Mabel Cañada Zorrilla

Mabel Cañada Zorrilla (b. 1952) is a Spanish environmentalist. She is an antimilitarist and pacifist. She is the founder of the ecovillage of Lakabe. It is a town recovered in Navarra 40 years ago and united into the Iberian Ecovillage Network.

Mabel Cañada Zorrilla
Born	1952 Bilbao, Spain
Field	Environmentalist

Life story

Mabel Cañada was born in the Santutxu neighborhood of Bilbao in 1952. She is a daughter of Ángel, a Burgos glassmaker and Isabel, a Balmasedana. She stopped studying nursing to take care of her father. She is the second child of the five sisters and two brothers. She is a mother of 4 children. She is active in groups such as the Conscientious Objection Movement (MOC). It is the feminist movement. She is also active in groups against large infrastructures like nuclear power plants or the Itoiz reservoir in Navarra.

She was one of the founders of the community of Lakabe (Navarra) in 1980. It is an unpopulated town that was later recovered. In the place, coexistence is based on self-management, self-sufficiency, self-consumption, mutual help and team work.

Welcome to Lakabe sign

Cañada has been trained in many ways to create collectivity. She is taught to express oneself in a group, to live in community, to organise structures allowing horizontal decision-making, in process facilitation, experimental education and non-violent communication. It has also been formed in other communities such as Findhorn.

Lakabe, Navarra

Since 2004, she has been providing many changes to the processes, performances from many situations for social groups. She has accompanied them in their own processes. She has taught them the courses and workshops.