Arts Factory Backpackers – Photo Update
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites — by Geoff Lawton February 1, 2012
I was visiting Byron Bay on my last Sunday off in conditions where we have had a large amount of rain and some very unsettled weather with lots of storms. With the winds from the north, the surf conditions where very messy and unfavorable, as also were the fishing conditions, the sea was really unsettled and a lot of fresh water was flowing into the ocean.
So, I instead took the opportunity to visit some of our project work and was fortunate to visit the Arts Factory Backpackers’ garden. This was installed during a permaculture urban landscape course, reference the links below:
Comments (6)My First Week at Thailand’s Newest Permaculture Farm
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Eco-Villages, Education Centres, Village Development — by Theron Beaudreau January 26, 2012
In a rural village at the Southwest corner of the Isaan Plateau, just over an hour drive south of Thailand’s second largest city, Korat, a band of tenacious permaculturalists have just arrived at the site of their new home.
Over the course of the next year, infrastructure will be erected, community and teaching spaces will be established and a traditional corn and rice farm will undergo a dramatic metamorphosis. The work here has already begun… and I’d like to take you along for the ride!
Comments (11)Permaculture in Damaged Lands: Degradation and Restoration in New Mexico
Community Projects, Conservation, Courses/Workshops, Deforestation, Demonstration Sites, Eco-Villages, Education Centres, Energy Systems, Gabions, Irrigation, Land, People Systems, Processing & Food Preservation, Regional Water Cycle, Rehabilitation, Society, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Storm Water, Swales, Village Development, Waste Water, Water Contaminaton & Loss, Water Harvesting — by Dan Smith January 21, 2012
A certain coal-strewn road in Madrid, New Mexico
— the remnants of a now defunct railway.
Alternately barren and spectacular, the southwest United States has piqued the imagination of Americans and people across the world for generations. The site of gold rushes, Native American homelands, and a culture of lawlessness that has yet to fade completely, much of the land was degraded and destroyed long before Hollywood discovered how to cash in on retelling stories from its checkered past. Films may glorify the breadth and scope of the iconic terrain, but the essence and character of the Southwest ecology has been drastically altered; it little resembles what it once was.
Comments (6)Gold Coast Permaculture Prepares for Another Great Year Ahead
Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Land, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Permaculture Gold Coast January 19, 2012
by Vanessa Fernandes
Dani, Mel, Judy, Kristy and Pond in the house garden
2011 has been seminal in the development of permaculture on the Gold Coast, NSW, Australia. The incorporation of Gold Coast Permaculture (GCP) early in the year has seen the organisation and the concept become very much integrated into the Gold Coast community sector. Some of the sector we have cooperation with are:
- Employment Plus, the employment arm of the Salvation Army
- The Smith Family provides contact with schools and organisations that wish to create gardens
- The Department of Corrective Services
- Federation House who are working with individuals who have become very marginalised
- We work with local government and other not-for-profit groups.
We are also blessed to have many individual volunteers who have embraced the project.
Comments (3)Permaculture at The Farm
Conservation, Demonstration Sites, Eco-Villages, Education Centres, Global Warming/Climate Change, Land, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Structure, Water Contaminaton & Loss, Water Harvesting — by Albert Bates January 13, 2012
 Former stockbroker Brian Bankston now calls himself the “Keyline Cowboy” after a carbon farming course at The Farm’s Ecovillage Training Center transformed his life. He quit his job, bought a keyline plow and compost tea brewer, and moved to The Farm. |
Climate Prophylaxis
For the past 10 years or so, the land management decisions of The Farm (a 40-year-old intentional community on 1750 acres in rural Tennessee, pop. ~200) have been informed by permaculture. Permaculture was influential in the design and early curricula of The Farm’s Ecovillage Training Center in 1994, and since many, if not all, of the community’s residents have now been exposed to it, it is not surprising to learn that a number of people serving on various village committees, as well some in public office in the surrounding county, have Permaculture Design certificates.
Our relationship with permaculture traces back to our connection to Bill Mollison, one of permaculture’s founders, who received the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” in the year after we did. RLA winners are a gregarious lot and gather from time to time to swap tales, so we have been fortunate to share such meetings with Bill over the past 30 years. We are also fortunate to have had the influence of an erstwhile neighbor, Peter Bane, who for many years published the quarterly Permaculture Activist from his former home in Primm Springs, Tennessee.
Today, as a permaculture instructor, I travel to many of the convergences of the movement and have come to know many practitioners. Our Farm team has taught permaculture courses on six continents and in 27 countries now, so it would only be surprising if The Farm did not have permaculture going on.
