Person swimming in a rocky river at Edenhope Nature Preserve.

Edenhope Nature Preserve

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Ecological
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 2010

What we do

In one of the wildest and most remote places on earth, we are a community of friends living in harmony with nature on the path of self-realization and mindfulness. Established over a decade ago by Stephen and Ruth Quinto, our community is located in a designated Community Conservation Area on the West Coast of Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu.
Since the origin of the Edenhope projects, the Founders’ dream was to establish a sanctuary in the heart of nature, a community where seekers of truth could congregate and live harmoniously together to contribute to the highest good for mankind.
↠ our daily lives are structured around active community service, mindfulness practices and quiet communion with nature.
↠ we integrate the discipline of meditation into the practicalities of daily life in an off-grid ecovillage
↠ as a group, we are co-creating a field of living awareness that uplifts each & every community member
↠ as an energy management principle, conservation is a way of living without causing or suffering from the impacts of environmental stress, and this principle applies to the community as well as to each individual living here
↠ our ecovillage is located in a registered Conservation Area in the Espiritu Santo Mountain Chain, a globally recognised Biodiversity Hotspot and is the only Nature Preserve that we know of which includes homo sapiens as a protected species.
↠ we follow practices and teachings from traditions that nurture spiritual development
↠ the way of life we offer is profoundly healing & transformative in its simplicity; we are all here to share in the journey of Self-realisation
↠ we offer a sanctuary from the dissonance of the contemporary world with guidance & friendship to support spiritual growth

Our Mission

The purpose of Edenhope Nature is to live in communion and allow it to grow, simply enjoying nature as it is: living in harmony with nature and at peace with the world.
Man as an integral and symbiotic component of nature, neither separate from nor dominating her.

  • Purpose
  • Ecological
  • Community type
  • Ecovillage
  • Commune
  • Activities
  • Farming
  • Education
  • Experiences

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2010
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2010
  • Started living together
  • 3 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
9

How to join

All long-term members of Edenhope Nature Preserve must first undertake a period of up to twelve months as a volunteer. We have a wide range of roles available for volunteers to serve in, so if you have experience in one or more of the below skillsets please let us know as part of your inquiry to us
↠ Organic gardening, permaculture or syntropic agroforestry
↠ Off-grid systems management (solar and micro-hydro power, water supply)
↠ Vehicle maintenance (electric vehicles, ATVs/motorboat)
↠ Carpentry, furniture-making and joinery
↠ Cooking and food preparation
↠ Housekeeping, tidying, and domestic management
↠ Childcare, homeschooling and early learning
↠ Repairs, mending, sewing or crafts
↠ Publicity, digital media and communications
↠ Videography and filmmaking

Basic expectations or agreements for members

We accept visitors on a volunteer basis, as prospective members, or as guests on a retreat program.
We recommend that prospective visitors read through the “stay with us” page on our website for more information on visiting our project: https://www.edenhope.org/stay
All prospective visitors need to fill in the questionnaire form. We will then arrange a video chat to assess compatibility.

Primary decision-making authority

  • Small Leadership Group

A few people (not elected by the broader community) make the major decisions.

Decision-making process

  • Leadership Decides

A single person, couple, or small group makes most major decisions.

Governance structure

  • Founder/Leader-led

Primary authority rests with the community’s founder(s) or designated leader(s).

Economic model

  • Partial Income-Sharing

Members contribute a percentage of income to community funds.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • There is a labor obligation

Additional economic information

Labor: Yes (24 hrs/week)
Edenhope Nature Preserve runs on a service-based economy, meaning that we provide all meals, accommodation for visitors and residents in exchange for community participation and work on our ecovillage.
However, except in special circumstances that we take on a case-by-case basis, we expect anyone coming to stay here in the long-term will have enough savings to cover:
↠ Immigration and visa requirements
↠ Personal travel within Vanuatu and abroad
↠ Medical and dental services (including health insurance)
To meet personal expenses, residents of Edenhope Nature Preserve may work online for around 10 hours per week, as long as their paid work does not interfere with community participation and active service to our projects on the land.
There is also the opportunity to contribute to paid events we are running at the ecovillage, such as events and workshops, that will provide financial support for residents’ livelihoods.

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Garden(s), Greenhouse(s), Vehicle Share, Library, Workshop, Outbuilding(s), Swimming pond or pool, Outdoor Kitchen, Large Scale Kitchen, Fire pit, Waterfront access, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • Approximately all meals

Significant food acquisition practices

  • Locally sourced

Dietary type

  • Vegetarian Only

Dietary restriction

  • These restrictions are throughout the community

Community activities and engagement

  • School, Educational Institute or Experience
  • Volunteer, Internship, or Apprenticeship, or WWOOF’ing
  • WWOOF'ing, Guest Farming
  • Festivals, Conferences, Events

Substance use culture

  • Substance use is prohibited in the community
  • Religions
  • Christian
  • Buddhist
  • Hindu
  • Sufi
  • Wiccan, Paganism, or Earth Religions

Gender composition

  • Roughly balanced (no group over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Multi-generational (all ages well represented)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Land Trust, Home Owners Association, or corporation

Setting

  • Rural

Countryside locations with significant distance from urban centers.

