Biological corridors are designed to protect the native species assemblage and fulfill basic
connectivity functions while maximizing the sustainable use of the forest and the benefits derived from
environmental services.
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Through the science of Permaculture and the use of Landscape Water Retention techniques we
facilitate the development of edible forests, Mediterranean forests and natural water ponds that attract
more life and biodiversity; around which we can integrate optimal spaces for small nuclei or human
settlements respectful and 100% sustainable in complete harmony with the landscape.

At the local level we want to create a network of healing biotopes that expand from our large
terrain of forests and water retention through green corridors that support biodiversity, water
resources, agriculture, wood products, climate change and cultural cohesion of the surrounding
communities.

Ex.the same swale a few months later

20
Ex. of natural lagoon (above) and ex. of human settlement around water retention in landscapes

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 2. PERMACULTURAL ORCHARDS, EDIBLE FORESTS,
MEDICINAL AND SENSORY GARDENS

While we care for

and work our land
collectively, and
regenerate it abundantly
to nourish healthy food
for eco-inhabitants,
collaborators, visitors and
nearby clients, as well as
for all the animals of the
place, and supply us with
medicinal and aromatic
plants, we favor the
development of
biodiversity and the
expansion of the healing
biotope.

Edible Forest
An edible forest has at least 7 layers - each occupied by an edible plant - and is more
productive per square meter than a mono-crop plantation of any kind.

Instead of a monoculture plantation that depends 100% on human care, we create a

polyculture that mimics the patterns of nature. In this way the plants help the others and the
edible forest will progressively depend less and less on the hand of man. It can even be
completely abandoned and will continue to live, expanding itself and performing its function.

At the beginning we will plant many pioneers that fix nitrogen in the soil and prepare the
ground for the fruit trees that come later. Thanks to the diversity, the pests are distracted by
the colors and scents of the different plants, and in the case of loss of the harvest of one fruit,
the other fruits will most likely grow well. This system gives us a lot of stability and the security
that in difficult times we have a harvest.

‘Let food be thy nourishment and nourishment be thy medicine'. (Hipócrates)

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Food Gardens

The garden is the fastest way to achieve self-sufficiency. With composting and other
techniques we create a living soil and produce nutrient-dense vegetables. While the food
forest is growing and gradually bearing more fruit, the garden feeds us and with the fast cycle
of vegetables we learn to act with the plants and create an intimate relationship with them.
This experience helps us to better understand the slower cycle of the forest. But in the long
run, most of our food comes from the forest. Only in this way, we can free ourselves from the
hard work in the garden and use our precious time for our beloved family, art studies...

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 3. ENVIRONMENTAL INTERPRETATION CENTER

By showing and explaining

the role and significance of historical
and cultural heritage through
contemporary interpretation, we
increase public awareness and
promote its conservation. Through
our center we promote the
dissemination and knowledge of the
natural environment that surrounds
us, as well as the ecological use of
nature to achieve personal
well-being in all its aspects.

In addition, we will offer sensory botanical routes with charm and personality integrated in a
Healing Biotope, which through Permaculture techniques for reforestation, soil regeneration
and water harvesting, accelerate the development of a mature stage of the forest and the
splendor of the environments that host them.

View of the project´s land

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 4. HOLISTIC
LIVESTOCK
FARMING

Healthy grasslands help capture

carbon, are highly resistant to
drought, contribute to rainwater
filtration, prevent erosion and
improve subway aquifers, to
name a few of their functions. In
addition to contributing to
generating more biodiversity, they
ensure food self-sufficiency for
livestock, as well as the
development of financially viable
communities.

Through holistic management we achieve soil regeneration and large-scale pasture restoration, while
producing goat cheese for the self-consumption of the inhabitants and visitors and opening a
sustainable business channel with the surpluses to contribute to the refinancing of investments. Apart
from the benefits of grazing for the ecosystems, we have to highlight the educational value of having
happy animals that play an important role in the Healing Bioto we co-create.

Example of holistic animal husbandry where several animals are integrated into a soil regeneration system..

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 5. FARM SCHOOL IKI-GAIA

Observation, contact and familiarization with the

animals, making the little ones participate in
their care and life cycle,
are all part of the philosophy
of the Iki-Gaia school.

One of the areas of the campsite that children will

probably like the most is the Iki-Gaia Farm School, a
space where they will be able to interact with the
sheep, goats, chickens, donkeys, ponies and horses
that live there. In fact, they will have the opportunity
to take some of the animals out of the farm, brush the
ponies, feed the goats and donkeys and return them
to their stables in the afternoon.

. Offering them the best conditions for their vital development, having a small farm school with
chickens, ducks, goats, sheep, horses and some native varieties of turtles, favors the biodiversity of the
environment while providing eggs and milk for self-consumption.

Through special
hands-on
workshops
designed for our
students and
younger visitors,
we offer
experiential
knowledge about
life and the role that
certain animals play
in the human world.

Detail of the land when it had goats

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 6. CAMPING AND BIOCLIMATIC HOUSES

In recent years, ecotourism has been gaining ground and becoming a very popular
option for both the national and foreign public. It is estimated that the number of families
enjoying their vacations in the middle of nature already exceeds 30% in Spain. However, there
are those who go a step further and not only bet on a natural environment, but prefer an
accommodation committed to the environment where they can also teach their children to take
care of nature by example.

Example of houses built with super adobe from calearth.org

At the same time that we co-create this Healing Biotope, we facilitate a group of families and
individuals committed to the need to take ACTION and recover all SOVEREIGNTIES in the fields
of health, food, education, economy, housing and technology, In order to BE ECOHERENT and
more RESILIENT in this historical moment.

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 SUSTAINABILITY, BIOCONSTRUCTION AND BIOCLIMATISM DEFINE THE ESSENCE OF
IKI-GAIA.
In our ecocamping there will be cores of sustainable housing and plots to set up tents, teepees or yurts
and park vehicles, caravans or motorhomes for pioneers, collaborators and visitors, as well as
customers from all over the world who want to participate in trainings and activities that we offer in a
magical, unique and inspiring environment.

Nestled within a large

Andalusian Mediterranean
edible forest, with majestic oaks
of even more than 9 meters high
spread across the landscape,
this model of participation in the
project through a bioclimatic
camping with sustainable and
passive housing integrated in a
regenerative, healing and
sensory idyllic environment,
allows the deployment of all
human potential, facilitating
synergies and collaborations
among its members.

Detail of the land of the project

Example of houses built with super adobe of calearth.org

Through bioconstruction techniques we plan passive and sustainable housing cores where visitors can
immerse themselves in an inspiring and unforgettable experience.

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Our family campsite integrated into a large agro-ecological farm full of oaks básofila between 5
to 9 meters high, located next to the mountains of Alhama 1500m) and Enmedio (1416 m), and
from where we have spectacular views of the sea, the reservoir of La Viñuela and the "Sierra de
Tejeda" is a great choice to enjoy a family vacation.

Strolling through one of the campsite's plots among the majestic holm oaks.

Views of the sea, the Tejeda and Almijara mountains from a natural lookout point on the property.

29
Nestled in one of the most beautiful places of the Axarquia, Iki-gaia campsite will offer different types of
accommodation for you to choose the one that best suits your needs: spacious bungalows, stone
houses, wood or superadobe, plots to erect your own tent or park your vehicle or caravan, caravans to
accommodate a whole family, as well as shelters built in wood and comfortable cotton tents with enough
space for four people. All powered by wind energy and heating systems for the winter based on olive
pits.

Bioclimatic Bungalow in the Eco-Camping Lava

In addition, we offer multiple spaces for children to have fun during their stay close to nature: a natural
swimming pool, a small vegetable garden where children can plant and harvest, as well as a biotope
where they can discover how amphibians live in the region. And for those who are interested,
educational courses and workshops inspired by eco-villages and care for the environment are
also organized.

Our campsite also has an extensive program of activities and spaces designed to bring children closer
to nature and develop their commitment to the environment: it has a farm where children can feed the
animals, as well as an orchard area with fruit trees where they can learn about the local ecosystem and
the arts of cultivation.

We will also organize nature activities such as visits to the mini adventure park and excursions
along the hiking trails so that you can discover the native vegetation and fauna of the area; as
well as outdoor environmental talks, family cooking workshops, crafts and circus shows to make your
stay at our campsite an unforgettable experience.

30
CHARACTERISTICS OF OUR BUILDINGS AND RESIDENTIAL
CENTERS

1. SUSTAINABLE HOUSING = MINIMIZATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Within the campsite facilities we will create common buildings such as the restaurant, conference room,
library, restrooms, event and multipurpose room and housing cores of greater comfort for residents and
visitors. The sustainable housing that we plan through an action plan will be designed to minimize the
environmental impact produced by the different processes involved in a house:
● the manufacture of the chosen construction materials: since we have a lot of wood and
stones, these will be the main actors of our constructions.
● the techniques chosen for its construction: earthship, superadobe, green roof, solar
orientation, thermal mass, thatched house, rocket stove, etc.
● and the energy consumption required for its functioning

Example of houses built with the earthship technique

To make possible architectural projects with this approach, at Iki-Gaia we have established the
Passivhaus standard as a starting point and reference.

31
 2. PASSIVE HOUSES = HOUSES OF THE FUTURE, EFFICIENCY AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL

Passive houses12 are based on a sustainable building concept; that is, they are designed based on
pre-established patterns in which energy efficiency becomes a fundamental pillar when creating more
comfortable and healthy spaces, which results in a lower impact on the environment.

Among the main benefits associated with them are an increase in the quality of life of their inhabitants,
considerable energy savings, greater presence of natural light in their interiors and a reduction in the
environmental impact of the building, which provides a pollution-free environment.

