Brad Lancaster, David Spicer and Murad Alkufash to Teach First PDC for West Bank, June 2010
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Wael Al Saad March 16, 2010
Join world class permaculture instructors Brad Lancaster, David Spicer, and Murad Alkufash for the first Permaculture Design Certification course to be held in the West Bank, Palestine.
In addition to this being a groundbreaking drylands PDC course, it is a once in a lifetime immersion opportunity into the rich culture and heritage of the people of the rural West Bank, who have cared for and farmed the land of this region for over one thousand years.
Comments (0)Work of Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge Begins Snowball Effect for Entire Region
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, News — by Alex McCausland March 8, 2010
Editor’s Note: This is an exciting update on progress from the Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge project in Ethiopia. Congratulations to the whole team in Ethiopia!
It was a moment of fulfillment for us at Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge (SFEL). The head of the Konso Woreda Education Bureau, Mr. Geyeto Gedeno, stood in front of those gathered, his fumbling speech soon beginning to gather momentum:
We now want to see this program expanded to all the schools in Konso, making us an example to the whole society and the rest of Ethiopia! Permaculture shows us how to achieve food security and environmental preservation, how to improve our nutrition and benefit our ecology, all through direct community action!” We all clapped and cheered heartily.
Gathered around the training room were teachers, parents and children from the three schools where the Permaculture in Konso Schools Project (PKSP), pilot project, had been underway since May 2009, when it began with training of teachers at SFEL, in a PDC that was part funded by a former volunteer (and a good friend of ours, Sarah Davis from Austin Texas) and part funded by Save the Children Finland (STCF).
Comments (0)Morocco PDC Update (for April 17-30, 2010) – Let’s Get Behind This!
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Education Centres — by Andy Homer March 5, 2010
Editor’s Note: A couple of months ago we advertised (on the blog and in our course listings) the exciting opportunity to take a Permaculture Design Certificate course (PDC) in an amazing location, and with an excellent permaculture instructor, and where in doing so you’ll be supporting impoverished locals to begin to take charge of their future in a sustainable way. We bring this to your attention once more, and encourage all who can to support this very worthy endeavour by booking now! The climate, culture and instructional quality will make it the experience of a lifetime, and a major additional bonus is it’s all bundled up with that warm fuzzy feeling you get from helping make a difference.
As the time for our design certificate course in Morocco draws near, we have plenty of local people, and some from Warsangeli in Somalia. Warsangeli is a Sultante of peaceful people unfortunate enough to be surrounded by war. Supplies are difficult to get in and people are starving, and drinking dirty water. Permaculture could solve the food and water problems very well.
Current circumstances mean we could not open up courses in Somalia to international students, but a Warsangeli organization in london has secured funding and wants to work with us to spread permaculture there. Inviting a few people from Warsangeli to our course in Morocco would enable us to make much better progress over there.
We do not have enough paying students yet to make the course viable. We’ve been told that many people leave it until the last minute to book, so please, if you’re coming on this course, let us know as soon as possible so that we can confirm it with the African students.
Spring is an ideal time to be doing the course in Morocco, as the weather is fine and warm. This is a wonderful opportunity to get qualified and make a massive difference to the lives of many people by helping us promote permaculture in two areas where there is almost no knowledge of it. (Starting to sound like a missionary!) A lot hinges on the success of this course. As an incentive we will waive the price increase for late booking.
Comments (5)Permaculture Samoa – Part III
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Tamlyn Magee
Editor’s Note: This is the latest update on the Samoa Matuaileoo Environment Trust Inc. (METI) premaculture project. Previous updates here, here and here. Way to go Tamlyn and all involved!!
Information is the critical potential resource. It becomes a resource only when obtained and acted upon. - Bill Mollison
There is a moment, according at least to Geoff Lawton, when a permaculture student becomes ‘terminal’; forever destined, perhaps, to spout interesting (to some, anyway) facts/theories about ducks and lofty (but totally do-able) plans for future garden designs and/or the ‘edible meadow’, all the while flicking off light-switches everywhere and drying seaweed on the clothesline in between those telltale permaculture dreams….
