Tongue-in-cheek instructional video

Note: This is an update on PRI’s position and direction, and an opportunity for you to get paid to help!

The short version: We’re now paying you to write for us! Click here to get started.

The background/long version follows:

Over the last two years since I took over the running of this site, I’ve been pleased to see significant growth in traffic. I’m not so narrow-minded as to believe this is just due to my efforts or Geoff and Nadia Lawton’s or the rest of the PRI team, however. Aside from the tremendous support and input from the wider permaculture community, I also note that current events and the spread of information through the internet is threatening to actually wake the world up – and this ‘awakening’ is seeing an unprecedented growth in interest in sustainability, transition and the creation of resilient people systems. This interest certainly isn’t coming too soon, but better late than never.

For whatever reasons, though, this site is today regularly recognised as one of the, or even the, leading permaculture website worldwide. This has come about with a lot of help from readers like yourself, and permaculture project leaders and workers worldwide. This growth is helping increase permaculture exposure, and is helping our aim to drive permaculture into mainstream consciousness. (Examples: CNN, SBS, ABC, etc..)

But, whenever a site or entity grows, there are always questions about its purpose. I want to share the Permaculture Research Institute’s intentions as succinctly as possible here, and also solicit your support to help us in our goals – goals I believe many of you subscribe to. And no, I’m not asking for donations! (Although these are always appreciated!)

The Permaculture Research Institute (PRI) is an independently audited (annually) non-profit entity. But, it’s a non-profit with a difference. While a large part of our focus is on project aid work, where we seek to implement permaculture solutions in some of the most challenging places in the world, we don’t subscribe to the traditional strategies that NGOs often ‘utilise’. It was my personal prediction that many NGOs will, as our energy and economic woes intensify, lose their funding as charitably-minded people and businesses lose their liquidity and reprioritise expenditure. From some of the NGOs I’ve worked with and spoken to over the last couple of years, these predictions seem to be coming to pass. More and more people and businesses are finding they just don’t have excess funds to pass on to ‘feel good’ causes. In a peak oil world, this can translate to huge humanitarian disasters as dependent populations find supports removed.

In other words, if we only ran on donations, we’d be as finite an endeavour as industrial civilisation.

The PRI, instead, wants to see permaculture education and uptake spread – despite a failing/flailing economy. We thus seek to be as resilient financially as our on-the-ground systems are biologically. As such, our methods differ not only in the solutions proposed (we prefer to teach a man to fish, and how to manage fish stocks sustainably, rather than just dump piles of them at his feet) but also in the financial model that keeps our permaculture evangelism growing and working while we’re still, reluctantly, in the ‘money economy’ era of the society we find ourselves in and are trying to transition ourselves out of.

Another point of difference, while I’m discussing this, is that we regard the suburbs of Los Angeles or Brisbane just as ‘challenging’ as rural Ethiopia or Vietnam – in that people in ‘first world’ countries are acutely vulnerable in so many ways (economy, energy, centralised food systems, etc.), but just don’t see it, nor where they’re headed – and thus don’t see the desperate need to transition to a life based on real-time sunlight. In contrast, ‘two thirds’ world people are generally struggling on a day to day basis, so can be highly appreciative of tools that make their lives more productive, resilient and efficient – and they are often barely only a generation or so removed from a sustainable, low-impact lifestyle, so their skill-set is usually far more practical. As such permaculture ‘aid work’ is just as essential in London and Melbourne as it is in Lesotho and Mombai. Given what’s looming on the horizon, some might say even more so….

The Permaculture Master Plan

Anyway, the PRI seeks to develop and support the growth of successful, mutually beneficial, interdependent relationships (both between individuals and communities, and between these and the land at their feet), with these successful interdependencies occurring by largely self-reliant individuals cooperating with each other to meet human needs in holistically sound ways. The emphasis here is that we seek to build relationships that are mutually supportive/symbiotic, and not competitive. Just as in the plants and organisms around us and at our feet, we believe the success of the permaculture movement as a whole is entirely dependent on our leaving behind the selfish ambition that most of us in the west have been programmed with through our education, media and through our participation in the contemporary, competitive economic model almost universally applied today – and instead to find ways to interact harmoniously to support each other.