Passive houses or passivhaus

are houses that have almost
zero or much lower energy
consumption than traditional
houses. They are designed by
studying their geographical
orientation and the rationality of
their approach: during the warm
months, they make use of
cooling systems through the
provision of solar protection on
the most exposed walls and
moderate the temperature of
the rooms by using temperature
exchangers.

Passive house can also be

defined as an airtight house
with no temperature loss.
Instead, the indoor air is
renewed by a device (VMC
double flow) that acts as the
lung of the house. In this way,
the indoor air is renewed with
outside air but without causing
temperature loss and, at the same time, filtering it from pollen and particles. In this way, there is no need
to open the windows to ventilate the house.

12
Passivhaus or passive house is the most advanced energy efficiency standard in the world, a system
that ensures high air quality and indoor comfort, increasing the durability of buildings due to its careful
execution. Taking into account the life cycle of the houses, the only way to determine their real costs,
passive houses and buildings save a lot of money. The slight cost overrun of their construction
(estimated between 5 and 10% compared to conventional buildings) is compensated in a few years due
to the drastic reduction of their energy demand (up to a tenth). Although it may seem that this is a very
new concept, passive houses were already being discussed in 1979 in the Passive Solar Energy Book
by Edward Mazria, an American architect specializing in renewable energy research.
32
WE IMPLEMENT A NUMBER OF KEY MEASURES TO OBTAIN THE BEST EFFICIENCY:
To improve the energy efficiency of housing, strategies similar to those used by all living organisms in
the construction of their living quarters must be adopted, which strictly follow the principle that "the best
designs get the most out of the least energy possible".
● Install the best thermal insulation: better materials and enclosures (the more airtight, the lower
the energy loss).
● Reducing infiltration heat losses on winter nights
● Design the openings and orient the house to allow the winter sun to pass through (more
horizontal).
● Block the summer or midday sun (which is very vertical) by using fixed, movable and/or natural
sunscreens (such as a screen of deciduous trees),
● Avoid shadows from other buildings, geographical features, incorrect orientation, etc.
● Install renewable energies (such as solar thermal panels for domestic hot water, heating with
biomass boilers, etc.).
● Increase the thermal thickness of the building, using materials with optimal climatic
performance.
● Use energy-efficient artificial lighting and maximize the use of natural light;

33
HISTORY OF PASIVE HOUSES

In the late 1980s, the Passivhaus standard was established in Germany by Wolfgang
Feist, a German building physicist and professor at the Institut für Wohnen und Umwelt (Institute for
Housing and the Environment), and Bo Adamson, a Swedish engineer, building researcher and
professor at Lund University.

Passivhaus, or passive house, is a building standard born in Germany in 1991 that has been spreading
throughout the rest of the world. It combines high indoor comfort with very low energy consumption and
an affordable price, thanks to the maximum care of the building envelope and a controlled ventilation
system.

Passivhaus buildings achieve a 75% reduction in heating and cooling requirements. The little additional
energy required can be easily covered by renewable energies, making it a building with a very low energy
cost for the owner and the planet.

The standards established in the Passivhaus Certificate issued by the Passivhaus Institut establish
that buildings must have high thermal insulation, the elimination of thermal bridges, maximum indoor air
quality, infiltration control and the use of solar energy, factors that make it possible to reduce energy
consumption by up to 90% compared to traditional buildings and 75% compared to new buildings.

In Spain, the reality of passive houses, both single-family and collective housing, has not been
materialized until 2009, with Catalonia and Andalusia as autonomous communities pioneers in its
construction. in the present, according to the Plataforma de Edificación Passivhaus, there are some
60 registered and certified passive houses distributed practically throughout the country.

Distribution of passive houses in europe

34
HEALTHY HOMES WITH HIGH AIR QUALITY AND COMFORT

With unbeatable acoustic,

thermal and air quality
comfort, passive houses
act in a similar way to an
insulated thermos, since
they maintain their inside
at the correct
temperature, without the
need for active heating or
cooling, as is the case
with a coffee maker. Its
ventilation system provides
the necessary fresh air
imperceptibly, avoiding the
formation of humidity and
the generation of mold. The
outside air is previously
filtered in the heat
recuperator and, if we add to this the high degree of insulation and the homogeneity of the temperatures
of the surfaces that surround the rooms (floors / walls / ceilings), the result is a healthy home with high
air quality and comfort.

Earthship system

35
The designs of our houses, are conceived, paying special attention to the materials that we find
on site and energy, prioritizing passive systems to reduce energy demand (good orientation,
heavy elements with high thermal inertia, sized windows thermal inertia, sizing of windows,
compact designs, grouping of installations, etc).

Example of a construction taken from the Internet

We try to address with our approach to housing, the future moment we are facing with the new
regulatory requirements arising from climate change and the temporality of natural resources, in such a
way that it results in a benefit in the long run, from the proper use of resources.

Geodesic house in Yecla, Spain

36
THE 5 KEYS TO PASSIVE HOUSES
A passive house or building requires up to 90% less energy than a conventional building with
the consequent reduction of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, which makes it a real
sustainable alternative to other conventional buildings.

1. INSULATION: Increasing the thickness of insulation reduces heat losses in winter, heat gains in
summer and energy demand for air conditioning buildings.

2. WINDOWS: The weakest areas of the building are the windows. Therefore, it is essential to have
very high quality carpentry and glazing in order to limit energy leakage through them as much as
possible.

3. HERMETICITY: In conventional buildings the air required in the rooms comes from the infiltrations
that occur through the joints of the construction elements, through windows and doors or through the
passage of the facilities. In passive houses this air intake is produced in a controlled manner, which
allows it to be conditioned in such a way that the air is supplied in perfect hygienic, temperature and
humidity conditions.

4. VENTILATION: Controlled mechanical ventilation with heat recovery is a system consisting of two
circuits: one for fresh outdoor air intake and one for stale indoor air exhaust. Both share a common
element, the recuperator, in which more than 80% of the heat transported by the stale air before being
expelled is used and transferred to the fresh outside air which, previously filtered, is tempered and
returned to the rooms.

5.THERMAL BRIDGES: A thermal bridge behaves in a building like a hole in a bucket of water: it
increases the flow of heat between the inside and the outside in the same way that water pours through
the hole in a bucket. In passive buildings, the elimination of thermal bridges is strictly controlled.

earthship system

37
 7. COHOUSING FOR THE ELDERLY

Many people, when they reach the last phase of their lives, continue to be very active and want
to continue to feel useful. Being part of such a community, where all generations benefit from
the exchange, is a great gift that we all deserve.

In our Cohousing for seniors

we offer our clients, and the
fathers, mothers, uncles,
aunts, uncles and
grandparents of the project's
eco-inhabitants, the possibility
of being better off than
anywhere else.
Surrounded by peace,
nature, and more active
people of their age who
follow their ikigai, as well as
children of all ages who
come to visit them, we
integrate them into the daily dynamics of the project by feeding them nutrient-dense, toxic-free
food grown with love by the youngest.

We care for our elders like the

treasure they really are, giving
them the place they deserve -
and until a few generations ago
have had in our society - as
sources of wisdom and
experience. Our aim is for them
to feel accompanied, active
and useful and to be able to
last - as in Okinawa13 - more
than 100 years, reaching the
last stage of their lives happy
and well cared for by health
professionals if they need it.

13
The island of Okinawa is located in Japan, a place classified as a blue zone where the largest
population of centenarians in the world is concentrated. Specifically in Ogimi, "the village of
centenarians" which is located in the north of the island. It is believed that the cause is due to their way
of life: being in community and dedicating themselves to what they like until their health asks them to
stop. The feeling of being useful and being able to help each other provides them with the fuel that
keeps them active.
38
 8. HOLISTIC SAN-ACCIÓN AND RETREATS CENTER

Open to collaborations with professionals and therapists in the field of holistic health
and healing who feel that it is in this field of medicine and alternative therapies that they want to
contribute to this project and to the world, we are planning the opening of an INTEGRAL SaLUZ
and Healthy Living center that is dedicated to supporting and accompanying people who choose
to TAKE ACTION and find the wholeness and wellness they so desire for themselves and their
loved ones.
Through retreats and individual sessions our clients can benefit from the benefits offered by a health
center with sensory gardens unique in the country, located in a Healing Biotope of these characteristics,
where nutrition and healing through nutrient-dense organic food and medicinal plants grown by us in an
environment free of pollutants allow the acceleration of any healing process.

Circle of rhythm workshop (Taketina)

39
 9. NATURAL BIRTHING HOUSE

The arrival of a newborn is an unforgettable event for a couple, a very special and desired
moment that they will never forget. Many mothers want to live this moment as something natural and
humanized, a unique experience where they and their baby are the true protagonists.
Choosing a space that makes you feel as if you were in your own home in an environment
surrounded by explosive nature to give birth in a natural and safe way, is a great choice and
unforgettable experience that will mark the future of your new life as parents and the new being
born in a custom-designed environment.

From our Natural Childbirth Center we offer accompaniment from the first stage of gestation through
health professionals, doulas and midwives with experience attending home births that will support and
respect you at all times, giving you the important emotional support you need.

In our center for welcoming new life you will feel that you are the true protagonist of your own
birth plan and you can have a wonderful postpartum surrounded by women who take care of
you at all times so that you can fully dedicate yourself to caring for and getting to know your
new baby.

40
 2. CENTRO DE INSPIRA-SAN-ACCIÓN IKI-GAIA

Driven by the implementation of the

educational project for children of
compulsory school age, and an
interdisciplinary ACADEMY OF
PERMACULTURE for all generations that
nourishes it with practice, wisdom and
coherence, our Inspira-San-Acción center
offers us the ideal framework to develop all
the other projects aimed at developing
ourselves as free and sovereign beings with
a critical spirit and to be able to materialize
our individual dreams.