Well, I can’t say for sure at this stage that we have any new terminals among the 18 students who just completed the first ever Permaculture course in Samoa, (and I dare say the Samoan incarnation of a permaculture addict might differ on specifics) but I definitely saw familiar sparks in a few eyes over the last 2 weeks, which means at least – they are infected!
Comments (3)Ho avy: Keeps Growing for the Future and Growing High
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Martina Petru February 22, 2010
Editor’s Note: This is an update for the Ho avy project. Previous update here.
Days have been blown away like autumn leaves, it feels, by strong winds that have been finally bringing some mild cyclonic weather and needed moisture in this high summer time in SW Madagascar. It’s mid February: hot times – times of growth; growing native trees from the spiny forest; growing subsistence crops.
And how refreshing has it been when the temperature dropped a full 10 degrees (from 40 to 30ºC) and even to a record low of 27 ºC at night, the lowest record in the last couple months, which is truly a pleasant feeling. We’ve had 50mm of rain during the second rain storm since Christmas, enough to plant rice, yet not enough to plant corn, manioc, beans, squash, melons or native trees to our reforestation sites. We are holding off for now and hoping this will happen with the next substantial rain storm so as to assure seedling survival.
Comments (0)Steve Cran in Uganda – Parts I – III
Aid Projects, Demonstration Sites — by Steve Cran February 15, 2010
Part I
Hello everyone. This is my first blog from Uganda. I’m here to set up a community sustainability project in the north of Uganda near the Sudan border. It’s a hot spot sometimes with cows, guns and dust. These people have been aid dependent for 40 years.
Getting to Uganda from Australia was a mission. It took me 40 hours of travel. I arrived at Kampala airport late at night and finally got to a hotel looking like a zombie. The next day I met my boss and went over my mission. I have been given a heap of lattitude to make this work.
Comments (32)Jawaseri School Garden Project, Jordan
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conservation, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Eco-Villages, Education Centres, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Irrigation, Land, Nurseries & Propogation, People Systems, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Trees, Urban Projects, Village Development, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh February 6, 2010
Just as I was leaving Jordan, after making the Greening the Desert II update video, another little project was just getting underway – the Jawaseri School Garden project. A few people have emailed pictures of progress over the last few months and I’ve combined these with Geoff’s narration from the PRI home base in Australia, to give you all a bit of an idea what’s happening there. May it inspire you to do similar where you are!
Permaculture education should be in every school, everywhere. If it was, I believe most of the world’s problems could be solved within a decade.
Comments (5)Letters from Sri Lanka – Sarvodaya Builds Sri Lanka’s First Eco-Village
Aid Projects, Biological Cleaning, Building, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Eco-Villages, People Systems, Potable Water, Society, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling, Waste Water, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh February 4, 2010
Part VII of a series – If you haven’t already, please read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V and Part VI before continuing. This series is part of my work for the Sustainable (R)evolution book project.
One of 55 eco-friendly homes nestled amongst newly established gardens
An hour or so south of the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo is the fishing district of Kalutara. Although only one of many regions hit by the 2004 Tsunami, post-disaster relief efforts here were unique in that Sarvodaya determined to use the situation to create Sri Lanka’s first eco-village.
Comments (9)Scientologists in Haitian Disaster Relief – Some Questions
Aid Projects, People Systems, Society — by Craig Mackintosh February 1, 2010
Does Scientology and permaculture’s People Care ethic conflict? And, if so, should this matter to permaculturists?
Preliminary Note: Comments from people who sound like they haven’t read all of this post in its entirety will not be moderated through. I want no ill-thought-out, off-the-cuff comments here. Thank you.
This post won’t be an easy one to formulate so as to avoid controversy. Indeed, avoiding controversy on this topic is likely impossible. But, sometimes when you try to adhere to principle you’re given tasks that are not easy, pleasant or welcome. I’ll state right now that I write this article reluctantly. Making the decision to do so took some deliberation, and was also encouraged by the prompting of others who have emailed me privately with the same shared concern. In this post I will attempt to be objective and respectful – and I hope anyone who comments will endeavour to do this as well.