Furthermore, we seek for our projects to transition to localised resilience in food and other base human requirements (housing, clothing, etc.), but also to become financially self-sufficient. As we do not believe in contributing to globalisation, but, rather, to help transition away from it, we do not encourage projects to be self sufficient through sales of produce or goods, or at least not to make this their primary endeavour, but, rather, to sell knowledge, so the people around them can begin to grow and produce their own goods. The idea, expressed by our Permaculture Master Plan, is to educate the world in permaculture design principles and application – making each project site both an impressive demonstration site of what is possible and achievable by and for local people in their respective regions, as well as a professional education site sharing the ‘how’ of it. Following this demonstrate-and-educate recipe enables project leaders and their teams to concentrate on transitioning/building the community around them while course and consultation fees finance this evangelisation.

We don’t see any losers in this scenario. The ideal and ultimate goal is that these projects will self-replicate to the point where they will saturate the global landscape with mutually interdependent and resilient communities of knowledgeable permaculture practitioners – setting the stage for a softer landing on the peak-oil downslide. Although the income from course fees would gradually diminish over time, as more and more demonstration/education sites multiply – this income would become increasingly redundant/unnecessary as the growth of resilient permaculture sites and communities fills the void created by a crashing money economy.

Time is of the Essence

If you’re following the logic so far, you will recognise that time is of the essence. To have paying students finance the ballooning of permaculture demonstration/education sites worldwide, we need to get a large portion of this ‘evangelisation’ work done before the economic mayhem born of peak oil and climate change begins to hit us even harder than it already has. At the moment, increasingly, people are seeing the need to get permaculture-educated while they still have the finances to do so. Many can still afford to take flights to learn at locations where their hardish western currency can not only train themselves in modern permaculture design systems whilst gaining valuable indigenous knowledge but also subsidise the training of poverty-stricken locals. This will not always be the case. We’re working in a window of opportunity that will close in the ensuing years.

Making the Most of the Time Window We Have

As such, we feel that leveraging the impact of this website (www.permaculture.org.au) is paramount. I note many permaculture individuals endeavouring to develop their own readership in fragmented efforts that, often with the best of intentions, fail to achieve much. The reason they fail to achieve much is that it takes a lot of time and dedication to grow a website, and that growth is largely dependent on a consistent stream of quality content that keeps people returning to, and linking to, your site. People are too busy on the ground to maintain such sites, or dedicate staff to the task. A million small websites sharing intermittent posts is not nearly as efficient as a few larger sites with far higher traffic counts sharing regular engaging content. I like to think of the networking and leveraging of grass-roots permaculture labour and resources – to build mainstream momentum in all things permaculture – as represented by that largest of all biological organisms: mycelium. While various plants and rocks and microorganisms appear independent of each other, there is a common link – in soil biology – that connects them all. In like manner, the internet, perhaps one of the few real gifts the industrial revolution has given us, is enabling us to connect and share our energies in symbiotic and synergistic ways for the benefit of all. For us to reach mainstream consciousness, funneling our experiences and knowledge through reliable website ‘portals’ is, I can say categorically, far more efficient than expecting readers to browse a thousand sites to get the information they need.

How to Leverage Our Collective Energies to Spread Permaculture Fast

The lifeblood of my work, that of trying to drive permaculture thinking into mainstream consciousness, is found in sharing quality reports from around the world. My logic goes like this: when people in mainstream consumer society confront permaculture, if they believe it’s only practiced by a few sandal-wearing souls living on the fringes of society, they’ll conclude "nice idea, but it’s too little, too late", and they’ll write the concept off as being idealistic dreaming. But if, instead, they realise the reality – that this is a movement of many tens of thousands of people working, right now, in almost every country on every continent of this jewel of an earth we call home – then they’ll instead think to themselves – "hell, change is afoot, and I’m getting left behind – I want to get involved, and now!"

