Permaculture Relief Corps Forming For Haiti Earthquake Response?
Aid Projects, Community Projects — by Evan Schoepke January 14, 2010
The remarkable history (and possible future) of permaculture disaster relief, by Evan Schoepke of punk rock permaculture
Devastation in Port Au Prince. Photo: Carel Pedre, via twitter
Two days ago the island of Hispanola was hit with a devastating 7.3 magnitude earthquake near Port-Au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. Many multiple story buildings have completely collapsed, including the major hospital in the region. Thousands may be killed or trapped in the rubble and aid is being mobilized from around the world. With little to no backup power, sewerage, water, housing, or food aid systems in place, Haiti, which is currently the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, is in a VERY DIRE SITUATION. Without a doubt, resources and expertise are moving en mass to Haiti, but beyond this temporary relief, what will sustain this nation of ten million people when it’s left in an even poorer position than ever before? This is where permaculture design comes in, with an adaptable and ever-evolving tool kit that can be of vital assistance in disaster relief and the long recovery period to follow.
Comments (60)Practicing Permanent Agriculture on Moloka’i
Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Land, Swales — by Jill Ross
A follow-up to PRI’s Planning & Implementing a Permaculture Project course
Before…
On November 15th, a group of relative strangers gathered on the dry, red dirt of Moloka’i with the same question firing in their minds. How will we create permanent agriculture on this parched, eroded acre of red dust?
Comments (2)Letters from Sri Lanka – Sarvodaya Builds Community and National Resilience, Part II
Aid Projects, Alternatives to Political Systems, Community Projects, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor December 31, 2009
Part V of a series – If you haven’t already, please read Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV before continuing. This series is part of my work for the Sustainable (R)evolution book project.
Post-civil war security in Sri Lanka
All photographs © Craig Mackintosh
Standing, jostling in a small space with 15,000 people of mixed ethnicity and religion, just after a deadly civil war had been quashed by Sri Lanka’s government forces, could make a person feel a tad jittery – particularly when the event that attracted the aforesaid 15,000 people was in respect to Lord Kathirgaman, a six-headed Hindu god of war.
But here I was.
Comments (2)The Panya Permaculture Project & the Living Seeds Festival
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments — by Leah Galvin December 30, 2009
Recently, The Panya Permaculture Project here in Thailand collaborated with Pun-Pun (an organic farm, seed-saving operation, and sustainable living and learning centre) to launch The Living Seeds Festival; an annual festival to celebrate biodiversity, sustainable living and community in northern Thailand.
The Festival included local organic food, organic seed exchange, massage and natural healing, and demonstrations such as natural building, earthen ovens, organic gardening techniques, appropriate technology and more…. The main aim of the Festival was to raise awareness on our present food crisis. The loss of food varieties (both in the markets and our diets), damage to land and soil (caused by conventional farming techniques), and the fragility of food security were just some of the many issues presented.
Comments (2)Letters from Sri Lanka – Sarvodaya Builds Community and National Resilience
Aid Projects, Alternatives to Political Systems, Community Projects, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor December 18, 2009
Part IV of a series – If you haven’t already, please read Part I, Part II and Part III before continuing. This series is part of my work for the Sustainable (R)evolution book project.
The 2300 year old sacred fig of Anuradhapura in north central Sri Lanka
All photographs © Craig Mackintosh
It was kind of humbling, and strangely reassuring, standing next to one of the oldest living trees in the world. It is, in fact, the oldest known human-planted tree. Its limbs are aided by vertical supports now, lest they tumble, but despite being 2300 years old, its wide spreading branches were still flush with green leaves.
Comments (3)PRI at the Markets
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Eco-Villages, Education Centres, Markets & Outlets, People Systems, Social Gatherings, Village Development — by Jay Kimber December 15, 2009
Jay Kimber at the stall
Recently Zaytuna Farm, home base for the Permaculture Research Institute, took their surplus produce and information to the (very) local craft and produce market in the Channon, situated less than 2 km from the farm.
Comments (7)In Transition – the Movie
Alternatives to Political Systems, Community Projects, Consumerism, DVDs/Books, Eco-Villages, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, People Systems, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor
In Transition 1.0: from oil dependence to local resilience, available now!
The title says it all. Sit back and enjoy the latest work from the Transition Towns movement. You can watch in parts via YouTube below, or if you prefer, catch the whole thing in one hit on Vimeo.
‘In Transition’ is the first detailed film about the Transition movement filmed by those that know it best, those who are making it happen on the ground. The Transition movement is about communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities. It is positive, solutions focused, viral and fun. – TransitionCulture.org
Part I
An Urban Gardener Feeds a Community
Bird Life, Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, Consumerism, Eco-Villages, Food Shortages, Markets & Outlets, People Systems, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Sarah Gorman December 10, 2009
Bronwyn’s urban backyard is teeming with diversity. It is providing local families with nutritious food through her Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), but she doesn’t think she is doing anything exceptional. Students from Mulloon Creek Natural Farm’s Permaculture Design Certificate course recently visited Bronwyn Richards’ home in Braidwood, NSW, Australia. They learnt how an urban gardener manages to provide a constant supply of organic vegetables not only for her own family, but five others.
