NEOBIOME

RD_031: Global Ecovillage Network — ecovillage.org public directory (1,354 projects; WP REST API extract 19 Jul 2026;…

Properties5
typerd
source_typedata
authorGlobal Ecovillage Network (GEN)
year2026
topicscohousing_intentional_community, case_study, methodology_frameworks, nz_specific

10 min read

RD_031: Global Ecovillage Network — ecovillage.org public directory (1,354 projects; WP REST API extract 19 Jul 2026;…

Source

https://ecovillage.org/projects/ — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)

Global Ecovillage Network — ecovillage.org Public Directory

The citable typology reference for community classification: a complete machine extract (1,354 projects, 19 Jul 2026) of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) public directory, carrying each community's self-declared project TYPE(s) (Ecovillage, Cohousing, Eco Community, Permaculture Project, Learning Centre, …), SETTING (Rural / Urban / Nomadic), GEN network region, country, and accepting-new-members flag. Retrieved for RT_331 as the standing, referenceable vocabulary behind the NI community-archetype guides. ⚠ It supplies the classification scheme and confirms 12 NZ listings (incl. Earthsong, Tui, Wilderland, Atamai) — but it holds NO land-area, dwelling-count, population or coordinate fields, so it does NOT deliver the ha-per-household density evidence RT_331 also seeks. RT_331 is therefore advanced (partial), kept OPEN.

Summary

This is a complete, deduplicated machine extract of the Global Ecovillage Network public project directory at ecovillage.org, the most widely used global register of ecovillages, cohousing groups and intentional communities. It was pulled from the site’s WordPress REST API (/wp-json/wp/v2/gen_projects) on 19 Jul 2026; the endpoint’s own _record_count and _reported_total both equal 1,354, so the extract is the full directory, not a page. Each record is one listed community, described only by identity fields (id, slug, title, link, listing/modified dates) and a taxonomy_info classification block — GEN carries no narrative, size, cost, or performance data in this API.

The directory’s value to this project is as a standing typology reference: it is the authoritative, citable source for how self-identifying sustainable communities are classified — the controlled vocabulary of project types (22 tags), settings (Rural / Urban / Nomadic), and network regions — and it independently places New Zealand’s known communities (Earthsong, Tui, Wilderland, Atamai and eight others) within that scheme. It is a classification and coverage source, not a metrics source: it contains no land area, dwelling count, population, or geographic coordinate for any project, which is the precise limit on what it can contribute to the NI archetype-density work (see Neobiome Intelligence relevance). Its classifications are self-reported by the listing communities and represent a living snapshot as at the retrieval date.

