Through misappropriation, control, ecocide, and inequity, the globally imposed extractivist economics-law-governance-education (ELGE) system^[1] severs individuals and communities from their own ecoselves^[2], leading to severe ill-being for humans, other living beings, and the planet.

The extractivist ELGE system is a non-symbiotic system purposely built to exploit human and ecological resources without replenishing them (i.e., an extractivist system), so that a handful of individuals can amass immense wealth through unmitigated profit-making. The main way in which the extractivist ELGE system operates is through reducing/ eliminating autonomy, self-sufficiency, and self-reliance of individuals and communities.^[3] The various components of the extractivist ELGE system operate to further its goal.

For example, national and global economic policies generally favor shareholder-enriching corporations that monopolize resources and trade to the detriment of humans and ecological webs (ecowebs) (see Box 2 in [4]). Laws are mostly designed to protect and promote extractivist and exclusionary practices by profit-making corporations, at the cost of human and ecological wellbeing. Governance structures generally vest decision-making power in a handful of people, often reducing/ eliminating individual and community autonomy. And education institutions appear to inculcate beliefs and behaviors in children, adolescents, and young adults that make them likely to participate in and expand the extractivist ELGE system.

Human and ecological wellbeing cannot exist in a world dominated by the extractivist ELGE system.

Alternatives to this system must be created and implemented, so that community autonomy, self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and dignity^[5] — without which wellbeing cannot exist — can be restored.

The LivingConfluence

One such system is called the LivingConfluence, comprising an Ecoliving system (based on local/ Indigenous ecoweb-rooted Knowledge-Technologies-Practices (Knowtep) and other regenerative Knowtep) that presents an innovative transitional/ regenerative alternative to the extractivist ELGE system. The LivingConfluence is implemented in land-based FiveBecomings (Pañchabhūmi) projects^[6] that have the goal of (re)establishing integrated self-reliant wellbeing for communities (ecosymbiotic self-reliance^[3]) by: (i) restoring their ancestral and/or adopted ecowebs; (ii) reconnecting them to their ancestral and/or adopted ecowebs; and (iii) revitalizing their own local/ Indigenous ecoweb-rooted Knowtep, along with integrating other regenerative Knowtep (together, ecoliving system).

In rural contexts, a FiveBecomings commons^[7] lies at the center of surrounding villages that are within an accessible distance (optimally, within 5-15 km). Together, the inhabitants of the villages served by a FiveBecomings project form the Community. One of the objectives of each FiveBecomings project is to implement an innovative ecoliving system that approaches ELGE in ways that are ecoweb- and ecoself-rooted. The linchpin of such innovation is the LivingConfluence, an income-generating, resource-sharing, co-working, co-learning ELGE entity involving village households of an ecoweb-rooted community, nonprofit organizations/ cooperatives, and outside investors.

Each LivingConfluence has at least the following characteristics:

• it must be rooted in a specific ecoweb-rooted Community and its ecoweb
• it is tied to the activities and commodities/ services generated on a specific FiveBecomings commons that serves a specific ecoweb-rooted Community and also the commodities/ services generated in each village of that Community due to Knowtep transfer from the commons
• decision-making is performed jointly by the Operational Consortium of a specific FiveBecomings project and the ecoweb-rooted Community it serves (“decision-making stakeholders”)
• the combined stakeholding of decision-making stakeholders must be at least 70% of the total stakeholding
• if there are outside investors (up to 30% of total stakeholding), they do not have decision-making capability, but may — at specific times of the year — choose to be paid their full share of profits on external trade commodities, i.e., outside of intra-community trade (see below)
• investment capital is provided monthly by all stakeholders
• in addition to investment capital, decision-making stakeholders must also contribute work (labor) to the FiveBecomings project to sustain its activities, commodities produced, and services provided

Intra-Community trade

One of the objectives of the FiveBecomings project is to restore/ establish internal economies for ecoweb-rooted Communities. Thus, each FiveBecomings commons has a Community gathering space that functions as an intra-community trade market for commodities/ services generated on the commons and in each village of the ecoweb-rooted Community served by the FiveBecomings project. Community members may choose to trade using barter or currency. Community members can trade all commodities/ services they have contributed to producing on the FiveBecomings commons without purchasing them, as long as the commodities/ services are meant for the Community's ecosymbiotic self-reliance and not for external trade.

External trade

Each FiveBecomings project aspires to be financially self-sustaining within 10 years. Thus, external trade may be necessary to ensure integrated self-reliant wellbeing for the Community the FiveBecomings project serves. Decision-making stakeholders of each LivingConfluence jointly make decisions about which and how many commodities and services should be used for external trade, with the understanding that sufficient commodities and services must remain within intra-community trade to ensure integrated self-reliant wellbeing (ecosymbiotic self-reliance) for the Community.

Ecoliving systems transfer to Community villages

Each FiveBecomings project serves as a practical demonstration of how to transform extractivist systems to transitional and regenerative systems that ensure ecoself- and ecoweb-rooted integrated self-reliant wellbeing (ecosymbiotic self-reliance) of a Community. Thus, aspects of the ecoliving systems developed and implemented on a FiveBecomings commons are transferred to each village of the Community served.

If you or your organization are/is interested in implementing a LivingConfluence by creating a FiveBecomings project for your Community or a Community near you, please contact us.

1. K. Mitra, 424 Years and Counting: the Global System of Corporate Extractivism, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092024-010a (24 Sep., 2024) (https://ecosymbiont.org/earth/content/systems/systems-reform/424-years-and-counting-the-global-system-of-corporate-extractivism-1-of-3).

2. K. Mitra, Ecoself: Restoring Our Wellbeing Rooted in Nature and Humanity, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh122024-001 (12 Dec., 2024) (https://ecosymbiont.org/earth/content/systems/ecoweb-rooted-framing/ecoself-restoring-our-wellbeing-rooted-in-nature-and-humanity).

3. K. Mitra, Ecosymbiotic Self-Reliance: Implementing FiveBecomings through Knowtep and Women’s Councils, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh052025-002 (6 May, 2025) (https://ecosymbiont.org/earth/content/regenerative/human-ecoweb-integration/ecosymbiotic-self-reliance-implementing-fivebecomings-through-knowtep-and-womens-councils).

4. K. Mitra, Local-Global Benefits of Rural FiveBecomings Projects Designed for Community Self-Reliance, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh032025-022 (18 Mar., 2025) (https://ecosymbiont.org/earth/content/systems/ecoweb-rooted-framing/local-global-benefits-of-rural-fivebecomings-projects-designed-for-community-self-reliance-1-of-2).

5. K. Mitra, Realizing the Ecoself through Personal Evolution (Ākāś): Importance in FiveBecomings, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh052025-003 (11 May, 2025) (https://ecosymbiont.org/earth/content/regenerative/human-ecoweb-integration/realizing-the-ecoself-through-personal-evolution-akas-importance-in-fivebecomings).

6. K. Mitra, Reestablishing Integrated Self-Reliant Wellbeing for Communities: Implementing FiveBecomings, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh012025-001 (9 Jan., 2025) (https://ecosymbiont.org/earth/content/regenerative/human-ecoweb-integration/reestablishing-integrated-self-reliant-wellbeing-for-communities-implementing-fivebecomings).

7. K. Mitra, Reversing the Enclosure of the Commons through FiveBecomings, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh042025-042 (13 Apr., 2025) (https://ecosymbiont.org/earth/content/systems/extractivism-alternatives/reversing-the-enclosure-of-the-commons-through-fivebecomings)