Our center, 100% e-coherent, built following the principles of Permaculture and common sense
and integrated by several projects that we detail below,
is nestled in a HEALING BIOTOP that we create with abundant water
and resources that will serve us as an inspiration and impulse to recover all the
SOVEREIGNTIES,, at the same time as
we collaborate to regenerate our environment;
counteracting the pressing process of desertification and erosion that we have caused over the
years.

41
 1. ECO-LEARNING COMMUNITY IKI-GAIA

This integral life

project, which is now in
its third year of
existence and which
already has a
homologated
homeschooling program
while the homologation
in Spain is being
processed, allows the
meeting of families with
similar values who want
to participate in the
co-creation of a different
holistic school where
the cooperation of the entire educational community -students, companions and family
members- among themselves and with their environment, is essential for the good development
of the school.

Acting locally and thinking globally, we encourage

the participation and collaboration of people from
different generations, disciplines and cultures,
aware that the future of the planet will depend on
offering them, NOW and despite the context of
integral crisis we are suffering, the best
conditions for their psycho-social, physical and
emotional development.

By facilitating the participation of collaborators from

the environment and family members, and being
aware that we are all REFERRALS for them 24 hours
a day - and that the school is not limited to a physical
and temporary space where learning only takes place
in the mornings - we ensure that we can meet the
learning demands and concerns of the children and
adolescents who participate in the school and cohabit
in our environment.

42
 EXISTING FACILITIES

● EDUCATIONAL PROJECT HOUSE

With an area of almost 1,300

square meters habitable, of
which 300 are already
renovated to start operating,
our eco-school begins its 4th
year of life surrounded by
mountains, explosive nature
and crystal clear water that
emanates naturally a few
meters from the school next to
a majestic walnut tree to drink
source of health and to irrigate
our gardens and forests of
self-sufficiency food.

Façade of the south side of the renovated farmhouse

43
 Kitchen of the mail Cortijo

Inside the school house we have a fully equipped kitchen, 2 bathrooms in perfect condition, living room
and 6 spacious rooms to start the project in its first phase.

44
Façade of the main house (above), detail of one of the rooms of the main house (below left) and the small house planned
as a coworking room for the project (below right).

45
 ● GREEN AREAS
An idyllic place to
make excursions
and routes, and
even develop an
IKI-GAIA forest
school where the
little ones have
majestic trees and
exuberant nature
to play and learn
from every day.

Around the school infrastructure, the green meadows where the hundreds of goats of the
goatherd who lived there used to graze for several decades, offer us the possibility of creating
edible forests and permacultural orchards among aromatic and sensory gardens, playgrounds
and adventure parks next to which rise the walls of the great Periana mountain range that
protects us from the north winds creating a microclimate.

46
 ● WATER SPRING AND POND

Next to the school, a natural spring of rich and crystalline fresh water emanates from a rock that
feeds the old water pool and will become a large natural swimming pool with phytodepuration plants that
will keep it clean and crystalline.

● BREAD OVEN

In a large room next to the school house is the large oven

room where more than 45 loaves of bread can be baked at a
time and where once a week the students will bake bread for the
whole week, and even to sell at markets and special events.
Likewise, from the ecovillage baked goods will be made to
supply the whole community, the campsite restaurant, the
retirement home and even to sell outside the community by
opening an ecological bakery with bread baked in an oak wood
oven.

47
 PLANNED FACILITIES

● INTERCULTURAL CENTER WITH LABORATORIES FOR ART, MUSIC,

CREATIVITY, SCIENCE AND MMCC

Around the intercultural

center of the eco-school
IKI-GAIA and with the
objective of favoring
social life, the different
forms of expression of
our states, processes
and talents, and the
cohesion of all the
eco-inhabitants and the
nearest community, as
well as the development
of art and science, we
are designing and
looking for investments
and sponsors who want
to collaborate in the
creation of these
laboratories.

These rooms that we are

planning, equipped with
state-of-the-art materials,
instruments and machinery, will
allow our students during the
school period - and the rest of
the eco-inhabitants in the
afternoons and during
non-school periods - to
experiment in a sustainable way
and develop their skills in these
fields that we consider basic for
the integral development of the
human being. humano.
○

If you want to invest and collaborate in the construction of the best school in the
world, if you have human and/or material resources to offer us, or ideas that can
add up, please contact us at 659 10 98 09 or write to
[email protected]

48
 ● MULTIPURPOSE ROOM AND SPORTS CENTER

In order to homologate the

secondary education project we
need a sports centre. We are
designing the future sports
centre and multi-purpose room
for the educational project in a
farm shed of the facilities
already built where the goatherd
used to work, which has a
surface area of almost 400
open-plan square metres.

Having a sports center is

a necessary infrastructure
for the approval of
secondary education that
will also serve the
ecovillage in the
evenings, weekends and
periods without school as
a multipurpose room for
the development of large
group activities,
seminars, and major
events that activate the
cultural life of the
ecovillage and the
surrounding community
through organic markets,
Christmas markets,
concerts, etc.. Example of how we imagine the refurbishment of the hall

49
 ● EXTENSIONS TO CREATE MORE CLASSROOMS AND TO BE ABLE TO ADD
MORE COURSES IN SOME OF THE ROOMS AND AGRICULTURAL BUILDINGS
ADJACENT TO THE SCHOOL HOUSE.

The farmhouse has

several agricultural
buildings and
infrastructures that can
be adapted to the
school's growth needs
in order to achieve the
school's homologation
for secondary school;
so that our students
can continue in this
model of innovative
education integrated in
an ecovillage and in a
Healing Biotope until
they are 16 years old.

With almost 1,300 square meters built, the possibilities offered by this farmhouse are unique to
develop this sustainable school model where students will design and collaborate in the
bio-construction of their own school, laboratories, sports center, socio-cultural center,
multipurpose room, dining room, etc.

50
North façade, which has been refurbished inside and can be activated with little investment.

The farmhouse also

has very old buildings
with good pillars and
wide walls that will
insulate from the heat
and cold. These areas
can be renovated to
enlarge the common
rooms, the spaces of
the educational
project, the Music
Academy and all the
other projects planned
in the
Inspira-Sanacción
Centre of the project.

51
 2. PERMACULTURE ACADEMY 14

Laying the foundations of the overall project from the principles of Permaculture and feeding
back to the IKI-GAIA school, we want to show by example that a world in abundance is natural and it is
up to us (each one of us!) to understand and learn how we can live and be happy in symbiosis with
nature. She has the power to give us abundant clean air, clean water, nutrient-dense food and
resources to build bioclimatic and sensitive housing and infrastructure.

From our Permaculture Academy “Semilla Monte Alegre” we have been facilitating for more than
7 years the harmonious integration of the landscape and the people who cohabit it in order to,
through Permaculture, be able to provide abundant healthy food, energy, water, clean air,
housing and other material and immaterial needs in a sustainable way, to all who coexist in that
ecosystem.

14
Permaculture, a word that comes from permanent agriculture and without which a stable social order
is not possible, is the holistic and ethical design that deals with the maintenance of productive
agricultural ecosystems that have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems.

52
Through
bokashi and
composting,
depleted soils
can be brought
back to life. In
this way we can
regenerate soils
in a very short
time and
produce
nutrient-dense
food from the
first year.

Work-shop on making bokashi, the fastest way to create life

Worm compost, one of the easiest ways of composting.

53
Making liquid bio-fertilizer for drip or foliar application. The fastest way to fertilize a crop.

Detail of a Permaculture course organised by our association in one of the farms we manage where this technique is
taught.

54
EXAMPLES OF PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF PERMACULTURE

In the urban world: The biggest challenge in a

city is space. We are looking for solutions that
are as productive as possible in a minimum
space. Getting out of the 2D mentality and
starting to use 3D! The best known example is
the vertical vegetable garden. In a drought
climate we can also implement beds that make
the best use of water. These are capillary
growing beds. If we combine these beds with
our gray water we have an unbeatable system!
We can also combine fish tanks with a vegetable
garden and create aquaponic crops, etc. huerta vertical

On family farms: How can we design a family farm to best suit the inhabitants and their needs?
Depending on whether the family wants to create an orchard and an edible forest for
self-sufficiency, wants to use it for vacations and weekends, or wants to make a living from it, we
can help you to tailor a design. Among our clients we have examples of water retentions, edible
forests with very little maintenance, orchards with forest included of intense use, etc. All
individualized, sustainable solutions that start with the same questions: how can we harness the
rain (water retention in landscapes), how can we combine the elements on the farm in the most
effective way possible and how do we improve/create/return the fertility of the soil back.

On agricultural and solar farms: How can we create and maintain fertility in a large space? Again
we have to look, first of all, for water. On large farms we have to read the landscape and choose
the right techniques to implement: ponds, infiltration ditches, key lines and among some
outstanding techniques help us to slow down, distribute and let water infiltrate into the soil.

55
 All water retention landscapes include reforestation. We want to create cultivated landscapes
with a minimum of 70% forest cover. Forests give us resilience against erosion and drought and
encourage the creation of soil fertility. They can be food forests, forests for firewood and timber and also
natural forests where we do not intervene - where we learn from nature.
In our project we create all life examples . If a farm is very large, with holistic grassland
management it is possible to regenerate its soil in a short period of time, even if it is very
deteriorated. In this way, we restore soil fertility on a large scale, fix carbon from the
atmosphere, while creating an abundance of nutrient-dense food.

linea clave https://volterra.bio

56
 3. DREAM ACADEMY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER

One of the projects with which we have already started, together with the IKI-GAIA school, is
with this center for entrepreneurship that is already working with founders and pioneering collaborators
and that will offer the project's eco-inhabitants individual and group sessions to develop their dreams
and discover their needs, providing tools that will help them develop our great individual IKIGAI in
harmony with the collective IKIGAI.

