More and more people around the world can no longer afford to live in cities. Together with friends they are looking for alternatives in the countryside where land is still affordable. Talented and highly motivated by a vision of an environmentally friendly, sustainable and self-sufficient life models they want to become micro producers or creating different forms of eco villages to build their own future, but they mostly just lack the money for the initial investments.
At the same time, the world is suffering from global deforestation, over-fertilization and the excessive use of pesticides by huge, industrial monocultures and the associated devastation and desertification of millions of hectares of fertile soil. Vital ecosystems that provided basic human needs are threatened by overloading of groundwater with nitrates and other toxins, species and insect extinctions, forest dieback, and the overturning of entire rivers and lakes into dead waters. The consequences are devastating and leading to global drastic climate change with weather extremes such as heat and drought on one side and heavy rains and floods on the other. The climate worldwide is starting to run amok.
One day, when friends in Uruguay asked me for financial help for an ecovillage project, I saw an opportunity to fill this gap and build a bridge for the many other like-minded people in Europe and across the world, who have the same dream: a life in harmony with nature with sustainable agricultural projects ranging organic farming, permaculture, food reforestation to fully off grid, self-sufficient eco-villages with ecotourism and other concepts to make an independent living. So together with some friends we bought 45 hectares of land in Uruguay.
Marcus Vetter – co-founder
The refugee crisis and climate change are among the most burning and polarizing issues of our time. I was first able to see how interconnected they are through the film HUNGER, which I made for ARD together with SZ journalist Karin Steinberger in 2008. At that time, we traveled for half a year through Mauritania, Kenya, India, Brazil and Haiti to understand the causes of HUNGER. In India, we met relatives of farmers who took their own lives with pesticides because they had become heavily indebted to genetically manipulated seeds. In Brazil, we drove for miles through soy monocultures and witnessed the deforestation of the gigantic rainforest. And then in Haiti, we were able to experience what happens to a country when it has no forest at all. The small farmers, who could no longer feed themselves from their fields, first became charcoal burners, and when the last tree was cut down, they ended up in the slums of Port au Prince, often unable to afford anything but mud pies.
When the overexploitation of natural resources exceeds the rate of regeneration in the long run, societies collapse – as once happened to the civilizations of the Easter Islands, the Mayas in Yucatán or the ancient Mesopotamians. In all degraded societies, collapse is preceded by a long period of high deforestation rates, which subsequently leads to complete degradation of the land. Exactly what we are facing now in a global scale.
On our trip, we encountered people who often had to walk miles to find the last stands of trees for their firewood or to get a small amount of drinking water. The statement of the Indian human geneticist Dr. Suman Sahai, whom we visited in India, is almost prophetic from today’s perspective. “One day, when all these people have nothing left to cook, they will leave for Europe in large numbers. Because they have nothing left to lose but their lives.”
7.5 billion people live on Earth. With the justification of having to feed all these people, multinational companies have destroyed entire rainforests to make way for huge monoculture plantations. After only a few years, these fields left behind depleted and salinized soils whose life span was only artificially extended by pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Huge areas of forest, the lungs of the earth, thus became desert. People lost their habitat and fled to the cities.
Eco-villages and alternative forms of agriculture could lead the way as beacon projects, showing that it is possible not only to live with and from nature without destroying it, but at the same time to restore the biodiversity that will be needed to bring the planet back into balance. But many of such started projects have failed in the past because they were too extreme and apodeictic in their philosophy and therefore appealed only to a certain group of people.
One project I visited in Portugal in 2021 suffered from similar problems, launched by crypto millionaires without involving the local population. Other, initially more successful smaller projects often fail or have to fight long battles due to existing regulations and laws, which are mainly designed for the industrial exploitation of food production or the lack of political support through subsidies or fundings.
Therefore, when I was approached by my friends in Uruguay about the idea, the first requirement was met for me. It had to be a local project and the people themselves already had the same vision to build a life in harmony with nature and not against it. It was a sign of the times for me and I decided to join and help shape the project and accompany our common journey with the camera.
We have already ordered and received the first wind turbines, water pumps and hydro generators to make the place energy self-sufficient. We have built the first roads to develop and access the land. Over the next years we will show that it is possible to live together with nature in a sustainable way and make a living without destroying the very land you live on.
