Examination of local economic development and possibilities of arrangement for self-sufficiency

Abstract

Local economic development (LED) is essential for realizing self-sufficiency and its continuous operation. Ecovillages are human-scale full-featured settlements of village- or city-typed, try to form a model for sustainable life form. Establishing ecovillages and similar initiatives may be the result of such an economic development conception. Basing on the example of Rozsály situated in the lagged behind Fehérgyarmat subregion the factors of LED, environmental consciousness and arrangement for self-sufficiency are detailed in this study. Regarding the four dimensions of ecovillages, Rozsály meets fully the requirement of the social/community and cultural/spiritual dimensions. The economic dimension is also developed, though there are several fields needed to be developed. Due to the ecological dimension Rozsály cannot be considered as an ecovillage, the denomination ‘ecovillage initiative’ is more appropriate. The village, however, started a good direction in order to break out from the problems typical to the area.