Working in a network integrated in a great Community of Sovereign Beings with similar

objectives and values that follow their IKIGAI and cooperate in an organic and collaborative way
to BE the REAL change they want to SEE in the world -and bequeath to future generations-,
makes possible the materialization of the great COMMON DREAM as the sum of all individual
dreams.

57
 4. CO-WORKING AND AREAS FOR WORKSHOPS, STORES AND
OFFICES

Involvement in such an enriching and diverse intergenerational community should offer the
opportunity to develop creative work and exchange ideas with other creative minds. Sharing creativity
feeds the soul and mutually enhances business and economic prosperity for the benefit of the
community.
We plan co-working SPACES where offices and workshops can be opened and business can be
developed collaboratively in one of the large agricultural buildings in the Ikigaia center. We even
offer the possibility for each house to have an additional space of about 60m2 that can be used
for an office, store, workshop or other business related function.
In this way, our eco-inhabitants and families who bring their children to the eco-school will be able to
develop their activities, telework and develop their Ikigai, close to the school while accompanying their
youngest children during the adaptation periods whenever they need it.

58
 5. LIFE CENTER AND FAREWELLS IN PEACE

It is said that ikigai is the secret of the Japanese who live a long and pleasurable life because
having a purpose in life is very beneficial and losing it is not good for our health. In Japanese
culture, ikigai occupies a central place and this has allowed many of the Japanese people to
remain active, working and doing what they love, even in the last days of their lives.

With a team of
experienced
professionals who
know that their
Ikigai or life
purpose is to
accompany sick
and elderly people
in the trance of an
illness, in the last
months/years of
their life, or in
difficult situations,
our Life and Health
Center is the ideal
place for them.

6. Farewells in Peace enables

our seniors and clients to
enjoy the last phase of their
lives in an environment of
nature and healing while
eating in a healthy way.

The empathic and peaceful

atmosphere in complete
harmony with the environment,
releases stress and tensions
accumulated over the years,
the result in most cases of
multiple degenerative
diseases.

59
 6. LAND BANK AND LAND STEWARDSHIP CENTER

The natural values that Andalusia treasures are distributed throughout the territory, and not only
in those areas that enjoy some kind of legal protection. The administrative instruments and public
resources are limited when it comes to dealing with the increasingly complex conservation tasks and
are not sufficient to guarantee the future of a natural heritage that is increasingly threatened by the
abandonment of land or the disappearance of traditional uses. These threats are difficult to neutralize
despite their obvious impact on the maintenance of biodiversity.

One of the most effective ways out of this impasse is to look for tools that allow the involvement
of civil society in the different conservation tasks, which are often mistakenly considered to be exclusive
to the Administration.

Land stewardship is a strategy born in the United States at the end of the 19th century. In a simplified
form, this formula allows the establishment of voluntary agreements between the owners of land that
deserves to be conserved for its natural, cultural or landscape values, and the so-called "stewardship
entities" (usually made up of associations and foundations dedicated to environmental conservation).
The owner undertakes to respect and apply certain conditions for the protection and management of his
land and, in exchange, receives different benefits, from social recognition to the reduction of certain
taxes, including free advice or the work of volunteers in tasks of improvement of the farm itself.

60
From Semilla Monte Alegre we have been investigating for more than 10 years farms in the
province of Malaga where sustainable living projects can be initiated in rural environments,
many of them close to or even within natural parks.

We want to highlight the environmental potential of many areas in our region, starting with the
Axarquia in Malaga - potential that is not always known or tangible - by creating a land bank, as
already exists in other countries, which integrates private and public farms, whose sustainable
management is organized through voluntary agreements between their owners and stewardship
entities.

Our main objective is to neutralize

the processes of depopulation of
rural areas by promoting some
traditional uses, while helping to
protect territories that provide a
wide range of environmental
services from which society as a
whole benefits, such as, for
example:

● the enclaves that are fundamental in the regulation of the hydrological cycle
● forested areas, which act as natural carbon dioxide sinks
● farms with a high ecotourism attraction
● the establishment of a school for shepherds to prevent the extinction of this profession and to
train those who are to practice it.

In this way, stewardship organizations could even take over the direct management of areas of
great natural value that currently have no defined use and are not covered by any conservation program
-and not only in terms of state-owned land-.

aquí

61
 ANEX I: OUR ASSOCIATION
Semilla Monte Alegre
To watch presentation click here

WHO ARE WE?

We are a big family, a small group of people who have decided to live in the countryside in a
sustainable way - coherently with their values - and dedicate their lives to regenerate Pachamama, and
cooperate with Gaia, our mother earth, in her mission to generate abundance for all. We dream of a
more supportive, green and sustainable world and work proactively to create optimal spaces in the
countryside and natural environments where families, associations, and small groups can initiate
sustainable living and working models that respect the environment.

At the moment the founding family of the project is located in a "farm in transition" in Almayate, -in the
Axarquia region of Malaga- where we have our base and eco-educational space - GAIA Learning
Community- and from where we dedicate ourselves body and soul to promote a healthy lifestyle, an
Education in values to promote Sustainable Development and Permaculture through advice, designs,
courses and workshops. Activities that allow us to continue growing and advancing in our common
dream of co-creating an ecovillage in the Axarquia.

We grow and eco-evolve every day in this organic creative process of designing a sustainable
and intergenerational community life project, where all voices are heard; with the ultimate goal
of living in harmony with Nature and cooperating with her in her mission to generate abundance
for all.

Para más información sobre el proyecto de ecoaldea ponerse en contacto con Rakel 659 10 98 09 o
[email protected].

62
MISSION
Thinking "globally" and acting "locally", we cooperate with our immediate environment with the
mission of bringing a holistic view of the 4 dimensions of sustainability in everything we do, generating
abundance for all. In addition, we feed back the networks of local and regional mutual support and other
national networks such as RIE (Iberian Ecovillage Network), PI (Iberian Permaculture), RPESEI
(Permaculture Network of the Iberian Southeast), ALE (Association for Free Education) and
international networks such as GEN (Global Ecovillage Network) in which we have been working for
years, to cooperate together in the great mission of promoting the development of sustainable human
settlements, as well as the regeneration of spaces, for the future of the earth and the next generations.

VISION
Semilla Monte Alegre was born with the vision of creating, supporting and regenerating
ecologically sustainable living spaces where all beings, especially children and future
generations, can live, work and fulfill themselves in harmony with Nature, far from pollution,
stress and the competitive environment of urban centers.

Energetically optimal
spaces where people
of different generations
and nationalities can
interact, work, and
even live together in a
peaceful environment
that fosters altruism
and collaborative
learning; as well as the
synergies arising from
intercultural,
interdisciplinary and
intergenerational
exchange of
knowledge.

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OBJECTIVES
Within an environmentally friendly work environment, our project's main objectives are to
promote:

● Permaculture and Sustainable Development

● Organic Agriculture and Regenerative Agriculture

● Bioconstruction

● Reforestation and creation of Sensory Botanical Gardens and Edible Forests

● Environmental Awareness

● Holistic Education/Training

● Global Knowledge Network

● Music, dance and the arts in general

● Alternative healing therapies, etc.

Likewise, Alternative, Free and Respectful Education plays an important role in the global vision of the
Semilla Monte Alegre project. Currently the Association is developing the 3rd year of the pilot project of
an Eco-Learning Community called "Gaia" in a 2 ha farm in Almayate (Malaga).The project is aimed first
and foremost at the local population, although all those interested in joining this growing network of
supporters and collaborators, as well as volunteers and people interested in ecotourism and
"experiential tourism" who want to share their knowledge by offering workshops, are also welcome.

64
WHAT DO WE OFFER
We offer advice to all types of people, farmers, associations, companies, and groups interested
in moving to the countryside, creating sustainable projects, creating organic gardens/plantations and
edible forests, applying the principles of Permaculture, learning about Water Management and Reuse
(Phytodepuration, Landscape Water Retention Design, Rainwater Reclamation, etc.), Healthy Food
(vegetarian, vegan, raw and/or gluten and sugar free), and Natural Resource Management in general.

We actively participate in regional fairs and local markets and organize events where, in addition to
promoting Permaculture, sustainability and healthy food, we sell and exchange seeds, plants and
products made by our association in an artisanal way.

In addition, through our own network of collaborators and sympathizers, the local and regional networks
of exchange and mutual support, and the networks of Ecovillages (RIE) and Permaculture
(Permaculture Network Malaga, REPSEI, PI, etc.) in which we network with other projects, associations
and active people of the peninsula, we provide other types of advice and services related to renewable
energy, bio-construction, alternative therapies, spirituality and holistic healing among others.

65
Semilla Monte Alegre is a network that we generate among all the people, families, projects,
associations... who want to give shape and voice to the movement of transition, eco-herence
and Permaculture,that is taking place all over the planet.

Although many of you may not yet be aware of it,

THANK YOU for being Seeds and Sources of
Inspiration for SEMILLA MONTE ALEGRE.

66
 ANEX II: LEARNING ECO-COMUNITY
IKI-GAIA

Gaia is the personification of the fertility of life

to give birth to more life
The project is named after our planet Earth (Gaia means earth in Greek).

The GAIA learning community is a living educational pilot project of free and non-profit education
initiated by the Monte Alegre Seed Association www.semillamontealegre.org in 2018 and inspired by the
forest schools, the Tekos school in Russia, the sustainability mandala created by the Gaia Education
association and a multitude of educational projects that are emerging
offering another perspective to promote the necessary change that education needs.