Comments (5)UMass Permaculture Gardens Win National Award and $25,000 in Gifts
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor December 14, 2011
As an addition to the last post, where Ryan Harb tells us all about his work getting permaculture demonstration gardens growing in universities in the U.S. of A., here’s a great update, and excellent news, on this project:
Comments (1)Ryan Harb: Permaculture at U.S. Universities – UMass Amherst Case Study (IPC Presentation – Video)
Community Projects, Conferences, Demonstration Sites, Education, Education Centres, Land, Presentations/Demonstrations, Society, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor
Permaculture at U.S. Universities – UMass Amherst Case Study
Ryan Harb gave this 1-hour talk at the Tenth International Permaculture Convergence (IPC10) in the Wadi Rum desert in southern Jordan in September 2011. Here’s a little background to get you interested:
Comments (1)UMass Amherst transformed a 1/4 grass lawn on campus into a thriving, abundant, permaculture garden during the 2010-2011 academic year. Learn how this student-led project can be easily replicated and spread to other campuses, institutions.. any piece of land for that matter. UMass Amherst is one of the first university’s undertaking a project like this, directly on campus, and supplying the food to its dining commons.
Introducing Murujan Permaculture Design: From Deserts to Meadows
Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites — by Giovanni Galluzzo December 10, 2011
Murujan Permaculture Design is a newly formed Permaculture Design Consultancy based in Malaysia. We are happy to announce that we plan to host a Permaculture Design Course taught by Mustafa Fatih Bakir (see Mustafa’s WPN profile here) at the property of our first clients.
Roots of Murujan Permaculture
I was in Law School in the United States when my Land Use professor mentioned the fact that topsoil in the midwest, which had an average depth of twelve feet in the 1950s, was now only averaging a depth of six feet. While this seemed to be lost on most of my peers, I found this statement very alarming. I then began an intense research binge discovering everything from peak oil to water wars. Needless to say, I was looking for something like permaculture but I did not yet know what it was.
Comments (2)Greening the Desert Video – now also with French Subtitles
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Compost, Conservation, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Food Forests, Fungi, Irrigation, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Salination, Soil Biology, Soil Conservation, Swales, Urban Projects, Village Development, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor December 2, 2011
Many thanks to Jeremy, Christina, Erik, Lamia and Kristen for all the work that went into creating the French translation subtitle file for both Parts I & II of the Greening the Desert video below. As a result, I’ve been able to upload a version suitable for your French-speaking friends and family, should you have some.
After clicking play, click on the ‘CC’ button at bottom
of the video to enable the French subtitles
And, a big thanks must also go to Frank Gapinski for the Greening the Desert Part I video that has turned so many on to permaculture concepts. It’s amazing the impact a few minutes of video can have on the world!
P.S. Because of the hard-coded English subtitles in the original version of the video embedded above, English speakers would be better to watch it instead.
Comments (1)Planetary Permaculture Pilgrimage – Day Five
Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Tamara Griffiths November 17, 2011
by Tamara Griffiths and Delvin Solkinson
The ultimate compliment to a teacher is when your students make you redundant. — Geoff Lawton.
Day 5
The day started with storytelling. With twists and turns, laughs and
straight faces, Geoff tells us a bit about the origin of permaculture,
steeping us in a history rich with challenges and successes.
It was a wonderful yet exhausting last day. We all were to do 10 minute presentations but with 27 students and transition time this ended up taking more than 6 hours. A storm was brewing outside while the day stretched on, building a climatic climax to the experience here at Zaytuna.
It was 11:11:11 that day so at 11:11 am we joined people across the planet and meditated for peace and sustainability, praying that permaculture be empowered to do its work in the world.
It was amazing to see how many of us had been empowered and supported to grow through this dense week of training. Truly the people coming out of the course were not the same ones that went in. We had been upgraded and tooled to go back to all our different communities and to travel to places of need to help contribute in whatever way we could to advance permaculture education and practice.
Comments (0)Jordan Valley Permaculture Project Update: Post IPC Happenings
Aid Projects, Building, Community Projects, Conservation, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Irrigation, Land, Plant Systems, Regional Water Cycle, Rehabilitation, Salination, Storm Water, Swales, Terraces, Waste Systems & Recycling, Waste Water, Water Harvesting — by Dan Lewin November 11, 2011
An aerial view of the site
Although the landscape here could be seen as a model for scarcity, what there is an abundance of is rocks. The baked dusty earth barely passes for soil and during the summer there isn’t rain here for over six months. With valuable agricultural resources seemingly at a minimum, rocks can be incredibly valuable in the design of a sustainable human settlement. In the case of the Permaculture Research Institute of Jordan’s site (PRIJ), rocks have formed the main building blocks of the swales that form the back bones of this small farm. They surround the heavily mulched planting pits for the many varieties of trees here and they also can be used for another useful function which litres of my sweat has been testament to! They make up the substrate of the grey water system into which reeds are planted that feed on the water flowing through from the sinks and showers in the washing block.
