2024 Bioregional Global Earth Day Mini-Festival in Alunisu village

Celebration! This one strong impulse brought together in the village of Alunisu, commune of Sâncraiu, more than 70 participants from all places and communities of Tara Calatei – Kalotaszeg to a first gathering of organisations, initiatives and active people in regenerating our bioregion, promoting agroecology and a natural and peaceful living.

At the initiative of three regional associations, ALPA – Land for Life, Provision Transylvania and Târnaț-Kalotaszeg Durabil we celebrated during 20-21 April our wonderful Planet Earth, the rich natural and social diversity of our bioregion, jointly highlighting all what we love and steward in our surroundings and living cultural territories. We also shared engaging ideas about future actions that would regenerate our bioregion, re-localise its economy and safeguard its biodiversity and landscapes.

A visual outline of these very creative talks can be seen in the linked MIRO board.

We tailored an interactive program engaging all participants into creative discussions in revolving groups facilitated by our friend Agnes Balázsi from Realign to Nature, fire talks where participants hopping on a stage had the chance to present their work, aspirations, ideas or simply share what they love and cherish in their life and daily work. It was wonderful to hear the languages of Romanian, Hungarian and English flowing together in one understanding about the importance of our work and responsibility of our joint actions.

Participants “nailed” where they are based on a giant map of Tara Calatei – Kalotaszeg and contribute to what became a very long and rich pot-luck table filled with local both vegetarian and meaty dishes, cheeses and jams, fresh bread and vegetables, sweet and savoury cookies. We also enjoyed together a fire-cooked gulyas stew while listening to the old Chinese story of “Cooking the Stone Soup”, feeling grateful about the culinary diversity we managed to create together.

There were premiers too! ALPA screened for the first time its documentary “Land for Life” and participants got immersed into the vision and mission of our organisation concluding with the joint realisation that safeguarding and stewarding lands for agroecology, biodiversity conservation and bioregional regeneration lies at the forefront of our collective struggle.

We draw some very engaging conclusions from our event, that promises to be the first of many to come in the future!

Here follow some of the main outcomes of our very rich and inspiring collective brain storm sessions.

What unites us? What do we love about our region?

Socially? Conviviality with nature; Simple, natural living rooted in peasant knowledge and rurality; Multicultural communities where new-rurals are welcomed; Sense of freedom and peace;
Economically? Production and distribution of localised food; Local market from Huedin; Tourism opportunities and developed public infrastructure; Local and direct economy (labor, produce exchanges);
Ecologically? The richness of the natural biodiversity; Living landscapes; The abundance of clean air, waters and seasonality;
Culturally? Traditional peasant communities and their gastronomy, hospitality and simple lifestyle; The sustainable skills of local communities in farming, clothing, crafts and arts; The infusion of world culture into our bioregion through the music, arts, (agri)cultural practices of its newcomers to these territories.

What if, from tomorrow we will…

Create and maintain local food chains based around agroecological farmers, local territorial farmers markets,
Set up processing units for grains, vegetable and fruits managed in cooperation by local farmers;
Build a training and cultural center for sharing the knowledge and practice of agroecology, crafts, natural building and awareness from the present to future generations of our bioregion;
Enter into a joint, direct and constructive dialog with local, regional authorities and policy-makers on all social, ecological, cultural and economic debates and plans that shape our bioregion and future conviviality.
Develop sustainable tourism opportunities that would showcase and respect the biodiversity, landscapes and cultural unicity of our bioregion;

The first day ended with music, singing and dancing, celebrating our community of communities. A number of people spend the night in Alunisu and were also present during the second day, while also new participants joint us. We continued our program with a workshop led by Agnes Balázsi on Econnections, a second screening of the ALPA documentary Land for Life and a visit to the embroidery treasures of the Alunisu community and more engaging discussions.

We are very happy with this first edition of the Bioregional Global Earth Day Mini-Fest and be able to unite and celebrate our bioregion in its rich natural and cultural diversity, feeling hopeful about our future and determined to act from the grassroots of our initiatives.