Building green communities by walking

Text and CreativeCommons drawing by Frits Ahlefeldt

Walking can build up local, sustainable communities by connecting them along foot trails as a linked network of green villages. Something that benefits both the environment, locals and visitors (and  tourism)

Whenever and wherever we build trails we strengthen local communities and relationships. People start to know each other and appreciate the places they live and visit more when they can get around on foot, meeting, and experiencing  their local villages in new ways.

At the same time people will use their cars less often, prefer to shop more locally and start buying more from the farmers they now know building new relationships through the new trend that is known as “relational eating”.  In this way building a network of foot trails can strengthen villages, turn them more green, less polluting and much nicer to live in and visit.

This is something that not only strengthen the villages but also the surrounding landscapes as people starts to relate to the landscapes, visiting and walking between local villages.

In most places this is easy, as many of the old trails often still exists, from time before the cars took over. So one of the best ways to build better local communities  is to (re-) connect the local farmers, plazas and marked squares along trails between the villages, connecting them in a sustainable network of  thrive, made simply by walking.