The Gaia ECO-learning community is formed by a circle of cohabitation groups and guides or
educators trained in active pedagogies and Education in values for the regeneration of the
planet, who believe that another way of accompanying and educating is possible.

67
 INTRODUCTION

Our GAIA Eco-Learning Community is a pilot project in Spain that we have been developing
and implementing for more than 4 years, allowing families committed to the need to promote a new
paradigm by example and coherence, to give their children a holistic education, while participating more
actively in the learning process of their children. To see a short presentation of the Gaia educational
project click here.

Cooperation between children, their families and the entire educational community is a key factor for the
proper functioning of our eco-learning community, where we are all referents, where we must all
assume the responsibility of living together as one big family.

We firmly believe that through this formula -where moms/dads will have the opportunity to spend part of
the day working or teleworking near or from the school, -teleworking, fulfilling aspirations as human
beings and generating economy while their children are well cared for-, it fosters collaborative
relationships and mutual support among all, helping some of these families to get out of the situation of
dependency they suffer.
We want to serve as an inspiration to develop similar programs throughout the country and Europe. In
the medium-short term, the vision is to help replicate this model, avoiding the massive rural
depopulation caused by, among other factors, the centralization of education and the absence of
educational services in rural areas.

In a few words, we have a very innovative

holistic education proposal adapted to the
needs of the times we live in and our
children will live in, and that includes the
whole educational community and its
closest environment. We want to establish
the headquarters of the first Spanish GAIA
school and 2nd in Europe in the Axarquia
area, and help other free schools and
learning communities that resonate with
these universal values of respect and care
for the earth, to find a legal formula that
allows them to homologate, that is, to
endure in time and grow.

GAIA is part of the solution of the need to promote a New Paradigm from the transformation of
the current educational model, and the awareness of the declared state of
the need to return to the land and promote rural repopulation, the need to promote
intergenerational
rural repopulation, and to encourage the rejuvenation of many communities in Europe.

68
 OUR VALUES

Reciprocity and Altruism: Values so valuable and necessary for individual and planetary
survival, that due to lack of time and other influences of the prevailing capitalist world are being
forgotten. As references as we, the companions are, family and friends more direct, we try to be,
day after day, the best examples for them.

Awareness: We promote awareness and respect for oneself, others, the community and
our plant and animal environment. We believe that healthy living and food - how we nourish
ourselves and share food - play a key role in forming free and respectful beings. We like to share
food -ecological and as local and seasonal as possible- in a circle and thank with songs the food
that will nourish us. In addition, through the school's organic garden, our students -and their
parents or guardians- learn to grow their own food and eat seasonal fruits and vegetables.

Sustainable development: Education for sustainable development and not "about"

sustainable development. That is, promoting integrated governance, stakeholder and
community participation by imparting the values and tools that today's children and youth will
need to build and maintain more sustainable societies taking into account the 4 dimensions of
Sustainable Development at the social (value of supporting individuality), ecological
(sustainability), economic (empowerment to manage change) and worldview (cooperation)
levels.

69
 Multiculturalism: With an
anthropological outlook, we embrace, respect
and learn from diverse cultures, traditions
and ways of understanding life. We
encourage and value the free expression of
ideas, individual contributions, diversity and
commitment to mutual and self-respect
through activities in the framework of
project-based learning, cooperative work, as
well as participation of and in the community.

Emotional management: It has been

proven that learning is more effective and meaningful when students enjoy what they do.
Emotions are, in this sense, fundamental in the learning process. Together with cognitive
processes, they are a determining factor in motivation and knowledge acquisition. Through
activities in nature and amusing workshops, we encourage the generation of positive emotions
towards the acquisition and learning of knowledge.

Humility: Is there anything more beautiful than finding a humble, wise Being? We foster
cooperation, rather than competitiveness, through the routine practice of project-based learning.
Our students learn to help each other integrate knowledge to achieve their goals together as a
group.

Proactivity: Defined as the attitude in which the individual actively assumes full control
of their behavior, it goes beyond taking the initiative, or taking responsibility for making things
happen. We encourage them to be the ones who often decide what they want/we want to do
-either as a group or individually-, and, above all, how we are going to do it. At the end of each
task, day, project, etc. we encourage self-evaluation and critical thinking to facilitate
individual/group growth.

Our approach to learning encourages our students to construct meaning through

discovery, understanding and application of knowledge, thus creating a framework for
meaningful and proactive learning.

70
 EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES

Personalized education
Our guides adapt daily to the needs and characteristics of the group, taking into account the personal
and individual needs of each child. We look at each child under the approach of Howard Gardner's
Multiple Intelligences, through which we understand that there are multiple ways of learning and that
each being excels in one or more intelligences.
By providing materials and workshops that take this theory into account, we make them become active
agents, discovering that exploration, curiosity and motivation are the best tools to learn and achieve
anything.
Constant contact with nature:

We have an outdoor space of more than 2 hectares that responds to our idea of
understanding nature as a classroom. Constant contact with the environment allows
them to discover their natural plant and animal urroundings. From the GAIA
community we see it as essential to interact with the environment and to take
advantage of the elements that nature offers us as educational resources.

71
 Active pedagogy
Children should not
only learn, understood as
reproducing ideas, but also
understand, that is,
produce those ideas. To
carry out this process,
active learning is
necessary, capable of
developing critical thinking
and creative thinking skills
that will prepare them for
autonomy.

To do so, we inspire our

organic and flexible educational model, in addition to the GAIA methodology, in active methodologies
and pedagogies such as:

● Montessori , using materials that encourage autonomous learning and discovery.

● Forest School , offering them the possibility of spending as much time as possible in a natural
environment.
● Reggio Emilia , placing them as creative agents through the manipulation of elements of
nature and experimentation with light and its possibilities.
● Waldorf , using materials that develop the creative and artistic capacity with which we are born
and making use of its table theaters, stories and riddles to stimulate memory and acquire
vocabulary.
● White Pedagogy, accompanying with empathy the natural, emotional and psychological needs
of children to help them achieve a harmonious, happy growth and in which their desire to learn
flourishes.
● Project Based Learning (PBL) through which we reinforce the social skills of our students
through the exchange of ideas and collaboration.
● Physiological accompaniment of Melina Bronffman, Pikler etc.

72
Emotional support
Respect is a necessary condition for good emotional, intellectual and social development. The fact that
our school is a space free of external judgments gives them the opportunity to be themselves.

Using facilitation tools and group dynamics, they will be offered daily the possibility to express their
emotions and feelings, even when they feel bad. Through active listening, we give space, observe and
listen to our students' feelings. We try to understand them, offering them empathy for what they are
feeling. We accompany them in their processes, giving them the opportunity to explore, heal and clarify
their feelings.

Learning from an early age to feel, know and manage our emotions will be tools that will help them in all
facets of life. Mindfulness, yoga, forum, non-violent communication, meditation, facilitation dynamics,
etc. are core subjects in our monthly program.

Respect for the pace of learning

Since we are all the

colors of the rainbow and
there are not two people
alike, we do not believe that
the same demands should be
placed on everyone. Their
abilities and talents are
unique and special and
usually very different from
each other.

That is why we take

this into account in every
activity, thus preventing them
from unfairly falling into
frustration in their learning process. We try that every day they are the ones who design part of the
activities proposed in the morning circles, always offering alternatives for those who do not feel like
doing what most of them feel like doing.

73
Collaborative learning through grouping by cycle

Groupings in our GAIA school are made by stage and not by year of birth. In this way, collaborative
learning, cooperation and the activation of mirror neurons are encouraged.

This grouping responds to the benefits that neuroeducation has demonstrated that multilevel learning
has: mirror neurons are activated when we perform a certain action, and also when we observe another
person performing the same action. This allows us to "mirror" the action of another in our own brain, and
to learn and be enriched by the young from the old and vice versa.

Clases de música de nuestra Eco-comunidad de Aprendizaje Gaia con agrupación por ciclos

74
 INTERNATIONAL BACKGROUND

We have several international supporters as we are part of the international network of Gaia schools in
the world and we are part of GEN (the global network of ecovillages).
From Estonia, the first Gaia School of Education for Sustainable Development in Europe, approved and
subsidised by its government, has been supporting us since the last academic year 2019/20 with the
creation of the first Gaia School in Spain, offering us legal support through participation in its distance
education proposal. This Estonian educational project in only 5 years has grown from 10 students to
more than 140, and the demand for this educational model continues to increase. For more information
about this educational project Click here

Next academic year 2022/23 we are

planning with the association Gaia
education, promoter of the
sustainability mandala (at social,
economic, environmental and world
vision level) that has inspired so many
ecovillages and Permaculture and
educational projects, the organisation
of an EDE - Ecovillage Design
Education - course in Malaga to train
the team of our educational project, as
well as trainers/educators interested in
training as sustainable educators.

In addition to Estonia, there are GAIA schools in Brazil (Gaia Escola), India (Siddharthvillage
Kakariguma, Odisha, photo below), Thailand (Gaia Schools Asia and Panyaden, photo right), Hong
Kong, Denmark, Mallorca and others. All these schools have joined together to create an international

75
Gaia Schools Network, and are cooperating to create a common basis and a Gaia certificate to facilitate
the multiplication of accredited schools around the world.

From Sweden, the Dreams Academy team is collaborating with us to raise funds for the acquisition of
the space where we want, in addition to creating the approved school up to 16 years old, to develop the
holistic ecovillage project where families and collaborators related to the project can be integrated.

Through a nexus of the Educational field, the promotion of R+D+i and Coaching with human values,
focused on the development of sustainable societies, Dreams Academy is looking for funds to develop
the science, technology and art and creativity laboratories that will serve to expand the experiential
knowledge of both our students and the entire ecovillage.