Key claims

- claim: "The extract is the complete GEN public directory as at 2026-07-19: 1,354 project records (_record_count = _reported_total = 1,354, i.e. not truncated), spanning 129 countries and 6 GEN network regions. Each record carries only identity fields (id, slug, title, ecovillage.org link, listing date, modified date) plus a `taxonomy_info` classification block — there is no narrative, size, cost, population, land-area or coordinate field anywhere in the dataset."
  source_location: "JSON top-level `_record_count`:1354 / `_reported_total`:1354 / `_endpoint`:'https://ecovillage.org/wp-json/wp/v2/gen_projects' / `_note`; distinct `gen_country` labels = 129; distinct `gen_region` labels = 6. Per-record keys = {id, slug, link, date, modified, title, taxonomy_info} on all 1,354 (verified by key-presence count). Recomputed in Python from the saved response."
- claim: "Community SETTING (a project may carry more than one; 1,305 of 1,354 records declare at least one): Rural 1,174, Urban 154, Nomadic 30. Rural is dominant — ~87% of all 1,354 records (~90% of the 1,305 that declare a setting)."
  source_location: "Counter over taxonomy_info.gen_community_setting across all records: Rural 1174, Urban 154, Nomadic 30; records with ≥1 setting = 1305. (Label counts sum to 1358 > 1305 because ~53 records carry two settings.) Rural 1174/1354 = 86.7%."
- claim: "Community TYPE is a multi-select tag set (1,095 of 1,354 records declare at least one type; 22 distinct type labels). Ranked label counts: Permaculture Project 372, Eco Community 370, Eco Project 359, Learning Centre 351, Ecovillage 347, Intentional 344, Eco Farm 258, Eco Tourism Site 221, Religious or Spiritual 164, Holistic Center 141, Cohousing 125, Restoration Site 114, Shared Housing 83, Green School 79, Traditional 70, Transition Town 67, Youth-led Project 33, Indigenous 32, Network of Ecovillages 30, 'Unspecified, Other' 29, Other 28, Eco City 16. This ranked tag vocabulary is the citable community-type classification scheme."
  source_location: "Counter over taxonomy_info.gen_community_type across all records; records with ≥1 type = 1095; 22 distinct labels. (Counts sum far above 1095 because most projects carry several type tags — e.g. the first NZ record 'Taiao Ora Farm' carries five.)"
- claim: "GEN network region (1,294 of 1,354 declare one): GEN Europe 444; CASA (Council of Sustainable Settlements of the Americas — Latin America) 282; GENOA (GEN Oceania & Asia) 227; GENNA (GEN North America) 192; GEN Africa 129; GEN Fertile Crescent (Middle East) 20."
  source_location: "Counter over taxonomy_info.gen_region: 'GEN Europe' 444, 'CASA' 282, 'GENOA' 227, 'GENNA' 192, 'GEN Africa' 129, 'GEN Fertile Crescent' 20; records with a region = 1294. New Zealand's 12 records all sit in GENOA."
- claim: "Accepting-new-members status (1,003 of 1,354 declare it): 'Yes' 828 (82.6% of those declaring), 'Not currently' 134, 'No' 41 — i.e. the large majority of self-listed GEN communities describe themselves as open to new members."
  source_location: "Counter over taxonomy_info.gen_new_members: Yes 828, 'Not currently' 134, No 41; records declaring the flag = 1003. 828/1003 = 82.6%."
- claim: "New Zealand has 12 records in the directory (10 Rural, 2 Urban; all in the GENOA region). They include the four communities already in the Neobiome wiki, with GEN's independent classification: 'Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood' — Urban; Cohousing, Eco Community, Intentional; NOT currently accepting members. 'Tui Community' — Rural; Eco Community, Religious or Spiritual; accepting (Yes). 'Wilderland' — Rural; Eco Farm, Eco Project, Ecovillage, Intentional, Learning Centre; accepting (Yes). 'Atamai Village' — Rural; Ecovillage, Intentional; accepting (Yes). The remaining eight: Taiao Ora Farm, Earth Village, Lotus Eco Village (Urban; Cohousing/Eco Community/Ecovillage/Intentional), The Black Sheep Animal Sanctuary, Te Manawa Eco village, Kohatu Toa Ecovillage, Awaawaroa Bay Ecovillage, Otamatea Ecovillage."
  source_location: "Filter records where taxonomy_info.gen_country contains 'New Zealand' → 12 records; settings tally 10 Rural / 2 Urban (Urban = Lotus Eco Village + Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood). Per-community type/setting/new_members read from each record's taxonomy_info; ecovillage.org links present (e.g. .../ecovillage/earthsong-eco-neighbourhood/, .../tui-community/, .../wilderland/, .../atamai-village/). ⚠ A SECOND 'Earthsong' record exists in region GENNA (North America, Rural) — a US namesake, NOT the NZ Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood; do not conflate."
- claim: "The dataset contains NO quantitative community metrics: no land-area (ha), no dwelling/household count, no population, and no latitude/longitude for any of the 1,354 records. taxonomy_info holds only classification fields — gen_country (present on 1,293), gen_region (1,294), gen_community_setting (1,305), gen_community_type (1,095), gen_new_members (1,003), gen_language (1,219), gen_post_language (1,308). This is the reason the source serves RT_331's typology leg but not its density leg."
  source_location: "Enumerated every distinct taxonomy_info key across all 1,354 records: {gen_post_language 1308, gen_community_setting 1305, gen_region 1294, gen_country 1293, gen_language 1219, gen_community_type 1095, gen_new_members 1003}. No numeric/area/population/coordinate key present at record level or inside taxonomy_info."

Neobiome Intelligence relevance

RT_331 asks for two different things behind the NI community-archetype (B4a / app.js CTYPES) typology guides: (1) a citable classification reference for community types/settings, and (2) density evidence (ha-per-household) to calibrate the four archetypes (co-housing 0.05, eco-village 0.5, smallholding 1, dispersed 4+ ha/household). This dataset delivers (1) and explicitly does not deliver (2).

