Report on our Iranian Consultancy Trip of December 2008
Aid Projects, Compost, Conservation, Courses/Workshops, Dams, Developments, Earth Banks, Gabions, Land, News, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Swales, Trees, Water Harvesting — by Geoff Lawton February 24, 2009
Editor’s Note: Iran has been making headlines in the media a great deal over the last few years. Here’s a side to the story you don’t normally get to hear, as experienced by our own Geoff Lawton.
We are applying Permaculture techniques to restore the landscape
in the hottest place on the planet
In December 2008 it was our great pleasure and honour to be invited to Iran to work for the Forest Rangeland Watershed Management Organisation, originally formed in 1928 (see Word doc on their work here). We were working with different departments of the organisation, like the Sand Dune Fixation Department that was formed in 1958 for the Bureau of Desert Affairs. All of this falls under the central government’s main organisation of Jihad Agriculture Ministry. We were invited to teach a 10-day Permaculture course focusing mainly on desert rehabilitation.
Comments (9)Greening the Desert Project Outcomes Profiled
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conservation, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, Land, News, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Swales, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor January 29, 2009
Most readers will be familiar with the awesome, seemingly miraculous work Geoff and Nadia Lawton accomplished with the ‘Greening the Desert‘ project in Jordan (not to be confused with the new Jordan Valley Permaculture Project, where completely new miracles are under way).
Well, this work has now been well profiled in the ProAct Network’s recent release:
The Role of Environmental Management in Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation, Annex I, Case Studies (4.69mb PDF). Jump to page #59 in Acrobat Reader, or #98 if you’re scrolling by page numbers.
If you’re looking for more practical details on what happened, and is happening, there on the ground – this document should hit the spot, as it were.
Thanks to Andrew Jones for bringing this to my attention.
Comments (3)Street Orchards for Community Security
Biological Cleaning, Community Projects, Conservation, Food Forests, Food Plants - Perennial, Land, Potable Water, Regional Water Cycle, Rehabilitation, Roads, Soil Conservation, Storm Water, Trees, Urban Projects, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling, Waste Water, Water Contaminaton & Loss, Water Harvesting — by Brad Lancaster January 19, 2009
© Brad Lancaster, www.HarvestingRainwater.com
 Fig. 24.The heat island effect. An excessively wide, exposed, solar-oven-like residential street in Tucson, Arizona absorbs the sun’s heat during the day like a battery, then radiates it out at night. This local warming effect has raised summer temperatures in Tucson by 6°F (3°C) since the 1940s, which contributes to global warming since the higher temperatures result in people using air conditioners more, which are powered by electricity generated through the burning of coal. Note that no shade trees are planted in the public right-of-way along the street, leaving street and sidewalk baked. All runoff is drained off site leaving the development dehydrated. Reproduced with permission from “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1" |
My view of public streets was radically changed when I heard ecovillage designer Max Lindigger tell a story of an insightful walk he took with his grandfather. “Look there,” said his grandfather, pointing to condominiums being built on the once forested slopes above his village in the Swiss Alps. “That’s where we grew and gathered food during the war. The forests were common land, a reserve of community resources. What commons remain? Where will we grow and gather our food in the next catastrophe?”
I then looked at my Sonoran desert city of Tucson, Arizona and asked myself, “Where are my community’s forests, our commons? Where would we get our food in times of need?”
Comments (5)The Muffin Tin and the Sponge
Conservation, Potable Water, Regional Water Cycle, Roads, Storm Water, Swales, Waste Water, Water Contaminaton & Loss, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor January 10, 2009
Two simple ways of illustrating how to plant the rain
Brad Lancaster, author of the award-winning books “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond” and info-packed website www.HarvestingRainwater.com, demonstrates how we can get the most from the rain by planting it in the soil, then accessing it with living pumps of plants. These are simple concepts that help turn scarcity into abundance.
Water Worries
Biological Cleaning, Conservation, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Potable Water, Regional Water Cycle, Rehabilitation, Structure, Waste Water, Water Contaminaton & Loss, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor September 12, 2008
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink. – Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834). The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, II
If you look down on our earth from space, the predominant colour is blue. The surface of our earth is approximately 70% water. In that respect, perhaps our planet would have been better called the Ocean, than the Earth. Yet, excepting expensive, energy intensive and environmentally problematic desalinisation techniques (PDF), we cannot use it for our daily personal water intake requirements.