Comments (39)Permaculture and the Western Syndrome
Aid Projects, Deforestation, Food Forests, General, Insects, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Society, Trees — by Warren Brush January 30, 2010
For tens of thousands of years intact peoples from around the world have been intricately woven into the fabric of the landscape that nourishes them. Culture itself has sprung from the land through the people’s relationship with all that sustains them. This is not as esoteric as it sounds… Imagine a group of people who live in a particular watershed with a distinct mix and availability of flora and fauna, weather patterns, sun angles, sound resonance, distance to other bio-regions, etc. Everyday necessity would be provided for by these and other more subtle structures and influences that would provide unique implements for survival, foods, hunting practices, shelters, musical instruments, honoring practices, ceremonies and stories. These peoples have known the origins stories of all that give them life, this in turn became the foundation of true, intact culture where the land would express itself very tangibly through the people
Permaculture in the West Bank
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Urban Projects — by Sakina Grome January 26, 2010
A spotlight on Marda Permaculture Farm, Palestine
Marda Permaculture Farm, Palestine
Olive trees, some over a thousand years old, grow in the shadows of the settlement on the hillside above, their gnarled old trunks spiraling towards the open sky. Tended through the generations by local farmers in a once verdant countryside, they stand as a testament to human and ecological resilience in an occupied land.
The village of Marda (pop. 2,600) is located about twenty kilometres south of Nablus in the Salfit District in the West Bank of Palestine, beneath one of the largest illegal Israeli settlements, Ariel.
Comments (4)Ho avy: Growing a Future for Madagascar
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Eco-Villages, Education Centres, Energy Systems, Food Forests, Land, Nurseries & Propogation, Trees, Village Development — by Martina Petru January 25, 2010
Editor’s Note: This is an update for the Ho avy project.
A gentle slice of moon on the star crowded sky of southwestern Madagascar just set gracefully and yet another day is over; we are now in the second half of January 2010.
And what day is today: Monday, Wednesday or perhaps Sunday? We easily lose track when in the field, especially during our prolonged stays – keeping busy in the nursery, forest and the village of Ranobe with several community participatory projects – keeping the momentum of excitement and action. The dynamics are encouraging and there is wonderful energy flowing. Every day is somewhat special; ups and downs along the journey to the ultimate balance. Capacity building is about trust building and about generosity, patience, humbleness as well as discipline. It’s a wonderful lesson for all of us, for ho avy team and for FIMPAHARA.
Comments (3)ABC Talks to Geoff Lawton About Haiti
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Craig Mackintosh January 21, 2010
In the following short podcast, PRI Managing Director Geoff Lawton talks to ABC radio about the challenges of Haiti and the opportunity to heal both the people and the landscape by giving local people meaningful work in implementing intelligent permaculture designs to rebuild on a sustainable basis.
Click play to listen.
ABC Talks to Geoff About Haiti
Further Reading:
Comments (5)Permaculture Master Plan: Planting up the Global Garden
Aid Projects, Bio-regional Organisations, Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Development & Property Trusts, Eco-Villages, Economics, Education Centres, Ethical Investment, Networking Sites, People Systems, Project Positions, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Andy Homer January 20, 2010
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.
Letters from Sri Lanka – Sarvodaya’s Home Gardens
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conservation, Demonstration Sites, Eco-Villages, Education Centres, Energy Systems, People Systems, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh January 16, 2010
Part VI of a series – If you haven’t already, please read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV and Part V before continuing. This series is part of my work for the Sustainable (R)evolution book project.
A coconut shell is an excellent, biodegradable planter.
The coir (husk fibre) is extracted and mixed with soil to become a potting mix
with particularly good water retention capacity (the fibre reduces evaporation).
All photographs © Craig Mackintosh
The world’s largest water harvesting earthworks has transformed Sri Lanka, or at least large parts of it, from aridity to lushness. This mainframe design provides biological resources that villagers can use to maximise biodiversity for personal and environmental health. In similar fashion the ‘mainframe design’ of the ‘invisible structures’ of Sarvodaya’s community network provide avenues for the free flow of permaculture information to help achieve this goal. The good news is that many villagers are making use of these resources and this potential, despite constant attempts by Big Agri to lure them, through offers of free product samples and demonstrations, into chemical dependency.
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