Comments (3)Exploring Dryland Strategies for Resilience – Atacama, Northern Chile
Community Projects, Developments, Education Centres, News — by Grifen Hope November 27, 2009
Desert Flowers
Recently we had a whirlwind tour of Atacama in the north of Chile, the driest place on earth. This was a learning experience rather than teaching – in this hostile and vulnerable landscape that has been occupied for thousands of years we find strategies for building resilience.
Comments (2)Permaculture Takes Off at Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation, South Dakota
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Education Centres — by Cory Brennan November 24, 2009
People in the Poorest County in the U.S. Take on Permaculture
At Pine Ridge Lakota reservation in South Dakota, Bryan Dean’s cattle ranch embraces thousands of acres of tribal and private lands. One watershed on the range covers 3000 acres of rolling prairie hills and canyons – in heavy rains a wall of water rushes through the eroded beds. The prairie is covered with stunted bufflegrass, a tough pioneer grass that can survive drought, cattle grazing and other abuse, rather than the rich, diverse mixture of tall grasses, wildflowers and other plants that covered the prairie 100 years ago.
Comments (3)BK Farmyards – a Subversive Urban Farming Concept
Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, Urban Projects — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor November 22, 2009
Here’s a worrying trend – people growing food in back yards! Whatever next!?
Stacey Murphy is obviously an enemy of all that is good in our consumption-oriented world. Almost certainly a deceptively slippery character, she positively oozes with dangerously contagious enthusiasm in this clip about her Brooklyn based urban guerilla BK Farmyards network, who, like the Portland, Oregon YourBackyardFarmer people I wrote about last year, are growing food for urbanites right in customers’ own back yards.
NYC’s Cool New Backyard Farms: Growing More Than Just Produce from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.
Don’t let that smile and the gorgeous back yard greenery fool you. Let’s face it, this just plain doesn’t make sense. We, the human race, persistently tried backyard farming for thousands of years. We grew food right where we lived and laboured. It didn’t work, of course, and we headed into the bright new age of the ‘Green Revolution’ instead. How do I know it didn’t work? Well, it’s obvious. It’s because we’re not doing it any more – duh!
Comments (2)Natural Construction in Argentina – Trends of an Emerging Permacultural Area
Building, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Mariano Anastassiades November 19, 2009
The small city of El Bolsón is located in the southwest of the Río Negro Province, right in the angle formed by the Andes Mountain Range and the 42nd parallel (provincial border with Chubut).
It is a place known internationally by its people and its wonderful natural beauty. People from all over the world have come to this region that lies under the magnificence of the Piltriquitrón mountain – finding a fertile land for their dreams of living an alternative experience to the city kind of life.
Since the 70s long haired Argentines from the big cities as well as foreigners came to experience the hippie way of life and their influence is still present. El Bolsón is well known for the organic production of home brewed beer, fruit, bread, jams, milk, yoghurt, cheese, ice cream, cosmetic products and other items that visitors love to find. It has also become the site to celebrate the National Hops Festival and international events such as the Moonbow Festival (a kind of electronic Woodstock party) and the Jazz Festival that takes place every December.
Comments (0)Permablitz Gold Coast – Saturday 21 November
Community Projects, Developments, News, Social Gatherings, Urban Projects — by Leah Galvin November 17, 2009
We are having a Permablitz this weekend here on the Gold Coast, below are the details.
Event: Permablitz Gold Coast
Date: Saturday 21st November
Time: 9am onwards
Venue: Ingleside State School, 893 Tallebudgera Creek Road, Tallebudgera Valley QLD (15 minutes drive from Burleigh Heads Beach).
Details: Come along for a morning of gardening. We will be revamping the school’s existing garden beds and replanting. The school is super keen to get their veggie garden going! If you have any manure, compost, tools, and a plate of food to share… bring them along! There will be morning tea provided!
If you need more details, please contact me on leg30 (at) hotmail.com
Comments (0)Tigger Does Mullumbimby Community Gardens
Comedy Break, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Swales, Urban Projects, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor November 13, 2009
Regular readers will have noted a couple of posts – here and here – covering the new and developing Mullumbimby Community Gardens project underway not so far from Zaytuna Farm (about half an hour east, if travelling by car, or a day’s ride on horseback).
Readers of those posts will have seen the panoramas I took to try to keep track of progress. Well, despite clambering up onto their shipping-container-come-tool-shed to take those shots, I always thought that I wasn’t quite high enough to really do the place justice.
So, this time I thought I’d go along with a pogo stick in hand! I had to use a super-fast shutter speed, as travelling at these heights does make for shaky hand-holding of the camera. After several attempts, and not a few bumps and bruises, I managed to get a couple of publishable shots.
Taken after the fifth bounce, when I had a bit of a rhythm going
Mullumbimby Community Gardens Makes Headway
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Food Shortages, Society — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 1, 2009
Do you remember that a couple of months ago we headed a little east to help some Mullumbimbians out with earthworks advice? Geoff and Nadia did their cool observing/surveying thing, a few interns went along for good measure to get some experience, and I took a few snaps so you guys didn’t need to feel left out.
Anyway, a few days ago I had opportunity to revisit the site on my way somewhere else. I wanted to take an updated panorama so you can watch progress. While there I was lucky enough to catch up with Jeannette Martin – one of the main driving forces behind getting this new Community Garden off the ground (or onto the ground, as the case may be).
First – take a peek at the ‘before’ and ’slightly later’ shots below:
before…
…a bit later (click to see both panoramas in full view)