  • Citable typology reference (delivered). The GEN directory is the authoritative, referenceable vocabulary for how sustainable communities are classified: a Rural / Urban / Nomadic setting axis and a 22-tag project-type set (Ecovillage, Cohousing, Eco Community, Permaculture Project, Learning Centre, Eco Farm, …). NI’s four-archetype guide is a coarsening of this scheme; the directory gives it a defensible external anchor and shows the real-world tag distribution (Rural ~87%; Ecovillage 347 / Cohousing 125 among 1,354 listings). It replaces an un-sourced typology assertion with a citable one.
  • NZ archetype placement (delivered, corroboration). GEN independently classifies the wiki’s NZ cases: Earthsong = Urban / Cohousing (the co-housing archetype, 0.05 ha/hh — consistent with its 32 dw / 1.68 ha), Tui and Wilderland = Rural / Ecovillage / Eco Community (the eco-village archetype), and surfaces eight further NZ communities not yet in the wiki — a research lead for the density survey RT_331 still needs.
  • Density evidence (NOT delivered — the open residual). The directory carries no land area, dwelling count, population or coordinate for any project. It cannot supply the ha-per-household figures for Tui (72 ha), Riverside (208 ha) or Wilderland (73 ha), nor an NZ cohousing/ecovillage density survey. Those remain the open part of RT_331 (see below). This is a classification input, not a calculation-cell input: it hardens no NI cost or SSI number, only the typology labels and the B7 limitations-register provenance.

Research targets

Documents to retrieve / gaps

  • RT_331 — ADVANCED (partial), keep OPEN. This source delivers the “citable typology reference” leg RT_331 named (“a url_ capture of the GEN project-type + setting classification (ecovillage.org directory) as the citable typology reference”) — now held as a structured rd_ dataset with the full type/setting/region vocabulary and the 12 NZ listings. It does NOT deliver the density legs: dwelling counts for Tui / Riverside / Wilderland, or an NZ cohousing/ecovillage density survey (the directory has no area/dwelling/population field). Keep RT_331 open, annotated with this source_id; residual = the density data (community site plans / dwelling counts + a density survey) and the McCamant & Durrett cohousing-typology text still listed in its “Source needed” column. Preserve the D04, NI, nz_specific tags.

Research leads surfaced (no new RT — minimise)

  • The directory surfaces eight NZ communities not yet in the wiki (Taiao Ora Farm, Earth Village, Lotus Eco Village, The Black Sheep Animal Sanctuary, Te Manawa Eco village, Kohatu Toa Ecovillage, Awaawaroa Bay Ecovillage, Otamatea Ecovillage). Recorded here as leads for any future NZ case-study or density-survey work; no separate RT minted (they fold into the existing RT_331 density residual rather than proliferating targets).

Retrieval provenance

Retrieved 2026-07-19 by a paginated GET of the GEN WordPress REST API endpoint https://ecovillage.org/wp-json/wp/v2/gen_projects and saved as a single JSON response (self-documenting header keys _source, _endpoint, _retrieved_utc, _record_count, _reported_total, _note). This is a mechanical API dump of an authoritative public directory, not an AI synthesis: every figure on this page was recomputed directly from the saved response (Python json + collections.Counter) and is reproducible. data_quality: verified reflects that end-to-end traceability. The residual accuracy caveat is on the underlying directory, not the extraction: GEN classifications are community self-reported and the directory is a living snapshot (records carry 2026 modified dates), so the tallies describe self-listed GEN communities as at the retrieval date, not a validated census.

Notes

Reference dataset (context: both, type: rd) — feeds the thesis cohousing/GEN-network background AND the NI community-archetype typology (B4a / CTYPES). Single JSON file (1.42 MB, 1,354 records), stored flat and renamed to the page stem (L26); frontmatter sha256 is the digest of that file, SHA-verifiable by L22. Filed under rd_ (not the url_ RT_331 loosely proposed) because the artifact is a structured API dataset, not a saved web page.

Every quantitative claim is recomputed from the raw and carries a reproducible source_location; see Retrieval provenance for the self-report / snapshot / partial-coverage caveats on the underlying directory. The three feeds: case pages (Earthsong, Tui, Wilderland) gain a single independent-classification evidence bullet each (GEN type/setting + member-status) — modest corroboration, not new metrics. ⚠ Watch the duplicate ‘Earthsong’: the NZ one is “Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood” (Urban, GENOA); a separate US “Earthsong” (Rural, GENNA) is a namesake and must not be conflated.

Connections

Referenced by

Cases (3): Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood · Tui Community · Wilderland

Graph View

Backlinks