Saving the collective space of the communities from Los Saltamontes

  • Backers

    22

  • Funded

    1.140 €

  • Stage goal

    11.500 €

Added value for the environment

The project saves or improves the areas of ...

human

ground, water, air

climate

animals and plants

biodiversity

material and cultural assets

energy and use of resources

Resources used

The resources used are ...

produced sustainably

eco-certified

fair-trade

of regional origin

used efficiently

recycled, upcycled

renewable (e.g. energy)

This self-assessment by the project starter serves as a decision support for the crowd. Not all criteria must be met, but all alternatives should be considered.

Summary

We are raising money to buy and develop a piece of land in the centre of our off grid community. We are already using the land as a cultural and social centre, permaculture garden and living space.

Description

We are the people of Los Saltamontes, Andalucia. An unintentional off-grid community of families, individuals and households. We are artists, musicians, eco-gardeners, craftspeople, midwives, doulas, healers, activists and much more.
We are united by a wish to pursue a healthier lifestyle, in harmony with nature and in true freedom.
We are raising money to buy and develop a piece of land in the centre of our community. We are already using the land as a cultural and social centre, permaculture garden and living space. It is currently for sale and we want to preserve and develop it for the people of our community. We have already raised nearly half the money needed and are seeking help to fund the rest of the purchase and invest in our future sustainability. Specifically renewable energy, water conservation, farming for self sufficiency, flood defence and reforestation/re-greening of flood damaged areas.

Our long term objectives include:

Total food security: self-sufficiency of vegetables and fruits through our own
production and networks with other small scale producers.

Zero grid dependence: including decentralized energy production with
solar, wind and hydroelectric energy systems; rainwater harvesting
and water purification systems.

Building and strengthening wider community networks to increase individual and collective autonomy. For example supporting local free, democratic education projects and homeschooling networks to widen the choices of parents both here and in our wider community.
This crowdfunding campaign is focused specifically on a piece of land which is our community space. Central to the community, both geographically and symbolically, it is divided into 3 distinct areas:
The CAN
The Collective Garden and
The Co-Living-Space

The CAN is a covered area for our social center, performance and art space as well as communal kitchen. Where we gather to organize, discuss, share and celebrate. A place for local markets where natural and artisan products can be exchanged.
Self-organized classes happen regularly as well as a meeting for collective shopping in a biological cooperative.
It is also place where Grassroot-Initiatives can meet, organize and establish more networking between each other. In the future we will host weekends where Grassroot-Initiatives present themselves in front of an audience of interested people who have the opportunity to get to know the initiative, supuport it in different ways and to create their own initiatives by using the expertise of the already existing
ones.
Attached to the communal space is our music bus. An old Bedford coach which before arriving in Southern Spain travelled all over Europe in the 90s as part of the legendary Desert Storm soundsystem. After overheating in the hot Spanish sun it came to rest here in 1998.
20 years on in 2018 we cleared it out and began using it as a jam/rehearsal space. Numerous local bands now use it to practice each week. Through our own investment and support and donations from our surrounding community, it has evolved to open out into a solar powered live stage. Our open mic/jam nights are the stuff of local legend and were regularly blessed by performers from all over the world.

The Collective Garden
Agriculture, and the principles of permaculture are ingrained in our way of life here. For many years we
have created our own small, individual gardens and swapped veg and shared meals with each other. In March 2020, along with most of Europe we went into lockdown. We’re lucky to live in a very fertile area where agriculture has been the predominant industry for centuries. However, with an uncertain global future we were forced to reassess our own food security and realised we had to organise and look at ways to diversify and improve our growing potential. We initiated a number of shared farming projects, the largest of which is our communal veg garden. Situated in the centre of this piece of land, one year and a lot of work later it is a thriving garden providing fresh fruit and veg for us and our neighbours. It’s also a great place to get the wider community, especially kids involved in growing food, connecting with the land and getting muddy!

The co-living area
The back end of the land is where some of us live in trucks and caravans, with a central communal building which is also used as an art space for both residents and local kids.


All areas of the land are organized in a Grassroots-Demoiracy,
which also means no hierarchies, no accumulated power in the hands of
a few people, no masters and no servants

What is the funded money used for?

1.000 € Electronical equipment for the musical development of everyone who is interested
500 € Building material, e.g. second hand wood for the living area and the communal kitchen
1.500 € Solar batteries and a converter for the CAN area
500 € Alberca for water storage
5.000 € The use of a digger to create a riverbank of circa 200*10*3 meters (length*width*hight)
11.500 € Buying the property

The owner of the land, who has kindly allowed the land to be used despite
not living here for over 10 years, has decided to sell. Losing this land means we would loose the heart piece of the Saltamontes network, the place where we can meet and organize ourselves. Because it is located in the central section of our wider community area, if it were to be bought by someone from outside the community for their own
use, it would create a barrier between the other various surrounding
pieces of land, literally splitting the community apart.
We need to raise 20,000€ asap to purchase the land as a collective. So far
we have 8,500 of our own money to put towards this.
When we purchase the land, we would like to take it off the capital market so
it cannot be sold anymore and stays in the hands of the network to be kept forever and to prosper.
There are also a number of projects we would like to initiate to make the most of the land. We are confident that with funding, we can complete these projects within

The CAN

– Upgrading our solar system. We’re very proud to be able
to power all our events and practice sessions without firing up a
generator, but in order to continue doing this we need new batteries
and a new-charge controller/inverter.