Comments (3)Murad Alkufash: “Marda Permaculture Farm: Planting Seeds of Hope in the Occupied Territories”
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conferences, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Presentations/Demonstrations, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor
Murad Alkufash is a dedicated permaculturist. Considering where he lives, he must be. Or, perhaps because of where he lives he must be — as permaculture is a truly logical, and the only really lasting, solution to the problems surrounding him. Murad lives in the West Bank, and directly under one of the largest illegal settlements in Palestine. The biological and climatic environment he faces is quite challenging, yet the political environment is even more so. It’s one of the most complex political environments to be found in this tired old world.
Murad attended the recent Tenth International Permaculture Conference & Convergence (IPC10), and gave the following presentation on his work at the convergence in the Wadi Rum desert. As well as the video below, if you want a bit of background on Murad and his situation, you can read a feature post I did on this a while back.
Resources:
- Download Murad’s presentation (27mb PDF)
- Letters from the West Bank – Seeds of Hope Scattered from the West Bank’s First PDC
Letters from Jordan: ‘Greening the Desert – the Sequel’ Site Contrasts Against Jordan Insanities
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conservation, Consumerism, Deforestation, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Plant Systems, Regional Water Cycle, Rehabilitation, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Urban Projects, Water Contaminaton & Loss, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor November 8, 2011
Staring into the eyes of the future of Jordan, one wonders how things could be….
All Photographs © Craig Mackintosh
Al Jazeera’s very recent feature of the new ‘Greening the Desert’ site
Introduction
Why did the photojournalist cross the road? It sounds like the beginning of a joke, and, in a way, it was. I was standing at a busy road in Amman, Jordan, contemplating crossing. I say ‘contemplating’ as there were three lanes in each direction, and the traffic was moving fast. Several hundred metres away I spied a pedestrian overpass, but, before reason could sway impulse, I saw an opening and took it. Then, with three lanes behind me, standing proudly on the 1-metre wide centre strip, it seemed that the deity in charge of roads decided to conspire against me…. In the 37°C+ heat, I watched, waited, and then watched and waited some more. The minutes dragged by. A few times I ventured one foot forward, only to snatch it back again. The sun blazed. I began to have visions of being stuck here until the traffic slowed in the evening….
Comments (16)Kenya: Permaculture – Agriculture With a Green Touch
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, News, Society, Urban Projects — by Rosemary Quipp November 2, 2011
Editor’s Note: This article appeared as the cover story for Kenya’s main newspaper — the Daily Nation — helping give top exposure to the just-established PRI Kenya. Warren Brush (see also) sent this through, and has been the main driver in helping get PRI Kenya off the ground, or onto the ground, as the case may be. The article also appeared on AllAfrica.com. Here’s hoping this new work in Kenya can help invigorate the real kind of ‘development’ that too many countries have detoured around in their search for happiness.
Click for full view
A green oasis nestles on the barren expanse that is Nairobi’s south-east end, somehow managing to blossom between kennels of barking dogs and the exhaust fumes of an auto garage.
Overflowing with colourful vegetables and flowers, the lush patch of garden breaks the grey monotony of concrete and barbed wire, and provides a home to a dozen rabbits, chickens and quail.
Owned and run by the security and courier company Wells Fargo, this garden is the brainchild of the company’s operations director, Ms Gai Cullen.
Comments (2)Ethiopia’s Strawberry Fields Eco-Lodge – A Call for Participation
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Project Positions — by Alex McCausland October 28, 2011
Permaculture in Ethiopia stands on the edge of a sea of possibilities. This is a virgin land. The mighty plains of Abyssinia rise out of the Eastern Sahara, to become rolling fertile uplands, worked by farmers in the primeval mode that the modern westerner can only dream about nowadays, caricatured by the Shire in Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. It is a land where people live in little circular grass-roofed huts and make hay stacks with wooden pitch forks to feed their cattle through the dry season. They plough the deep fertile soils with oxen and sow a variety of crops, of which their most beloved is their own indigenous endemic grain t’eff, used to make the national staple food, injera.
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