The work is happening, and it’s building momentum. But while the word ‘Permaculture’ is now finally in the Oxford English dictionary, it needs to be on the lips and in the hands of everyone if humanity-saving goodness is to reach that tipping point where it’ll take off and meet the enormous challenges we face today.

Those tens of thousands of people are working hard, accomplishing great things, but they’re often too busy to look up and around to view where they fit in the big picture – the big mycelium fungal net, as it were. I would like to say to those people that by writing articles and sharing your work, frustrations, challenges, successes, observations and inspiration, your effort to report, as an ‘element’ in your system, does in itself serve several ‘functions’.

1. You inspire others to imitate/emulate your example.
2. You educate people in the ‘how’ of it.
3. You make your work known. People can’t help and support you if they don’t know you or your work exists. Such assistance can come by way of encouragement, gifting practical knowledge/information that is relevant to you, and actual physical involvement and financial support.
4. You enable us (PRI) to better understand your situation, and tailor support to assist, assuming you are seeking such assistance.

As many of you will know, I regularly undertake to do such reports myself, and have done so in places as far afield as Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Chile, Jordan, the West Bank, Slovakia (and), Australia, (and, and, etc.). But, while I will continue to seek to profile successful examples of permaculture around the world, we want to hear your views, your experiences, your challenges, your successes and gain knowledge and inspiration from your particular observations. You don’t have to understand the science of web promotion – that’s my job. You don’t have to understand how to deal with websites, image optimisation and editing – that’s also my job. I get tired of hearing my own voice, as I’m sure do our readers. We want to hear yours! I want to see the permaculturists out there, from novice to guru expert (we don’t believe in gurus – but rather, real people doing real doable things), sharing their knowledge for the benefit of all.

Get paid to spread knowledge and inspiration

And guess what – we’ll even pay you to do it! Recognising people are very busy, and that in today’s world time is food, we will pay to hear your stories on a per-post basis. Click here to learn more.

We of course still welcome volunteer posts. Again, we’re a non-profit, so the more money we save the more we can inject into starting and assisting projects worldwide. In the last year, for example, we have donated approximately $100,000 to projects worldwide, either by way of direct donations or through teaching or consultation time. Over the next year we anticipate this figure will increase again. And we’ve assisted further through my time – utilising this high-traffic website to bring course adverts for diverse locations worldwide to the attention of our readers. We’ve seen sites where they were struggling to find students, but after an advert here the courses filled up. This is what it’s all about! This is funneling information and resources to spread permaculture as fast as we can!

This website and our forums (which we’ve recently upgraded by the way) have been a gift from PRI to the permaculture community. We’re very glad to see them getting utilised. I still see many people, however, not quite understanding our ’services’. Many almost appear to think we’re some kind of independently wealthy (or even publicly funded?) entity with a duty to spread research knowledge and long term analysis of various aspects of permaculture systems, and share it freely, not understanding that within our current capitalist framework such important but time-consuming work is impossible to do, simply because it’s price prohibitive. We remain financially independent, yes, but only due to the hard work of people within the team – and that work is based on classroom and field education. We’d love to initiate research-and-document projects, and create unending ‘how-to’ videos and articles, but doing so takes time and money. As such, we encourage all permaculturists to undertake these tasks as they are able, and to share them to the largest audience possible. We’ll help subsidise this work, by paying per-post as an encouragement/incentive to take the time out to do so.

So, in the busyness of life, I hope you will see that, as I’ve often said to PDC students, reporting on your work and observations is just as important as the physical design work itself. Make your voice heard. Share your knowledge and we’ll ensure it gets maximum exposure.

I look forward to receiving and sharing your articles!

P.S. Until today we’ve had excellent results from our arrangement with people interested to advertise their courses on our site. In exchange for a separate non-promotional article (i.e. something inspirational or educational or both), we’ve put their course adverts up at no charge. This arrangement will continue.

In Episode 7 I’m speaking to Paul ‘Ringo’ Kean who has been working on an aid project in Afghanistan.