Community type

  • Ecovillage

    Integrated communities designed around ecological principles with sustainable living practices.

  • Commune

    Communal living with shared resources, property, and often income or work responsibilities

Self-produced energy

  • Over 66%

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar
  • Hydro

Self-produced food

  • 33 - 66%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • 33 - 66%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Greenhouse / aquaponics
  • Land area size
    800 hectares

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • Sanma, Vanuatu

Needs and Offers

Offer
  • Communities with Openings
1 month ago

Rooms in Beautiful Location in downtown East Austin

Mountain Laurel House has upcoming room openings on August 1 and September 1 to share our house in central East Austin close to downtown. Rent is $925 per month with $75 to cover your share of the utilities and maintenance. You provide your own food. We enjoy sharing a meal at the dining table at least once a month for fun, to check in on our lives, and talk about housekeeping together. To apply, email do*************@***il.com with subject line Room at Mountain Laurel House. Request the brief application questions and we’ll provide more info and answer your questions. Mountain Laurel House is in a great location! It’s on a green cul de sac, with a wooded lot to the southwest and a green open space to the west. It’s close to the East 11th & Rosewood dining and entertainment district and right across from the Carver Library and a bus stop. We’re in walking distance to downtown Austin, the State Capitol, Huston-Tillotson University and a short bike or bus ride to the University of Texas; and, south or east of here, Lady Bird Lake and Boggy Creek hike and bike trails, park lands, swimming pools, pickleball and basketball courts. I kayak on Town Lake aka Lady Bird Lake or swim just across downtown at Deep Eddy or Barton Springs fresh-water, spring-fed swimming pools. We enjoy sharing a meal at the dining table at least once a month for fun, to check in on our lives, and plan housekeeping together. HEB is a short 5 minute drive east on 7th St. and Whole Foods is about a ten minute walk from here on 5th St. Amenities in the house include a dishwasher, utility room with a clothes washer-dryer and an optional clothesline, high-speed internet, a big dining room table for meals or activities, and a large screen TV for movie nights. The yard has beautiful native wildlife habitat gardens, veggie and herb pots, a large Cedar Elm, two Live Oaks, a fruit-bearing Fig, a Champenelle grape vine, and a Chili pequin. The cul de sac is a large park-like
  • Promoted
Offer
Offer
  • Marketplace
6 years ago

Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves Books for Sale

Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, Charles Durrett and Kathryn McCamant introduce Cohousing with stories and pictures of both Danish and American communities. Beautiful photographs and line drawings illustrate the warmly written account of how these communities came to be. Specific information on legal and financial aspects of working with developers, group process, and design issues make this book informative as well as inspiring. This is the book which brought Cohousing to North America. This book is the much prized second edition which has become a rarer and somewhat of a collectors item. Its community case studies were not included in the more recent publication. It preceded Creating Cohousing which is widely available. I acquired 25 cases from a local distributor who closed down. If you would like three or more copies for yourself, to share with your friends or to market your group, please let me know. I would love for them to be made useful and find great homes. Books are paperback (hard copy was not an option at the time from the publisher) all brand new, in Oakland (CA) so could be picked in Oakland or mailed to you. I would very much like to recuperate what I paid which is $10 per book. So, If you would like three or more shipped, I will add the postage, packing and handling fees. I have sold several cases (18 books per case) for $150 per case ($8 per book). I have a little wiggle room on the pricing. Please let me know if you are interested. Use the Send Message button on this page.
Need
  • Communities with Openings
3 years ago

Twin Oaks, an established, income-sharing, village-scale community is seeking new members

Twin Oaks is looking for new members! Founded in 1967, Twin Oaks is an egalitarian, income-sharing community made currently 70 adults and 15 kids, living on 500 forested acres in central Virginia. Twin Oaks has strong social justice values including feminism, racial justice, and queer culture. We host a Queer Gathering and Women’s Gathering each summer, and we have a number of working groups around racial justice issues in general and in an intentional community context. Please visit our website twinoaks.org for more information and directions on how to apply for a Visitor Period. A Visitor Period is the first step towards becoming a member. We can offer: your choice of full-time work in our income-sharing community businesses (heirloom seeds, hammocks, and others) and/or domestic work areas from organic gardening to milking cows and cheese-making to office work to technical jobs and more! an individual room in shared housing; each member has their own personal bedroom and shares a kitchen, living room and bathroom with others in their house. Each residence has its own culture and range of ages. all meals are provided in our communal dining hall and/or in smaller kitchens for individual eating. We generally accommodate all special diets. (gluten-free, vegan, no garlic, etc.) income-sharing includes health-care and monthly stipend for extra We are looking for: people with various life skills and/or a willingness to learn people who share our values of social justice, sustainability and living closely with a diversity of people people with a generally responsible and pro-active approach to community living experience or interest in non-hierarchical, shared decision-making BIPOC, women and non-binary people especially encouraged The first step towards becoming a member is to participate in one of

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