The 45-hectare land is close to Minas, one of the bigger cities in Uruguay, and 90min away from Punta del Este, an important city and seaside resort on the Atlantic Coast of southeastern Uruguay as from the capital Montevideo and the international airport. The land we purchased is in plain nature with a river, small lakes, forestry, two small mountains, and soil that has never seen pesticides. The previous owners were running the land with its small „posada“ named “EL ABRA” for nature-loving tourists, who found there heaven on earth. For more than 30 years they had horses and other animals and provided home grown food for their guests. However, as the couple grew older they decided to sell their property and retire. Inspired by their dream, we decided to split the project into four phases:
Phase 1: Find and purchase the land and build a fully self-sustainable energy and water infrastructure
Phase 2: Expand the eco-tourism project with restaurants and clay house accommodations to create a basic source of income
Phase 3: Converting the land into a self-sufficient and sustainable agriculture project with sustainable and self-sufficient food production based on organic gardening, permaculture, food forestry and species-appropriate livestock farming
Phase 4: Turn the place into a small eco village community hosting up to 50 people in the first stage
After finding and acquiring a plot of land that met our needs and was suitable for the realization of our vision, we first developed the land by building roads to a variety of already planned areas so that we could start building an energy and water infrastructure for a 100% off-grid energy supply from wind, solar and hydro power.
In addition to an already installed solar system for the house, the focus is on a sustainable combination of various renewable energy sources and energy storage systems to provide electricity for various residences and workplaces in the future.
The wind conditions on the property are ideal for wind turbines, as the constant winds ensure a consistent basic supply both during the day and at night. In the first phase, we are building a total of 3 wind turbines with a production capacity of 10 kilowatts each.
In addition, we are building a dam on one of the mountains with a capacity of one million liters of water. We will be using water pumps fed by the energy from the wind turbines, to pump the abundant river water onto one of the two 100-meter-high hills, creating lakes that serve as a battery unit and use hydropower to keep the energy supply stable at peak times.
The lake landscape that will be created on the mountain plateau will additionally be used as a recreational and leisure place with breathtaking views, but also for fish farming and as a water reservoir from which the entire 45 hectares can be fed, creating new lakes, pools, rivulets that together form a water cycle from which flora, fauna, animals, people and the various agricultural projects will benefit.
Main focus in phase 2 is the expansion of the existing „posada“ for about 20 guests, with restaurant, beer garden, small shopping store, several saunas, spa, community room with billiards, table football, table tennis, open-air cinema, i.e. In the restaurant/posada there will be fast internet via satellite which will be connected to other parts of the venue in a second phase. A road network of gravel roads connects the posada with the two small mountains, other hiking trails in the natural forest will give the tourists the opportunity to explore the extensive nature with medicinal herbs, mushrooms and wildlife.
In several places distributed on the 45 hectares there will be other accommodation facilities build in wild nature. These are yurts, log cabins or so-called “domes” with windows through which you can see the starry sky at night or rural houses built of clay with integrated greenhouses. These additional overnight accommodations will be connected to electricity and water. Candles, fairy lights, and fireplaces are also intended to give vacationers an unforgettable experience in the great outdoors, yet at any time they have the opportunity to swim in the lakes, go hiking, horseback riding, take a sauna, enjoy a meal in a restaurant or beer garden, watch movies in an open-air cinema, and simply meet other people. These „yurts“, „domes“, or rural clay houses will also offered to those who want to take part in the project either as mere investors or also with the intention of maybe forming part in the future project by contributing certain skills in permaculture, medicine, nursing, construction, administration, tourism or whatever a future eco village may need to exist in a viral way.
In the second phase such potential investors could invest in the building of such yurts, domes or clay houses and rent them out for tourism. Our team would do all the administration in exchange for a fee of for example 30%. So the potential investor would have a chance to form part of the project without yet having to decide to maybe live there partly in the future, but to earn already a decent yield on the initial investment. The project is expected to earn its initial funds through tourism. In a second phase out of all the efforts a sort of eco village will evolve with each future inhabitant having the possibility to create his own permaculture garden and in coordination with the other villagers, create a self-sufficient place with a diverse offer of agricultural products, which can either be exchanged/traded within the village community or sold by an own buying community on markets in Minas or Punta del Este or directly to restaurants and hotels. This way agricultural products produced beyond self-sufficiency can be distributed through a buying group, and not everyone has to worry about selling and marketing themselves.
into self-sufficient and sustainable agriculture project with food production based on organic gardening, permaculture, food forestry and species-appropriate livestock farming
The posada itself will operate its own parma-culture garden, and keep animals such as chickens, runner geese, ducks, sheep, goats as well as cows, horses and donkeys. These are part of a healthy perma-culture system, and can also provide therapeutic services. Moreover, these animals will be an attraction for every tourist. In addition, a publicly accessible food forest will be created, providing a permanent supply of forest fruits, berries, medicinal herbs and mushrooms for everyone, tourists and residents alike.