Click play to hear the interview – and photo-commentary below:

Subscribe to Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker.

Preparing to make compost using Paul Taylor’s method.
45% Carbon, 35% Nitrogen, 20% Manure.

 

Giving the compost its first turn 4 days after the start.
Nice and warm but not over 65 deg.

 

An afternoon deluge. No rain water run-off control in Kabul. 100’s of
tonnes of rubble are washed into the main road ways after every rain
event. A real need for Keyline design across the whole country.

 

On the final leg of wiring the steel work on the 20,000L
tank before rendering the walls

 

The tank with inside and outside walls rendered,
along with the entire Afghani team

 

The newly converted nursery now houses chickens and a worm farm.
Still enough room for nursery use

 

Local metal worker and his brother with their version of a weather vain
designed and donated to the project by Ringo. This will sit atop the
20,000L ferro cement tank so weather patterns can be recorded daily.

 

Construction of the compost toilet. Looking from the rear at the
service hatches to each chamber.

Experience cooking for mixed groups of meat eaters and vegetarian would be a distinct advantage. You would be utilising fresh, seasonal, organic food grown on the farm.

The Permaculture Research Institute has a very homely, friendly environment in beautiful natural settings. We get a constant stream of interesting people from every place you can imagine.

Please email education (at) permaculture.org.au with your details and expression of interest in the first instance. Be sure to send us your telephone number.

Booked in or considering coming to the 10-week PRI Australia Internship with Geoff Lawton? It might be worth having a listen to what three students thought of their at times challenging but overall very rewarding experience in the January 2010 Course.

Click play below to hear the talk:

Top 5 tips to make the most of the course:

• The course runs 3 times per year so research the climate and pick the best time of the year for what you’re used to
• Be prepared to work hard on a REAL farm, it’s not just contained to the classroom like a PDC
• If you plan to have a mobile/cell phone, get a ‘Telstra Next G’ pre-paid phone. Other phones won’t get reception
• Bring your own laptop, there is one shared computer for the basics but if you want to blog or use a computer at night you will need your own
• Let your family and friends know that there is very limited daily access to internet and not to expect to always be able to contact you.

A little about the people in this podcast:

Patrick Blampied – Left a ‘real-world’ office job in marketing to do the internship. Has since found work blogging for this site, teaching Permaculture in his home town and consulting with Nick Huggins.

Paul David Stockhausen – Worked in organic food production for resturants before taking the internship. Has since returned to teach at Hayes Valley Farm in San Francisco. Also got work consulting/implementing straight out of the internship in Australia before heading home.

Nick Huggins – Packed up a successful landscaping business after 11 years in Horticulture. Nick has landed straight back on his feet following the internship by applying the same business skill set that made his landscaping business successful, except this time Round-up isn’t in his tool kit! He has picked up 3 large consultancies so far with good prospects of on-going work. Hear Nick talking to ABC Radio.

Nearly 18 months have passed since I first arrived at PRI to sit my PDC. At that time I had the idea of following the PDC with wwoofing on various permaculture farms and projects, however halfway through the PDC it became obvious that Zaytuna Farm was the best place to gain some hands on experience. After disappearing for a month to sort out odds ‘n ends, I returned to settle in for an undecided period. Over this time Geoff has had me working as his farm manager and also sending me on various consultations. The farm has expand rapidly with earth works and structures erected. The experience here has been invaluable and certainly life changing and for this I give Geoff and Nadia many thanks.

I would also like to thank all the people I have met over the last 18 months (150+) especially those that put in huge efforts of voluntary work to help me keep the place running when G&N were away.

The amount of opportunities that have been offered since being here are amazing, one being my next venture:

Graeme and Leonie Northfield, of the Sunshine Coast QLD, travel the world teaching Astanga yoga and after 20 years of being on the road want to bring it all home to their beautiful 100 acre property in Bowraville, Central Coast NSW. As such they have invited me to help apply an ongoing permaculture design to the property and combine teaching Permaculture with yoga workshops – this combination sounds very exciting to me. So, as a result I am departing Zaytuna on Saturday the 4th of July.

