Homesteaders

Contribution Agreements

The Proposed Belize EcoVillage Project Contribution Agreements are going to be as follows. Each of the 50-70 homesteads, will be 20 Hectares, or about 49.42 acres. Each Homesteading family will be expected, to make a contribution pledge of BZ $19,768 which is the equivalent of only $9,884.

US Dollars are always worth exactly twice as much, as the Belize Dollar, and that is what most of us will be bringing down with us into Belize, where it an be exchanged for Belize Dollars.

In recognition of their fair share Contribution Pledge having been made, each Homesteader will then be assigned one of the homesteads for life, which can then be left to the next generation, but which cannot ever be sold.

We are going to be holding the EcoVillage in common, in the form of a ring of homesteads that will flow like a river all around the 1000 acre Howler Monkey Core Preserve, in the form of a not for profit association, that all falls within an even larger Howler Preserve, that will be 9,884 acres.

Earth Homes

The Number of Dwellings, will be directly related, to the number of homesteads, since we will only allow people to have a maximum of 2 dwellings per homestead.

One would be the Main Home, of up to 2,000 square feet in size, of possibly Rammed Earth Construction, or better, and that will be built in the center of each Five Acre Home Zone, which is going to be right along the road, and across from that Home Zone will be a beautiful view right across the Core Howler Preserve.

The Main Home is to be built right on the center line of the Homestead, for optimal spacing from the road and from the Howlers and from each other, which is important, because right across that road is the Core Preserve.

The other possible dwelling, would be the chance to have One Cabin as well, for some of your friends to stay at, of up to 700 square feet in size, which would be centered at another 100 feet back, behind the Main Home, or 250 feet back from the road way, and on the center line for optimal spacing, and that will all be built in accordance, with natural low impact building methods.

We will use locally available materials, probably out of Rammed Earth, as a demonstration of ecological living, and building with whatever doesn't require that much in the way of manufactured goods, which create pollution and need to be shipped around, and that burns energy, and so every building material has a carbon footprint, and an ecological footprint, and an embedded energy footprint that we always want to minimize.

Counsensus Council

Water and sewage will have to be composted, and put back into the Earth, in a respectful manner, which eliminates any possibility, of having any adverse impacts, upon water quality downstream, and the same will be true about the grey water systems, and the disposal of waste, that it will need to be composted and dug into the gardens.

What happens to a homestead, when somebody dies, is that it would be left to their resident children, or other significantly involved person, who they have chosen, and who has gained the approval of council, or if not, then it would be deemed, to have been left to the community itself, which is the preferred way to go.

What would then happen is that it could be reassigned, by the community, to another prospective family, but the understanding would be, that none of it, would ever be for sale, by the homesteaders, whose ownership, is to be subordinate to the community, which in turn is subordinate to the nation of Belize, in all legal respects, which will be governed, by a consensus council of all homesteaders.

When someone abandons a homestead, then we the community will reclaim possession and management of that homestead so that it does not ever become a problem for the nation of Belize to have to repossess it due to abandonment or to find a new homesteader as we would prefer to manage the property and set it up with new people.

Collective Management

All ownership issues will be controlled and all issues will be decided by the Community Council, which will make it impossible for someone next door, for instance, to just move away, and to sell their homestead, to some complete strangers, that may not really have the kindly spirit of contribution, and collaboration, to Save the Earth, that is needed in any community, and that is why this is very different, from just being another housing development.

We are not just buying land in the usual sense of the word. We are joining a community. When people leave, the land stays in the hands of the community, just like it would have been among the ancient Maya, when somebody leaves, they don't get to take one of the pyramids with them, and this is a land, with Maya ruins scattered all over the place, and we all have to respect those places.

We intend to limit most of our land use to the Five Acre Home Zones, in order to protect the forests around us, and the watershed, and the reason why the Homesites, are set so far back from the road, is to protect the purity of the waters in the rivers downstream, and to make sure that all the homesteaders do the job right, and don't just park themselves right on the road, which would be just way too close to the Howlers Core Preserve.

Paying Your Dues

Each person, over the age of 18, when they do have a job working for the community, will be paid a minimum of BZ $ 6. an hour, which is the standard minimum wage and it is our general pay scale, no matter what kind of work they may be doing, and we will all have to pay BZ $ 20. Monthly, in Maintenance Fees, which is only ten dollars a month, in US currency, but that is per person and not per homestead.

We don't just work for the money, as that is just to have a way to keep some track of the flow of resources so that everything stays in direct connection with the natural exchange of nutrients and resources, as much as possible, and to keep our own local economy self sufficient and less subject to Global Economic Disturbances.

The Honor System is actually just there so we will always have a back up plan for when the natural sharing and caring does not seem to be working.

All people, over the age of 18, in the community, and not just the Primary Homesteaders, will be expected to perform one day of community service work for the community, each week. If they choose not to perform that community service work, they will have to pay the equivalent in wages for that, based on the standard pay scale, for all work done in the community, whether skilled or unskilled.

Community Service

What people will have to pay ,for any non performance of the community service work, whether it be elective or by accident, will be BZ $ 48. for every week that was missed, and that is actually, just the exact equivalent of 24 dollars a week in US currency, but Belize Currency will always be the preferred currency, in all transactions involving the community.

That's about all it takes to stay in good standing, within the community, just to keep your community service work done, or paid for, and your maintenance fees, which are not much, but still need to be kept all paid up or you could lose your homestead, in which case the community would then have the right to re-assign that to some other worthy homesteader.

But these are small amounts of money that amount to being the equivalent of half a days work per month that we are talking about, and the work should not be a problem since we have no central industry that we would need workers for, so you will just be on duty, for the most part, helping out on projects and showing some of the new people around.

Ecological Conditions

If a person must leave during the first 3 years, they may get half of the Contribution Pledge back, if they are in good standing, and have stated their intentions to find a replacement homesteader, who can come through with the full replacement amount, within the first year.

That will be subject to the approval of the community, by a three quarters consensus of the council, and then they will have the other two years or so to find a good replacement, but no selling is allowed, so they cannot pay you for that.

We are asking the Belize Government to kindly cough up the money to build us a truly fine dirt road, about ten miles long, right up the side of Indian Creek, which we would like to see back from the creek as much as 100 feet if possible, just to protect the water quality from any adverse effects that could be caused by having the road be too close to the water, and that road which is a natural to provide any kind of access to the naturally high plateaus of the Central and the Palmer Camp areas.

That will take us right to the edge, of the larger preserve area, that we have talked about, which is 7.7 Kilometers long and 5.2 kilometers wide, or about 15 square miles, but we would like to insist, that we would like to build the last 3 or 4 miles of road in, from that point on, just so that we can do our part. Everything else, will be left to the Homesteaders, to put in their own driveways, or pathways, and to build their own homes.

This Unique Watershed

Each homesteader will have to sign a legal document, that basically contains all of these agreements, signifying that they are in agreement, with all of these terms, before we can assign them to a named and numbered homestead, which will probably start all the way in as deep as we can go, to begin with.

Then we would probably want to work our way out from there, as we curve our way through the slopes of this unique watershed, in peace and solidarity, and so in this way you really can pick your neighbors, just by agreeing to sign up all at the same time, and to go down on the books, in whatever order you may wish

The limitations of the number of Homes and Cabins and the spacing within the One Acre Living Circles, is only to protect the unique nature of the land, and the forests, and to protect the wildlife habitat, and to spread out the human impact, that we always want to keep very minimal.