Diversity is a core characteristic of healthy ecosystems. To protect and restore bio-cultural diversity, OAEC supports diverse communities to design their own regenerative systems at the regional and local scale.
OAEC is a resiliency demonstration site, modeling dozens of practical, personal and community-scale solutions to common challenges around the sustainable management of soil, water, food production, the restoration and preservation of biological and cultural diversity, and more effective ways to self-govern and manage economy.
The transition to a just and sustainable economy will only be achieved if more individuals become ecologically literate change makers dedicated to ecological justice.
OAEC strives to achieve a “social change multiplier effect” by training and building the capacity of whole communities to become more effective agents of rapid change. We work to foster ecological literacy and to empower diverse communities – schools, local governments, public agencies, foundations, environmental and social justice organizations, farms and ranches, and policy coalitions – to design their own strategies to create the just transition towards a more regenerative culture and economy.
Example: Resilient Community Design >
We work to legalize and require sustainable economy, and to make illegal and dis-incentivize activities that subvert it. Sometimes on our own, but most often through broader advocacy alliances, we seek to change policy in the arenas of governance in which we are most likely to succeed – a city or county council, school board, water agency, or state legislature or agency – on issues that are ripe for change and move us toward a just and sustainable future.
Example: California Decentralized Water Policy Council >