To anyone who may be interested in gaining some solid hands on experience in Permaculture, Zaytuna farm can always use extra people. Ideally Geoff needs people that can commit for extended periods and in all honesty, to receive the maximum benefit in your learning experience here, long term stays are essential. You can even commit to a particular subject (eg. Crops, nursery, food forest, animal systems, etc.). Zatuna is a 66 acre classroom and the diversity here expands very quickly. Commited hard working people are always welcome and the experience gained here is essential to budding Permaculturists. Anyone interested can contact myself – oncontour (at) gmail.com, or Geoff for more info.

Also anyone interested in helping out Graeme, Leonie and myself in ‘Bowradise’ please drop me a line. With swales and dams to go in, we are planning to hold a water harvesting course in October (which of course will include some yoga).

Again, my heartfelt thanks to everyone that I have met and been inspired by on this journey.

Craig Gallagher

Siobhan O’Reilly (another long termer at Zaytuna), myself,
Geoff, Nadia and Latifa

You can subscribe to CPAW podcast feeds here!

A local girls school started by Mahboba’s Promise 8 years ago and is the
location of an upcoming Permaculture garden program initiated by
"Kids Are Sweet International" founder Lesley ‘Zaynab’ Byrne.

Episode 2 is the second part of an on-going conversation I’m having over skype with Paul Kean, aka Ringo. Originally from Perth in Australia, Ringo is currently in Kabul, Afghanistan working on a project there which has been organised by PRI and funded by Mahboba’s Promise.

Topics covered in this episode:

1. Local Knowledge
2. Cement Water Tanks
3. Excursion to Panjshir valley
4. Mud building and design
5. The hunt for nitrogen fixing trees
6. Bali Belly
7. Building the Compost Toilet
8. Waste Disposal

Editor’s Notes: Ringo has taken PRI’s Permaculture Project Aid Worker (PPAW) course, which helps prepare workers for challenging/interesting/rewarding permaculture experiences worldwide, and is now finding paid placements through PRI’s growing network of projects. After Afghanistan, Ringo is heading to Malaysia. Our next PPAW course starts June 14, and after that is September 13.

Want to make your work known?: If you are working on-location somewhere, and want to tell the world about your work and vision, contact editor (at) permaculture.org.au in the first instance.

Pictures to follow:

An aquaduct system constructed some 40 years ago to bring water from
Panjshir Valley to Kabul. With the war with Russia and changes in government,
the project never made it to Kabul. It did however turn areas north of Kabul
into agricultural oases.

Remnants of a Russian military base en route to Panjshir Valley.
A chilling reminder of the past.

"Lland maggots", as geoff Lawton refers to goats and sheep,
grazing on the barren landscape.

The Panjshir River pass. This is where the Afghan freedom fighter
"Ahmed Shah Masoud" and his army blew the canyon and held the Russians
from invading Panjshir Valley – a very significant place in the hearts
of Afghan people.

A local villager who volunteers to assist road users
to the conditions of the road ahead.

More Russian memorabilia.

Entering Panjshir Valley – this is where Mahboba Rawi’s parents were from.

The Garden at the end of the World. The location of the film by Gary Caganoff.

Ringo’s trusty Spectrum Precision LL100 laser level in use training local workers.

Saffi the camp cook climbing down a recently hand dug well.

Orphan boys at Hope House playing soccer with soccer balls donated by Ringo.

Excavator Alley.
The road north of Kabul where excavators are for hire for $30 p/hr.

Workers huddled in a tent during the hail storm.

The site after the hail storm.

Australian expat worms working in Afghanistan.
Living in a home-made tyre worm farm.

Ringo’s day job in Australia training personnel
to operate heavy mining equipment.

Remnants of a war torn landscape.
The tail end of a rocket propelled grenade found on site.

