Thu, 19 Mar 09 23:44:52 +0000 jeff buderer:

Franz thanks for this opportunity to comment. I feel it is encouraging that you have developed this link. If you like I could post this also on the Global Villages Discussion Group.

My thoughts are that we need to consider the political situation in Russia and the general policies that we are putting forward as members of Global Villages and that of the governments at the national, state and regional/local levels. The political challenges in Russia provide a unique opportunity and insight.

I am wondering though specifically how we address the core of idea which is localization and local empowerment. Is the government at the state level friendly to this? If so it seems like it would contradict the national authorities who seem quite committed to a top down approach. Clarification on this matter would be useful.

I do feel it is very positive that there is some government links and that it is important that we have a dialog with them. However I need to understand a little bit better their motivation and interest as I dont feel on a general scale that Russians or at least the Russian government has not been very conscious about environmental awareness in relation to development. I did considerable research on the environmental disasters in Russia such as Aral Sea, Lake Baykai and a sizable Russian city that had to evacuated due to Nuclear contamination from a weapons plant.

Yet it is possible we can make the case for an innovative package of approaches to promote sustainable economic development with the idea of building sustainable human habitats along the lines of what I put forward here: arcopedia.netcipia.net/xwiki/bin/view/Main/sustainable+habitats

So really the opportunity is to access this already somewhat developed network and provide a chance to learn about what is being done in Russia and also an opportunity for Russians to learn of what various Global Villages and networks are doing around the world to become more sustainable.

Gleb seems to have highly developed ideas about sustainability. I am wondering if we could take an opportunity to consider what now exists in his network in terms of evaluating the region and current projects that could be seen as moving towards more sustainable habitat creation. Particularly I think it is important that we have an overview of the general statistics of the regions, the challenges as well as opportunities and existing inspirational projects.

What do we expect from each other in terms of working together?