Over time additional agricultural businesses that commit to farming on permaculture principles and organic gardening, other professions will emerge, such as bakers, naturopaths, supplement producers, therapists, riding instructors, cooks, carpenters, mud builders, and much more.
hosting up to 50 people and implementing further income-generating ideas
In the fourth phase of the project a village community of like-minded people may come in existence in parallel with the tourism operation. In order to make such a place attractive also in winter, when fewer tourists come, it would be desirable if at the end at least 150 people would live permanently in EL ABRA. But it could also be up to 500 people. Because the more people there are who share this place, the more worthwhile it would be to build a kinder-garden or even a small school. The next public school for children from the age of 4 years on is just 7 kilometers away. A public transportation system to the city of Minas, which is only 30 minutes away and is supported by everyone, would then also suddenly pay off. In order to acquire land in EL ABRA, we will find out which legal form is best for it. One possibility is to make it in the form of a “Barrio privado”, which is known in Uruguay. This way every buyer would have the possibility to register his piece of land in the land register and also to bequeath it. The administration in turn would manage the housing project through a monthly contribution, provide electricity, water, sewage and expand as needed.
The better known and more popular the project becomes, the more the value of an investment in the “Barrio privado” can increase. Also, the brand “45 hectares of paradise” can be of great value for all the professions in the village. We could sell products in an online sales system through a common platform and thus everyone would benefit from the visibility of this project. Later, some kind of Mayo clinic and a home for the elderly could be added. For the elderly they could teach in school, take care of children, help in agriculture, and at the same time enjoy the security of always being able to fall back on care in case of emergency.
In the future, a barter currency could be introduced in the form of a two-tier system in which both fiat money and the barter currency are accepted. This could take the form of a stable coin pegged 1:1 to the USD or the Uruguayan peso, or a EUROWEG account, a Swiss accounting system based on barter principles that can be introduced anywhere in the world.
The list of possible activities that could add to a viral village society could go on and on. It all depends in the people who form part in the project that should consist of Uruguayans in the first place but also people from all over the world. A lot of similar projects are often closed colonies where only internationals from certain countries are living. This in our opinion should be avoided at all costs. We envision the place with all the benefits of a village, open minded, no dogmas, no gurus or leaders, with a culture of curiosity and most importantly the acceptance of different opinions. We think that the structure of a village has survived thousands of years, that’s why we think it could be the best structure also for this place. Village dwellers decide on their own how much they want to form part in the community, but the more diverse the skills and professions of the people that form part of this community are, the stronger the community will become and the greater the chances will be that the place will become really self-sufficient. A village advisory group makes sure that certain principles that have to be set from the start are being respected.
– Dr Howard Thurman
Be part of this exciting start-up phase from the very beginning or wait until our infrastructure is completed. It’s an exciting time with a good team of energised and highly motivated people to work with, and you get to be part of putting in place a new and exciting project as well as be early in picking your section. We are offering several options from land plots in different sizes, including building options for housing and much more. Contact us and send us an application with more informations about you, your motivations and your dreams.
Currently, we are still building up initial sources of income for our team and are not yet in a position to create permanent jobs. Of course, we have a great need for various professional groups such as engineers, organic farmers, craftsmen and permaculture designers. Regardless, any helping hand is welcome who shares our dream and vision of a sustainable future. We are looking forward to your application.
We are looking for investors who want to invest in something that will be a secure and save place for you, your family and friends in the turbulent times ahead. We are offering several different investment opportunities including different shares in the land and food production, land plots for small and bigger projects within the eco-village and other open options. Your investment will help us to convert the land into regenerative solutions such as organic and forest gardens, pecies-appropriate livestock farming which regenerate the environment and produce organic, high value food for the community. Contact us for more information.