Please forward widely. The Apple Tree Eco School in the BíoBío region of Chile is looking for two experienced entrepreneurial permaculture interns starting May 2010. We need: 1) an experienced administrator proficient in English and Spanish to help manage a busy permie office, planning and promotions, and 2) an experienced gardener to assist in production, processing and distribution of organic food. This is an unprecedented opportunity to work in Permaculture centre connected to Gaia University, Transition Towns and the Permaculture Research Institute. Get hands on experience in the management of Permaculture projects, relief work, design consultancy, teacher training, transition training and much, much more. All food and board provided. Successful applicants will also have opportunities to self-generate income. Start your Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design, on the edge, working where it counts. Contact Grifen Hope or Javiera Carrión with a detailed CV and a letter of application through our website www.ecoescuela.cl

People interested in this opportunity should contact me on grifenhope (at) gmail.com

Gracias,
Grifen Hope

In classic permaculture style, within the problem lay the seeds of the solution. The deforestation due to conventional agriculture in these surrounding hills has caused soil erosion and during the rainy season much of this rich volcanic black top soil is washed downstream. This annual bounty has been redirected through the Ijatz site using a sequence of channels and sink holes, which in turn slows the water flow enabling the nutrient rich humus to be captured and stored on site. The earth has been moulded to create slopes, edges and contours essential for increased growing opportunity.

During the dry season any rainfall is held in the pond sequence, maintaining the local water table which is the source for the hundreds of trees and plants. While the flora perpetually contributes biomass to improve soil fertility, a micro climate suitable for growing has developed in what is essentially a few acres on the edge of town. Prior to the establishment of the Ijatz project, over one hundred homes were annually flooded in the immediate vicinity. Currently, the site can receive flood water to the depth of more than a metre during the wet season. A perfect demonstration of a multifunctional permaculture design element, the banana circle has provided the solution. Acting as a pump, that most excellent of pioneer species, the banana simply sucks up and holds this water. The spaces between the rubbery concentric rings of a banana tree are simply saturated in water. The centre of the circle becomes a compost heap for any site prunings while the worms of the vermicomposting stations make short shrift of sections of banana trunk. The composted output is another useful income stream for the coop. Of course, let us not forget nature’s own delicious potassium stick – the banana itself! All this and the local community benefits from dry homes throughout the rainy season too. This in turn satisfies one of the cornerstone ethics of permaculture: people care – positively affecting the local community.

Banana circle

The project is only thirteen years in the making and boasts a diverse range of trees and plants that reach every level of the canopy. Timber is harvested and the bamboo stands are about 6m tall. There are a number of guava, grapefruit, lime and lemon fruit trees. A vine layer producing a vegetable called güisquil (sechium edule) when boiled is similar in texture and taste to a tender swede or turnip. There are several other local tropical plants that contribute roots or leaves to the kitchen table. The annually deposited soil is then built up to form raised beds for growing vegetables. My three week stint centred around reinstating the vegetable and herb beds preparing them for fresh seedlings, including lettuce, coriander, frijoles (beans), parsley, celery and radish. This soil food web is teaming with life and I encountered countless worms, spiders and other small creatures. Thankfully, the nesting cobra we stumbled across only wrapped itself around Pancho’s arm (the head gardener). No harm done – sadly only true for Pancho!

The core focus of the Ijatz cooperative is coffee production. On the final day of my visit, the ladies of the cooperative harvested fifty kilos of coffee beans ready for processing. However, they collectively own several plots of land on the slopes of the now extinct Volcán Tolimán. Through the cooperative, the workers have generated a stable income which has funded educational programmes on child care and nutrition. They also have discussions to understand where their high value product sits in the open market. I was invited to describe the drinking habits of Europeans. My talk was graciously received even though my Spanish is woefully short of adequate.

If you are interested in volunteering your time and energy to the assist the Ijatz project and you have a command of Spanish language you can contact them directly at asociacionIjatz (at) gmail.com otherwise I can advise you. Volunteer opportunities exist throughout the year.

Read my follow up article about how Ijatz manages its core business – coffee, using permaculture principles. You can follow my blog at www.kevpermatour.blogspot.com as I travel Central America gaining permaculture experience working towards my Diploma in Applied Permaculture from the Permaculture Association Britain.