76
LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF OUR PROJECT
Our Eco-Learning Community counts in its first pilot phase with the legal framework offered by
the project that initiates it: the Monte Alegre Seed Association. That is to say, the children, as well as
the accompanying persons and educators, are covered by the civil liability insurance contracted by the
association to carry out this activity with minors and the whole family.

THE BIG ACHIEVEMENT: international accreditation

The Gaia school in Estonia supports us by welcoming our students over 6 years old
and up to 16 years old, that is, all the compulsory schooling, within the homologated
homeschooling program of their country. With this legal support, our vision is to continue
growing and working to achieve the Spanish homologation as soon as possible.

At the moment, this international homologation through the homologated homeschooling

program of the Gaia School of Estonia, which is recognized and even subsidized by the
Estonian governmen15t, will facilitate us the next next academic year 2022/2023 the

15
Through a formal request made by the director of the Gaia School of Estonia, the Estonian
government has approved last academic year 2018/2019 that children between 6 and 16 years of our
Gaia Eco-Learning Community of Malaga can join this homeschooling program offered by the Gaia
School of Estonia. The Estonian government is in a very open moment, it is betting on agro-ecology and
sustainability, and is facilitating the replication of this model of Education for Sustainable Development
throughout their country and beyond.
77
development of the project while we get the Spanish homologation. In this way, children who
want to continue studying at the University after the age of 16 would only have to take an
entrance exam as all students who study in non-approved schools: Montessory, Waldorf, etc.
do. Likewise, those who want to transfer to the traditional educational system will only have to
notify a regulated center since all schools are obliged to welcome all minors in their
classrooms under any circumstances.

78
 ACCOMPANIMENT
Our way of seeing the accompaniment is from the Being and from the Heart, that is to say, a
Holistic and Transpersonal Education where the essence of the individual goes from being latent
to being patent. An accompaniment that reconnects us to our Mother Earth and to our true
nature, weaving a united and diverse family where all of us are included (fathers, mothers,
teachers, children).

We accompany individual and unique beings with Love, respect and freedom so that we
can all develop our critical thinking without being judged, as well as develop our gifts and
talents by empowering ourselves.

It is a giving and receiving in sharing. All this, in contrast to what we have been suffering for centuries,
the education of the individual where indoctrination, sheepishness, psychological dependence,
unconscious consumption, distractions, judgment, distorted and manipulated memorized knowledge
keep us slaves of ourselves and disconnected from the universal and natural laws.

Our concept of "Education" is conceived as the art of developing self-knowledge through anything that
excites the child or adolescent -and, in general, every human being regardless of age-.
We emphasize the development of a Mature Consciousness of the adults who relate to children and
young people to be able to develop a Communication of Value and that includes the diversity of the
expression of the child and young person with the intention of accompanying them in their own
self-discovery of their Essence.

79
We believe that in any educational plan or educational environment there are missing aspects/subjects
to develop and implement such as emotional intelligence and the development of win-win relationships;
including in this, the view of conflicts as opportunities for self-growth, development of satisfactory
relationships with others and contribution to the Common Good.

We believe in the development of an Inclusive Communication in environments of trust and satisfactory

relationships with children and young people, where we work on team management, the development of
Consciousness, Self-Empowerment and Self-Leadership. We encourage the use of Conflicts, the ability
to respond to daily challenges, communication strategies that facilitate decision making and efficient
meetings that bring us closer to a purpose, as well as the development of projects in which personal
development, the development of relationships as a team and the contribution to the Common Good are
valued as a priority.

Our great challenge is to accompany our students in their own unique learning process.

80
 From an educational community made up of companions and families who strive to offer the
best conditions for the development of each individuality, we help our students to acquire general
learning and develop intellectual skills to teach them to discern and think with their own criteria,
preparing them for self-learning. Subsequently, we teach them the scientific disciplines.

Microscope classes at our Gaia Eco-Learning Community

81
 MAIN OBJECTIVE

Establish the approved headquarters of the 1st Spanish GAIA school and 2nd in Europe as the
driving heart of a sustainable ecovillage project integrated in a Healing Biotope that promotes
the new socio-educational, economic, worldview and environmental paradigm in the Axarquia
area in an environment 100% consistent with the principles it promulgates and where we are all
referents.
Our great motivation is to accompany free beings with a critical spirit and values of respect,
cooperation, and environmental integrity, conscious of our ecological footprint, while regenerating our
natural environment and co-creating a resilient future within planetary boundaries where no one is left
behind.

If we take care of children's emotional health through creativity and emotional activity, they will
be able to take care of our planet because they have great intuition and wisdom; they just need
us to accompany them to develop it fully.

82
 GENERAL OBJECTIVES

In addition to all the objectives pointed out before, we highlight these specific objectives:

● RESPECTFUL INDIVIDUALIZED ACCOMPANIMENT: accompanying the learning process

of Beings - in close cooperation with their families - from whom we have so much to
learn.

● PROMOTION OF A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE: by example and coherence with our principles.

● ENVIRONMENTAL AND VALUES TRAINING: to train free and healthy beings with a
critical spirit and values of respect, cooperation, and environmental integrity, aware of
our ecological footprint.

83
● REGENERATING THE ENVIRONMENT AND PROMOTING RESILIENCE by regenerating
our natural environment - with Landscape Water Retention techniques, regenerative
practices etc. - we contribute to create more biodiversity, as well as to co-create a
resilient future within planetary boundaries where no one is left behind and where all
generations, and especially children and future generations, can live and develop in
complete harmony with Nature in a resilient, coherent and mutually supportive social
network.

● OMOLOGATION: To initiate this school year 2020/2021 all the bureaucratic processes of
acquisition, reform and homologation necessary to create a homologated international
school that will allow us to legally develop our activity and mission and promote the new
educational paradigm in which we believe from the recognition of what we do and
COHERENCE.
● DEVELOPMENT AND FLOURISHMENT OF THE "IKIGAI": To create optimal conditions for
the physical, psycho-social and emotional development of children - and all generations
- to become critical social actors and proactive agents of change, capable of discerning
and seeking resilient solutions to the challenges that the planet and our society are
facing and will face.

84
● PROMOTING ALTRUISM AND COLLABORATIVE LEARNING: Creating energetically
optimal spaces where people of different generations and nationalities can interact,
work, and even live together in a peaceful environment that fosters altruism and
collaborative learning; as well as the synergies arising from intercultural,
interdisciplinary and intergenerational exchange of knowledge.

● NATIONAL NETWORK OF ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLS AND EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS: To

promote a large network of mutual support and collaborations at the national level of
learning communities and alternative and free educational projects that are committed to
the new educational paradigm and resonate with these universal values of respect and
care for the earth.
● REPLICATION OF LEGAL FORMULA: To help this network of alternative schools to find a
legal formula that will allow them to achieve homologation; that is, to endure over time
and continue to grow.

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 MISSION
Accompanying the learning process of BEINGS - in close cooperation with their families - from
whom we have so much to learn, we promote a healthy and sustainable lifestyle by example and
coherence - conscious of our ecological footprint - favoring the harmonious development and
feedback of all the people involved - pupils, relatives and -students, family members, and
accompanying persons/educators, as well as the individual and collective empowerment in
harmony with nature.

We create and regenerate optimal natural development environments for families, and in
particular for children, around a school community - as sustainable and conscious of its ecological
footprint as possible - to promote:
● the harmonious development and feedback of all the people involved - students, family
members, and companions/educators-.
● individual and collective empowerment in harmony with nature.

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 VISION
To create an "Inspira-SanAcción Center" (GAIA Academy) around the educational project,
based on the principles of sustainability, Permaculture and Gaia Pedagogy, in a sustainable human
settlement -eco village, community, etc.-, and, surrounded by Nature. An interdisciplinary,
intergenerational and multicultural Center, where all generations can learn about the 4 dimensions of
Sustainable Development (social, economic, environmental and worldview) through daily practice;
feeding back from cooperation, peaceful coexistence and exchange of ideas from the respect for
diversity.

In a more advanced phase

of the project when the
building permits are
approved and the funds
arrive, our vision is to build
with bioconstruction
techniques an educational
village tailored to our needs
where all children and
adolescents up to 16 years
of age can participate in its
design and construction
accompanied by adults and
professionals who guide
them.

87
 ACTUAL SITUATION
The medium-term vision is to be able to help multiply the number of educational projects
inspired by our model and interested in creating a network, as well as to replicate this model of distance
learning throughout the country.

Due to the emergency situation caused by COVID 19, all the educational projects have been
forced to close our spaces last March 2020, which has meant an unexpected crisis for a project that
after the efforts and obstacles overcome during the first two years, was beginning to see the light.

Despite the great challenges we are facing and the great systemic crisis that has been
unleashed, last school year 2020/21 we reopened our doors to meet the social and educational needs
of our children. To allow them to play with peers of their own age and to continue being children in the
face of such a desolate panorama that has not taken them into account at any time. In spite of the
restrictions on movement, the general confusion that this situation has generated, more and more
cohabitation groups have been moving in, moving around the area and actively joining the project last
school year 2020/2021; many of them with the intention of joining the holistic project of the ecovillage as
soon as possible.

The site for the ecovillage in Axarquia where we are planning the next academic year 2022/2023
is an ideal space to create the physical headquarters of the 1st Iki-Gaia (Gaia) Educational
projectl in Spain, and the 2nd in Europe.

We want to give the opportunity to more families to opt for a model of Education in Values and
Development consistent with our principles and historical moment. For us it is fundamental to offer this
opportunity to everyone who resonates with this integral life project, that is to say that it is accessible -
and not elitist - as it is happening in Estonia; where the State covers ⅔ parts of the fee of each child so
that each family only has to pay 120 euros. As we know that in our country this way will not be possible,
we are working with investors with similar values the possibility of having private financing to obtain
funds that will allow us to create the best school in the world, as well as to offer scholarships that will
allow the adhesion of the project to all types of families. For more information, see the following
appendix: Strategy and development phases of the school.

