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Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) and Palestinian-Australian cultural exchange with Dave Spicer (PRI Australia), Brad Lancaster (USA) and Murad Alkufash at Marda Permaculture Farm Palestine, with support from CAAR and Firedoll Foundation
Starts Jun 06, 2010 and runs for 12 day(s).
Note: This course is not organised and run by The Permaculture Research Institute. It is facilitated by another organisaton and meets the high teaching standards required by the Permaculture Institue.
The Permaculture Design Certificate course is an internationally-recognized, seventy-two hour course, on the completion of which participants will receive a Permaculture Design Certificate. The course provides an introduction to permaculture design, as set forth by movement founders Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. Host family stays and culinary workshops, an Arabic-language course, and hiking and history tours, are also offered with this PDC. Firedoll Foundation and the Council for Australian Arab Relations (CAAR) are sponsoring this course, which is currently open to Australian and Palestinian students. International students may register their interest with us and places may be offered at a later date. Palestinian students will be partially sponsored and have different PDC course rates, listed below. Scholarships seats have been reserved for local Palestinians, on an application basis.
- PDC course runs from the 6th-17th of June, 2010 (with a 1-day break in between which includes a visit to Salift Governorate and regional excursion).
- The Arabic-language course runs from the 3-5th of June.
- Hiking and History tours run from the 18th-19th of June
- Several cooking courses run in the evening hours.
The PDC serves as a foundation for further permaculture work and study, and is a prerequisite for the Diploma in Permaculture Design offered through The Permaculture Institute. Credit for this course is now accepted by a growing number of universities around the world.
To date, thousands of permaculture designers worldwide have been certified through this course; and they now comprise a global network of educators and ecological activists who influence major corporations, individuals creating new business alternatives, and groups of committed people working together to change the way we view and design into our landscapes.
The course covers sustainable living systems for a wide variety of landscapes and climates. It includes the application of permaculture principles to food production, home design, construction, and energy conservation and generation, and explores alternative economic structures and community strategies that support permaculture solutions.
Specific topics include:
- Ethics and principles of permaculture
- Eco-friendly home, neighborhood, and community placement and design
- Energy conservation/design techniques for all climates, with specific focus on arid hot regions
- Recycling and sustainable waste management
- Organic food production, poly-cultures, and plant guilds
- Water harvesting and management (including the harvest of rainwater, stormwater, graywater, air conditioning condensate, blackwater, and more)
- Ecological pest control
- Drought-proofing and flood-proofing landscapes
- Soil-building, soil-rehabilitation and erosion control
- Integrated livestock management
- Aquaculture
- Catastrophe preparedness and prevention
- Windbreaks and fire control
- Community building
The foundation for this course is the Permaculture Designer's Manual by Bill Mollison. Students are invited to bring details of their own sites or potential sites to consider during the course.
Course Instructors:
Brad Lancaster is a permaculture expert, dynamic teacher and consultant and designer of regenerative systems. He is the author of the award-winning book Rainwater Harvesting for the Drylands and beyond, the information-packed website www.HarvestingRainwater.com, and the Drops in a Bucket Blog. He lives his talk on an oasis-like eighth of an acre in downtown Tucson, Arizona, by harvesting over 100,000 gallons of rainwater a year where just 12 inches per year falls from the sky.
David Spicer has been involved in the permaculture movement for the last 10 years. In that time he spent 12 months as Farm Manager on Tagari Farm in Northern NSW, Australia with Geoff Lawton, and another six months at Geoff Lawton's Zaytuna Farm, near The Channon, NSW - home base for the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia. He also spent six months working for Bill Mollison in Tasmania as the Sisters Creek Project Manager for the Permaculture Institute. He has a broad experience in implementation of permaculture systems as well as building, earthworks, horticulture, forestry, keyline, compost teas and portable saw mills.
Murad Alkufash is Marda's Farm founder and is passionate about restoring the connection between his community and the land. Murad has practiced permaculture for many years and originally learnt through a project in Palestine. He has also trained in both Jordan and the USA and acted as an instructor with the Ecovillage Training Center at The Farm in Tennessee for 4 years prior to returning to Marda village to establish the Marda Permaculture Farm.
Important information about this course
Marda Permaculture Farm is a sustainable development NGO in the village of Marda in the West Bank of Palestine. The Marda Farm was founded in the fall of 2006 by permaculturist Murad Alkhufash, whose family has farmed the region for over ten generations. The project seeks to promote ecological, cultural, and economic resiliency in the region by developing a small-scale permaculture site that serves as a model and teaching center for local farmers and international permaculture students. The Farm is also recognized as a branch of the Global Village Institute, an international NGO based in Summertown, Tennessee.
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 Israeli settlements, Ariel.
Accommodation for the Course:
Accommodation will be with local families in Marda village, a great way to experience Palestinan life and hospitality. Breakfast and dinner will be eaten with your host family. There may also be an option to stay in local housing (with 4 students per room), although this option is primarily for local Palestinian students.
Climate:
The weather during the course will be warm-hot and dry. Some outdoor work and demonstrations will be undertaken but these will be arranged to occur during the cooler parts of the day.
Recommended to bring:
- Notebook and pen
- Sun Hat and sunglasses
- Good walking or working shoes
- Casual and comfortable clothing - natural fabrics recommended for coolness
- Sunscreen
- Water bottle
- Flashlight/headlamp
- Your own towel
- Ample supply of any needed medications
- Sandals
- Personal toiletries
Options:
- Arabic course - A 3-day, 8-hour per day, Arabic language course is offered prior to the PDC to enable students to more completely immerse themselves in the local culture.- Culinary workshops - Cooking classes with local families will be offered outside of course hours during the PDC. The culinary workshops can be booked and paid for on arrival in Palestine (final prices will vary depending on participants, estimated to be around $150 for 5 classes).
- Hiking and History tours - At the conclusion of the PDC there will be an option of taking a 1- or 2-day tour of the local area, which will combine hiking and visiting places of historical and current interest. Hiking and history tours can be booked and paid for once in Palestine (approx $100 p/day).
Booking:
For booking or payment enquiries, please email education@permaculture.org.au
For additional information about the course itself, or the location, directions and travel, please contact mardapermaculture@gmail.com and we can send you an information package. If you would like to discuss any issues regarding the course, please email your phone number and we will try and get back to you (if in Australia). Feel free also to use our group on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=169893544780&ref=ts
Your attendance at this course will help subsidize the education of local people.
All prices include homestay accommodation and meals.
For further information for this course please contact education@permaculture.org.au.
Course pricing / bookings
Prices in Australian dollars
| $800 | Main event - PDC (Currently open to Australians only) | This price has expired |
| $1000 | Optional - PDC with 3-day intensive Arabic language course, 8/hr lessons per day (Currently open to Australians only) | This price has expired |
| $550 | Course rate per person for Palestinian Organisations | This price has expired |
| $330 | For Palestinian individuals | This price has expired |
| $200 | Non-refundable deposit to secure booking - remainder due May 1st | This price has expired |