You’re trying to say that you can live in the modern way and continue to think in the traditional way. That’s not true. The way you live affects the way you think. – Danny Billie, Traditional Seminole

I’d like to recount here my impressions of the PRI, and how different it is from many other organizations. We (Tribal Networks) first came across them when looking for solutions to problems we found in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, where we were starting a project to bring in a school and an internet / community centre. Searching for "dry land permaculture" soon found Geoff’s "Greening the Desert" clip, and things progressed from there.

"The Permaculture Master Plan – Permaculture Centres Worldwide" is different not just in its broadness of vision and scope, but also, and I believe more crucially, in how it is being implemented. The PRI is making no demands on us as a local organization, they are not trying to take over or control us in any way. This is a common phenomenon among the relatively big organizations; they get bigger by assimilating smaller projects they are supposedly helping out. Everything they do has an underlying urge to make the organization bigger, and aims and intentions become subservient to that imperative. In this way most big organizations, while they may have started out with the best of intentions, end up mirroring the ways of the system that caused the problems in the first place.

Which brings me to the Danny Billie quote above. The principle is the same here. You cannot hope to do permaculture successfully when operating in the ‘normal’ way. Good permaculture can only be done under a system that follows the principles of permaculture. It seems to me that the PRI has managed to do that, even while becoming an internationally recognized and respected institution. This needs to be stressed. It doesn’t just happen, it requires conscious effort to keep true to your principles and yet still find a way to promote those principles on a large scale, worldwide. This is no small achievement.

So what am I on about? How does the "Permaculture Masterplan" embody permaculture principles? Let’s take our little project as an example. Our problem was a severe lack of water for most of the year, which then causes the other problems. For example; desertification, poverty, and disease from dirty water. The Permaculture Master Plan involves setting up independent projects, which become self-financing largely by running courses. Our project will repair the watershed of the whole valley, which in turn will hold in the water and increase water flow and fertility. This provides a long-term solution, unlike such things as irrigation, which cause debt and interfere severely with the local economy and relationships.

When Geoff described it all to me, sitting outside a farmhouse on top of a mountain in Ait Attab, it all sounded too good to be true. The first thing that came to my mind (being a corrupt European) was ’scam’. Honestly that’s what it sounded like. We get a load of students to come over and do a course. They build the earthworks, pay for all the labour, and even pay for other students either locally or from poor communities elsewhere. It all costs us nothing at all!

But if it is a scam, then where are the losers? A scam always has losers, by definition. I could see no losers. The students have an amazing experience in a remote Berber tribal area, and gain experience and a qualification that can provide them with a worthwhile and fulfilling life (not to mention the chance of a future for our children!), the land gets to keep its water and become fertile again, the local people have more water and better variety of food, become more independent and regain self-respect, and our organization has a place, a root structure for future projects to sprout from and grow.

Where else do you see this win-win situation? Not in modern top-down systems, that’s for sure. But anyone who has done even just a Permaculture Introductory Course, or read a few of the entries on this website can recognize it right away. The Master Plan is planting seeds on many levels, and the principles of permaculture are carried through on each level. The design for the Master Plan is every bit as much a permaculture project as each on-the-ground project is.

Editor’s Note: People who want to take take a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course in an amazing location in Morocco, whilst in doing so supporting the education of poor locals, can check out the course for April.

We’re pleased to announce that we’re partnering with the makers of the video above, WeForest, to help establish self-replicating permaculture reforestation demonstration sites in accordance with our Permaculture Master Plan, in several worldwide locations – starting in Zambia in the first instance. Our Geoff Lawton has just agreed to be on their advisory board, and we’ll be working to supply guidance, knowhow and staff to pioneer these projects.

This is just one example of the many encouraging collaborative results we get as people boil current events down to their only logical conclusion – discovering we need to quit battling nature and get busy harnessing biological synergies to repair the earth and rebuild sustainable community interactions.