Our goal is to create a large national network of alternative educational projects that promote
the new paradigm and the homologation of homeschooling and freedom of education - a network that
we are creating through our national project Gaia-Vesad - and to collaborate so that more alternative
educational projects in the country benefit from our IKI-GAIA model and this legal path; homologation
that allows them to remain in time and not die in the first 2 or 3 years as it usually happens.

Currently, the fear of not officially schooling children from the age of 6 in an approved center,
added to the lack of human and economic resources, causes the disappearance of wonderful
alternative educational proposals adapted to the changing needs in which we find ourselves.
Educational projects more individualized and respectful with the needs of the children and in an
environment that do not get resources and are consumed initiating all the bureaucratic processes that
are required to create an approved educational center in our country.

88
 ANNEX III:STRATEGY AND STAGES OF
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IKI-GAIA EDUCATIONAL
PROJECT
We are in the process of acquiring a sufficiently large space where we can make the
educational project compatible with the projects of the different sovereignties and with living,
working and experimental spaces. This first phase opens up to a driving/pioneer group at first,
which creates the bases of cohabitation and the structure to welcome more and more
cohabitation groups and eco-inhabitants, and where collaborative projects will be carried out,
aimed in the first instance at:
1. creating a solid basis for the IKI-GAIA project
2. achieving the proposed objectives aligned with the vision
3. facilitating the inclusion of more cohabitation groups in the following phases
4. start phase I of our educational project IKI-Gaia
5. Seek subsidies for 20 pupils for the first 3 years - 10 pupils from 3 to 6 years old, and
another 10 from 7 to 10 years old - to facilitate the approach and commitment of the
cohabitation groups involved.

For this reason we have chosen this farm, which already has almost 1,400 square metres of
built-up space, to develop our holistic project in its first phase of development, while we obtain
the permits and funds to create our bioclimatic and sustainable school village IKI-GAIA, 100%
built with bio-construction materials and designed by us.

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 PHASE ESTIMATION
PHASE I: September 2022 - August 2025 - starts and ends with the
school year.

Objectives
1. LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE PROJECT AND CREATING COHESION IN
THE MOTOR GROUP
To create the right conditions - with the help of experts, associations, collectives and
Permaculture networks, etc. - to offer dignified and healthy living conditions to a
minimum of 10 cohabitation groups that collaborate to achieve the objectives and to
gradually achieve the sustainability of the project in its 4 dimensions - social, economic,
environmental and world vision.
Key points:

a. holistic water management

b. food sovereignty - orchards and edible forests for self-sufficiency of the whole
project
c. take the first steps towards the technological and energy sovereignty of the
project
d. safeguarding the social sustainability of the project through tools that facilitate
collaboration between autonomous working groups inspired by sociocracy,
non-violent cc, etc.
e. initiate projects to raise funds (events, training, search for subsidies, sale of
fruit, vegetables, aromatic and medicinal plants, processed organic food, etc.).

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2. CREATION OF THE SOLID FOUNDATIONS OF THE GAIA EDUCATIONAL
PROJECT
a. train and create the GAIA pedagogical team that will lead the project
b. to form/train and create cohesion between the group of cohabitation groups,
participants, students and educators

PHASE II: September 2025-August 2027

Objectives:

1. Review/Evaluation of the first phase and adaptation of the necessary changes to

achieve maximum sustainability, independence and resilience in all sectors
.
2. Expansion of the number of cohabitation groups as members of the project, following a
trial period.

3. To provide educational coverage for students over the age of 10 by extending a new
class for a third age group from 10 to 12 years old.

4. Increase from 20 to 40 the number of subsidised places in the educational project for
children of cohabitation groups committed to the vision.

5. Improve the economic sustainability of the project through parallel activities, food
production, events, etc. in order to become less dependent on external subsidies. It is
estimated that at this stage it will be sufficient to have only half of the quota subsidised
- 50 %-.

6. Develop a strategic plan and collaborate to actively replicate both the

"eco-common-heritage" model and the "Gaia Eco-Learning Community" model to other
rural areas, through talks, training courses, seminars, etc

Phase III: september 2027-August 2032

Objectives

1. Review/Evaluation of the first phase and adaptation of the necessary changes to

achieve maximum sustainability, independence and resilience in all sectors

2. Expansion of the number of cohabitation groups committed to the vision of the project,
following a trial period.

3. To provide educational coverage for students over the age of 12 by extending several
new classes for a third age group from 12 to 16.

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 4. Increase from 40 to 80 the number of subsidised places in the educational project for:
a. to respond to the need to offer more classes to older students - and not to force
them to be sent to institutes of the system.
b. include the children of new cohabitation groups that may appear, committed to
the vision.

5. Improve the economic sustainability of the project through parallel activities, food
production, events, etc. in order to become less dependent on external subsidies. It is
foreseen that in this phase it will be sufficient to have only 1/3 of the monthly fee, i.e. 33%,
subsidised for the development of the project.

6. Review/Evaluate the strategic plan for the multiplication of the 2 models designed in the
previous phase: the ECO-H-PLAGA model ("Gaia Planetary Eco-Common-Heritage"), as well
as the ECOAGA ("Gaia Eco-Learning Community") to other rural areas, and continue to
expand and inspire them through lectures, training courses, seminars, etc.

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BUDGET AND JUSTIFICATION OF FUNDING
FOR THE IKI-GAIA EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

Any project start-up obviously requires an initial investment of various resources, which we will
now summarise.

Thanks to having an optimal space that covers the basic vital needs and those related to
privacy, as well as shared services such as Internet, electricity and water, self-sufficiency
gardens, school, etc. for an initial group of between 10 - and a maximum of 20 cohabitation
groups - as well as 20 scholarships for 20 children from founding and collaborating
cohabitation groups during the first 3 years, the available human resources will be able to
focus their efforts on building that world and close ecoherent environment where they want to
live and leave in inheritance to their children.

The economic dependence of the cohabitation groups on the system and the 100% subsidised
grants will gradually decrease during the first years, facilitating group cohesion and the
progress of the projects related to the different sovereignties sought. For this reason, in
addition, the total commitment of the cohabitation groups to the project will be easier to
achieve as they will not be distracted by the pressure/need to work outside to pay for the
services that are enjoyed collectively.

In this way, they will need to work less and less outside the project in order to have the basic
needs of decent housing, food, as well as the social/educational needs of their children
covered.

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Initial investment ………………………………………..1.000.000 €

Acquisition of the space (estimated price): 700.000 €.

Initial investment (minimum basis): 300.000 €.
Infrastructure, permits, renovations, solar panels, holistic water management - water filters,
tanks, etc., earthworks, food forest, nursery, irrigation, seeds, trees, tools, materials for the
educational project house, etc:

Total investment PHASE I (3 years)...............................251.000 €

Training motor team: 35.000 €

EDE (Education in Ecovillage Design) classroom course of 210 hours duration:

For more information on the details of the course click here

Grants to 20 students from pioneer and collaborating cohabitation groups: 216.000 €.

300/month (total fee) x 36 months = 10.800 € x 20 students16 = 216.000 € + 35.000 €
(training) + 1.000.000 (initial investment for land acquisition and infrastructure, plus costs of
permits, renovations, earthworks, solar panels, water management, etc ) = 251.000 € =
251.000 €.

Total investment PHASE II (2 años).............................192.000 €

Grants to 40 students 192.000 €

200 €/month ½ of the fee x 24 months = 4.800 € x 40 students17 =

In order to start Phase III of the expansion and replication of the model, and to be able to offer
certified education to the project's students over 12 years of age, another strong initial
investment is needed, as the education system requires minimum facilities for this age group.

16
Grants have been limited to 10 pupils in the infant group and 10 pupils in the 6-12 age group during
Phase I, taking into account the current capacity of the project, the % of cohabitation groups without
resources interested - the current demand is actually much higher -, and the growth trajectory of Gaia
School Estonia.
17
In calculating the expected growth of the project, we have taken into account both the bases that have
been created in the first 3 years and the extent of growth observed in the Gaia School in Estonia, where
in the fourth year the number of pupils exceeded 80.
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Initial estimated investment PHASE III………………….60.000 €

Minimum bases: Adaptation of infrastructures, permits, mini-sports centre, etc. 60.000 €

Total investment PHASE III (5 years).............................770.000 €

Secondary motor team training: 50.000 €

Grants for 80 students 720.000 €

150 €/month (⅓ of the monthly fee) x 60 months = 9.000 € x 80 students18 =

PHASE I Initial investment 1.000.000,00 €

Initial investment in teacher training for age group 3 to 12 years 35.000,00 €

old

Grants investment 216.000,00 €

PHASE II Grants investment -2 years- 192.000,00 €

PHASE III Adaptation of the infrastructure 60.000,00 €

Initial investment in teacher training for age group 12 to 16 years 50.000,00 €

old

Grants investment -5 years- 720.000,00 €

TOTAL 2.273.000,00

18
In calculating the expected growth of the project, we have taken into account both the foundations
created in the first 5 years and the extent of growth observed in the Gaia School in Estonia, where after
5 years the number of pupils exceeded 120.
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 ANNEX IV: GAIA SCHOOL IN ESTONIA:
the first Gaia school in Europe
To see the presentation click here
Gaia School in Estonia developed its pedagogical program based on Gaia Education
International, the model developed by Johannes Käis, taking into account Gaia schools in other
countries and Danish free schools.