– Fitting a new kitchen.
Last year we built an extension to house our new kitchen, but the
inside is yet to be completed. Were pretty resourceful and able to
recycle and repurpose all sorts of found materials, but we will need
some financial input along the way.

– Fixing and maintaining equipment.
From cables to the mixing desk, amps speakers and instruments, regular use puts a lot of wear on our equipment and we are constantly fixing things. We could also do with a new mixing desk, a decent keyboard, a guitar amp and a couple of PA speakers.

The Collective garden

Water storage. Water is an issue here in southern Spain. Here in Granada we benefit from an ancient moorish irrigation system, the acequias. But getting water to the land is tricky especially in the hot summer months when the river dries. We plan to build an ‘alberca’ which will provide us with 15000 liters of water storage, giving us the security to establish trees and grow more (as well as a pool to cool off in the hot summer months!).

Tree planting. We currently have a number of established almond trees, a fig tree and a couple of olive trees. We would like to also grow some citrus, avocados, walnuts, pecans; alongside more edible shrubs and other vegetables, as well as herbs using different layers, following the idea of an aggro-forest with the aim to help nature recover and grow more food to support ourselves and the wider community.

Communal living area

We would like to build a new house in
the living area to increase our capacity so we can welcome visitors.
We are very well versed in building with little money, harvesting
timber from local, coppiced forests and recycling found materials,
but this project will require some financial input too.

Flood defense

We live in an area which is affected by
occasional flooding. The moors built incredible, extensive flood defense walls and terraced fields which kept the river in its course
and also allowed their lower terraces to be flooded, depositing the rich, fertile river silt as top soil. Sadly this wisdom and ingenuity has not been valued by the modern world. The walls were not
maintained and allowed to crumble and be slowly taken by the river. And since the Franco era, the riverbed has been aggressively mined for stone and sand, making us even more vulnerable to flood damage.

3 years ago we lost some land at the front of the property. We are in the process of reclaiming it and strengthening it by planting fast growing, deep rooting trees such as eucalyptus and willow, and
vetiver. Vetiver is a grass which forms dense root systems 3 to 4 meters deep it is used as a flood barrier in many parts of the world, and grows well here. This ties in with a wider ecological project to
reclaim and re-green large areas of neighboring land which has been left barren by flood damage.

Afforestation

Reviving the lost land. Important soil and planting material were lost due to the
flood, so that the soil remains partially barren and stony. As part of a large-scale reforestation program, we will regain the lost lands by reviving them by planting local trees and other crops that cover the ground.

The money raised with the initial phase of EcoCrowd will be prioritized for buying the land because that is essential. If the stage of 11.500€ is not reached, we would invest the already raised money plus our own group finances of 8.500€ to put a deposit on the land. The rest we would get possibly through foundations where a friend organization could apply.

Why is the project an EcoCrowd project?

We believe in the power of community, the idea that we can achieve more by working together underpins our way of life. As well as strengthening our immediate, local community, this means looking outwards and connecting with others around the world so that we can support and learn from each other.
By engaging with the eco-crowd network, our hope is to gain more than just money, we also want to create links with other projects, communities and individuals.

Tell us something about yourself.

We are a small group within the free communities of Los Saltamontes and we have made it our mission to save the heart of these communities. We feel responsible for this because we recognize the purpose of the community space and have realized how essential it is as a nucleus for the network. Our small group consists of craftsmen, musicians, artists, permaculture farmers and political activists. Some members have been living here for over a decade, in neighboring communities.

Thank you for your attention! We, the people of Las Saltamontes , very much hope that the square can be saved in order to maintain a truly free, just and wild lifestyle and to call it out into the world as a holistic alternative to the increasingly obvious problems of neo-capitalism .

Sincerely, Tim, Lukas, Alfi, Morton, Ara, Vici, Lolo, Paul and Roberto.

Cheers to the international solidarity. For a life of love, freedom and justice. Thank-you!

We are the future, because ...

as we witness the death throes of modern global capitalism and prepare for the resulting fallout, it is our firm belief that the ONLY future for humanity is in small scale, grassroots organization and localised, ethical economics which value the earth over money.
This is the microcosm we are constantly creating and reinventing here, equipping ourselves, and
more importantly, our children with the tools to navigate an uncertain future, both for ourselves and the world.

Einzelunternehmer

Waltershausen, DE

Sandor Foglszinger

Kernen, DE

Holger Bär

Kasendorf, DE

QueeRoland
SnackAttack- Solidarity Kitchen Berlin

H, DE

QueeRoland
SnackAttack- Solidarity Kitchen Berlin

H, DE

Nikola Buric

Bern, CH

Vitalij Holzwart

Offenau, DE

Emilia Paar

Berlin, DE

Finanzbüro

Gotha, DE

Lukas Hackl

Berlin, DE

Judy Schockt

Berlin, DE

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