On the trip to Transition Town in Fujino, Japan, participants visit Ms. Koyama at her eco-friendly home.
She designed the home, and the community helped build it.
Twelve participants, including PCD team members and partners,
join forest restoration activities organised by Transition Japan.
When Hidetake Enomoto — everyone calls him Hide — first initiated the Transition Town (TT) or Transition Movement in Japan, his concept was to create "an enabling society for people to reach their full potential". He thought the Movement could help redress the unsustainable development and other socioeconomic problems of the over-dependency on external resources. Hide had lived at Findhorn Ecovillage in the UK, and had visited the TT in Totnes and upon returning to Japan, he and various partners set up TT in Fujino in 2008. They successfully engaged the local community in many ways: community currency, forest restoration, food and agriculture education, and forming the Fujino Electric Company for small energy-efficient solar power systems.
Our connection with Hide over several years made it possible for us to translate and publish his book — a great way to introduce TT in Hong Kong and Mainland China. It has been our hope that the concepts and practical experiences discussed in the book would inspire our local partners in their work on social issues.
We also arranged for our partners to visit Fujino — a game-changing experience. Raven Ching, a participant of CarbonCare InnoLab, said, "I learned so much about the context behind the community actions, such as the Fujino Electric Company and reforestation. I realised that even for technical issues such as energy and reforestation, communities do not necessarily have to wait for the experts to offer solutions. We can act on an appropriate scale with professional partners to re-align knowledge for designing actions suitable to the capacity of a community." She is confident that when communities are connected, even ordinary people can cope with climate change problems and make changes.
There are two things that stood out from the exchange for Jo Kei, a participant from Tin Shui Wai Community Development Network. First, community workers need to take conscious breaks and celebrate any achievements at hand. This is important to prevent burnout and to sustain people's motivation for action. The second was something Hide's colleague Yoshida had said — that it is okay for an organisation to disband when the time comes, and there should be no regrets. Seeing Transition Japan has led her to believe that community resilience is key, that the core of community building is nurturing the inner strength of its community members.
During the visit to Japan, participants meet Foot Warmth Network, an environmental group in Tokyo,
to learn from their citizen-led energy action practice.
Twelve Urban Diary project participants join a community mapping workshop, led by Islanders 岛民
on Peng Chau Island. They learn to re-discover the characteristics of their community.
PCD's exploration of sustainable living practices and actions is ongoing in Hong Kong. We often encourage partners to learn from each other. A community mapping exercise by Islanders 岛民 , our partner on Peng Chau Island, was a great way to discover special traits of the island community. Tin Zi Zok Wai has taken community economy as the theme for mapping its community of Tin Shui Wai. Their map facilitated newly recruited community tour group members to analyse the neighbourhood, raise awareness of the identified problems in the community, and communicate the context of Tin Zi Zok Wai's work.
The Transition Town movement is almost 20 years old and continues to inspire learning and action. We see Hide's book as an indispensable resource in the journey ahead to build community resilience in the face of climate change. We envision that our partners will use the publication to contribute to the dialogue in Hong Kong. We envision that by creating and nurturing such connections, individual actions can bring change in a community, and then more global change. In the process, everyday consumers and labourers are transforming into global citizens.