The main partners of the Estonian schools are Pärnu Vabakool, Inventors' Village School and
Tallinn Waldorf School.
MISSION
To create a developmental environment for children and a school community that supports the
harmonious development of people and their individual potential in harmony with nature.
VISION:

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 Gaia School is guided by the principles of sustainable lifestyle, care for the Earth
-environmental integrity- and people through cooperation and respect.
HISTORY:
Gaia Kool started its activity in 2014 with 10 students. The increase in the number of students in
the school has been as follows:

● 2014 - 10
● 2015 - 32
● 2016 - 74
● 2017 - 98
● 2018 -115
Since Gaia Kool is a growing school that is adding a new class each year, there is a constant need to
hire new chaperones/educators trained in Education for Sustainable Development.
In addition to the GAIA school in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, other Gaia schools are popping up in
rural areas of the country such as the Mõisamaa school of the intentional Little Footprint Community.

GAIA SCHOOL VALUES AND PURPOSE

Gaia Kool bases its system of values and principles on the harmonious coexistence of man and nature.
The main objective of the school is to create opportunities for people to be happy and fulfilled, creating
fellowship and synergies between humans and the environment. The school curriculum is adapted to
offer real solutions to the problems of unsustainable development of the planet.

The Estonian school calendar respects all traditions, introduces customs from different cultures and
gives the child the opportunity to learn, value and respect the diversity of the world.

The four main areas of the Gaia Education program on which the school bases its values are:

● Worldview - value cooperation.

● The value of economics is the courage to manage change.
● Ecology - value sustainability.
● Social - value of supporting individuality.

An important value that is also respected in Gaia's school is non-violence.

PROGRAM

Preferences for intercultural and interschool projects based on the objectives of the study of:
● language learning
● nature education and environmental protection
● connecting studies with the student's daily life, preparing for lifelong learning

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 ● learning popular culture

SCHOOL FEATURES

Community school
GAIA school is a community school, i.e. parents of school-age children are expected to fully cooperate
with the children, actively participate in the education and organization of school work. Every year, each
family contributes a certain number of hours of volunteer work for the benefit of the school: sustainable
construction of new infrastructure, renovations, cleaning work, etc.
One of the main objectives of the GAIA school is to bring the school closer to families living in rural
areas. That is why Estonia plans to open more schools in villages and emerging community projects.
The Little Footprint Community, located in a very depopulated rural area, has had 5 children since the
first year and many families are starting to repopulate the area to live near the school. In this way, the
school functions as a center of attraction for families with similar values to those promoted by the
school.

School for Parents

Gaia School is a community school: this means that there is a lot of cooperation between children,
families and the school community. There is also cooperation with the community around the school.
The children and their parents are involved in the work of the community by participating in activities
and examples that teach them that taking care of the earth is taking care of their own environment and
home.

Gaia School has also implemented a program to bring parents closer to the school and introduce the
school's principles and values to adults.

The School for

Parents offers:
parenting
training, nature
education,
healthy
lifestyle,
nutrition, and
other topics,
which are in
line with the
principals of
the school.

The purpose of
the training is
to create an
opportunity for
additional
school training with parents of children, teachers and other adults.

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Individualized programs for homeschooling or special needs families

With the growing number of homeschooling children, and parents who choose to telecommute and live
part of the year in other countries - or go to live in more rural areas - and cannot send their children to
school, or sending their children to school every day is too complicated, the Gaia Community School in
Estonia has started to develop individualized curricula in cooperation with the EEDU association to
support these families.

Currently Gaia School has started to cooperate with MTÜ Eedu, with the aim to develop a suitable
web-based environment and methodology for children to learn from the distance curriculum with a
follow-up and a minimum of face-to-face classes.

The founding team of our pilot project in Malaga is studying how to implement this program here in
Spain and adapt it to local needs.

Traditions

An important part of shaping Gaia School's traditions and practices are the community's proposals,
attention to the rhythms of nature, the celebration of holidays and anniversaries, and the popular
calendar. There is special attention to native education, the celebration of the national and cultural fair,
and educational anniversaries.

Certain traditions are the annual Christmas Eve, the entrance of spring, the summer camp, etc. The
Christmas tree allows children to practice entrepreneurship and handmade activities. The children sell
their own products, market them and plan together what to do with the proceeds.

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New traditions are evolving as the children grow.

DEVELOPMENT CHANNELS
The sustainable development and expansion of Gaia School is guaranteed through:

● The good location of the school on the edge of the Kadriorg Park which favors the increase in
the number of students each year

● until the end of the third year of

school, adding to the school's
enrollment and financial capacity;

● The fact that it is a community

school encourages students and
families with similar perspectives
to come to Gaia School.

● The increased interest of rural

Estonia in this model offered by
Gaia School;

● The fact that teachers are

regularly trained in cooperation
with Gaia Education International,
the Community and other
professionals.

● Gaia Education International, the

Community and other professionals.

The sustainability mandala and the principles of ecovillages

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 ANEX IV
ORIGINS and DEVIRTUATION OF THE CURRENT
EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT

If knowledge is not balanced with basic skills and a correct formation in values, we could affirm that
education runs the risk of becoming a "servile art" instead of a "liberal art".

It can be said that the Trivium and the Quadrivium -see next section- are the remote antecedent of the
school curriculum composed of the set of objectives, contents, methodology and evaluation criteria that
guide academic activity. If we analyze it carefully, we can detect the logic of its approach.

With the Trivium, the aim was to acquire general learning and intellectual skills in order to teach them to
think so that they could develop their own criteria, preparing them for self-learning. Later, the scientific
disciplines were acquired, Quadrivium, which provided the elements to know and master the outside
world.

At present, the school curriculum of Basic Education is characterized by having very ambitious
graduation profiles and too many contents: management of new technologies, education for citizenship,
gender equity, ecology, etc. Content that is supposed to help students understand the social, economic,
political, cultural, demographic and technological changes that are taking place and prepare them to
adapt easily to this changing society. However, the reality is that the excess of content makes it
impossible both for the teacher to cover it and for the student to deepen and internalize it, thus
neglecting the development of basic tools that would enable the student to learn autonomously.

The mastery of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT's) will be of no use if one cannot
select, understand and process all the accumulation of information that operates in the network to turn it
into knowledge.

The "competency-based" methodology has come to alleviate in some way this torrent of school
information, playing the role of dosing and selecting learning, although it is still not clear whether it is
fulfilling its mission, since competencies seem to have turned education into a MEANS to achieve an
END and not as an end in itself.

It is therefore necessary to review and restructure the curriculum at the different educational levels,
especially emphasizing what is intended in each of the stages and not wanting to teach everything in
Basic Education. It is necessary to carefully select those contents that are essential, such as reading,
writing or logical-mathematical reasoning, and whose mastery will favor the learning of other disciplines,
from those that are deferred. Saturating the curriculum with content only favors superficial learning
without reflection.

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"The object of teaching is not to give meanings, but to knock at the door of thought" (Tagore).

A curriculum with which to assimilate and internalize learning and to develop the individual in an integral
way, turning him into a sovereign and free being, aware of his abilities and talents, with a clear purpose
in life.

"The aim of education should be rather to teach us how to think, than what to think, rather to improve
our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to fill our memory with the thoughts of other
men." John Dewey

TRIVIUM Y QUADRIVIUM

De forma similar a
como ocurría en la
Edad Media con el
Trivium y Quadrivium,
-donde, sólo una vez
esté dominada esta
primera fase de
enseñanza (Trivium) que
hoy podríamos
considerar las
humanidades-, que
contenía las artes de la
“elocuencia”:
Gramática, Retórica y
Dialéctica-, en nuestro
proyecto educativo
IKI-GAIA queremos
proporcionar los
elementos y
herramientas para
conocer y dominar el
mundo exterior. Es decir, lo que venía a ser las ciencias relacionadas con los números y el
espacio de la segunda fase (Quatrivium): Aritmética -estudio de los números-, Geometría .-estudio del
espacio-, Astronomía -el estudio de los astros o el espacio en movimiento- y Música -el estudio de los
cantos y de las matemáticas en movimiento-.

El Trivium y el Quadrivium son dos vocablos latinos que hacen referencia a las “Siete Artes
Liberales” que se estudiaban en la antigüedad y en las primeras universidades europeas durante la
Edad Media. Utilizaban las palabras “arte” del griego “areté” que significa “virtud” y “liberal” porque su
finalidad era la de formar “hombres libres”. Dicha libertad se obtenía por medio del conocimiento y
el desarrollo de las habilidades intelectuales; en oposición a las “artes serviles” o “artes menores” que
eran las que proporcionaban al hombre la pericia para desempeñar oficios y realizar trabajos manuales.

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El Trivium (tri-vium) significa tres vías o caminos y contenía las artes de la “elocuencia”: Gramática,
Retórica y Dialéctica, lo que hoy podríamos considerar las humanidades.

● La Gramática estudiaba el uso adecuado de la lengua, el cómo hablar y escribir

correctamente.
● La Dialéctica es la ciencia del pensamiento correcto, se encargaba del razonamiento y de la
búsqueda de la verdad.
● La Retórica era la expresión del lenguaje en su más bella manifestación, por tanto está muy
relacionada con la Literatura. Las disciplinas del Trivium equipaban al estudiante con las
herramientas intelectuales para poder aprender por sí mismo, por eso se impartían antes
que el Quadrivium.

El Quadrivium significa las cuatro vías o caminos y agrupaba las ciencias relacionadas con los
números y el espacio: Aritmética, Geometría, Astronomía y Música.

● La Aritmética es el estudio de los números.

● La Geometría, vendría siendo el estudio del espacio.

● La Astronomía, el estudio de los astros o el espacio en movimiento y la Música, el estudio de

los cantos y de las matemáticas en movimiento.

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