Comments (0)Convergence of Issues Leads to Southern California Permaculture Convergence, August 29-31, 2008
Conservation, News, Presentations/Demonstrations, Social Gatherings, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Storm Water, Water Contaminaton & Loss, Water Harvesting, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor August 31, 2008
Cooling off after the first day of the Southern California Permaculture Convergence,
hosted by the Quail Springs Learning Oasis and Permaculture Farm
Yesterday the Southern California Permaculture Convergence got underway. The word ‘convergence’ is the operative word here, and, ironically, to me at least, has a double meaning. Over the last couple of weeks, being here at Quail Springs just reminds me of the convergence of issues we face as a race, just as we ‘converge’ to network, share instruction and ideas, and find new ways to work together to face those same issues.
Let me explain, using an example very close to where we are today.
Comments (4)New Permaculturists in Kamiah, Idaho
Comedy Break, Food Plants - Annual, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor August 25, 2008
While on a consultancy at the future site of the Kamiah Permaculture Institute at Kim and Julie Pagliaro’s FNA Ranch, Geoff and Nadia visit the neighbor’s (Carol and David Johnson) permaculture garden in Kamiah, ID. Just a little exposure to permaculture by their neighbour’s students set them off on the high road to sustainability. You know how the advert goes – you tell two people, they tell two people, and so on, and so on….
Comments (1)
Regenerative Learning at Quail Springs
Courses/Workshops, DVDs/Books, Social Gatherings, Water Harvesting, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor August 23, 2008
If a Chumash Indian from a few centuries ago was to leap through time to our day, I’m sure he’d break down in tears to see what we’ve done to his world… and demand to be taken back. Actually, I’m confident he’d even make Iron Eyes Cody look apathetic.
Comments (4)Harvesting Water DVD released
DVDs/Books, Dams, Land, Swales, Water Harvesting — by Murray Gray April 11, 2008
Harvesting Water the Permaculture Way
Geoff Lawton’s new permaculture DVD Harvesting Water is selling well after a few weeks delay in January because of the foreign language subtitles that producer Frank Gapinski was waiting to incorporate into the DVD.
Click for more…
The excavator and the forest
Courses/Workshops, Dams, Land, Surveying, Swales, Water Harvesting — by sink February 27, 2008
Last training camp we were fortunate in having an excavator in operation on the farm. Earthworks were a go and water harvesting / tree growing systems were carved out harmonically into the landscape. Three new swale systems and a small dam were introduced, extending the productive edges on the farm. Click for more…
Comments (0)A Swale Plume clip in action from Geoff Lawton’s DVD “Harvesting Water – The Permaculture Way”
Conservation, DVDs/Books, Swales, Water Harvesting — by Murray Gray January 10, 2008
Comments (1)First big rain at SouthWoods
Dams, Swales, Water Harvesting — by Murray Gray July 24, 2006
Following up on Testing the Dam in SouthWoods in Minnesota, here’s a series of pics showing how the new swales handled a decent storm.
Click for more…
Testing the dam
Dams, Water Harvesting — by Murray Gray June 27, 2006
Following on from yesterday’s post on dams and swales in Minnesota, here are some pics of the system in action with the addition of the most important element: water.
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Dams and swales in Minnesota
Dams, Swales, Water Harvesting — by Murray Gray June 26, 2006
Hi folks! — we have been busy digging up Minnesota with dams and swales. This is just the beginning of the “Permaculture Research Institute for Cold Climates”. We’re now on route to California, hopefully to do some more serious digging. 
Here’s how we started:
Click thru for the entire photo series!
Comments (0)Use of permaculture under salinity and drought conditions
Aid Projects, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Salination, Swales, Water Harvesting — by Mohammed Ayesh February 1, 2005
Jordan is an arid country with limited water resources. The available renewable fresh water resources dropped drastically to an annual per capita share of 155 m3 in recent years compared to 3400 m3/cap/year in 1946. It is considered also as one of the 10 poorest countries worldwide in water resources (Countries with less than 500 m3/capita/year are regarded as having “absolute scarcity”).
In 2004, the total water use in Jordan was 866 million cubic meters (MCM) at the total population of about 5 million people. The total renewable resources in Jordan is estimated at 780 MCM include ground water at 275 MCM/year and surface water at 505 MCM/year of which only 70% is of economic use. An additional 143 MCM/year is estimated to be available from fossil aquifers. Brackish aquifers are not yet fully explored but at least 25 MCM/year is expected to be accessible for urban uses after desalination.
The demand on water use has been increased with increasing the socioeconomic development in the country. Agriculture consumes the major parts of water resources of about 62.5% of the available resources, domestic use consumes about 32.5% while industry about 4.3% and rural uses is 0.8% of the available water resources.
Click for more…
