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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] personal access to land

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  • From: "Tomas Remiarz" <tomasremiarz@cooptel.net>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] personal access to land
  • Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2008 17:24:44 -0000 (UTC)

Here is an example from West Yorkshire, a mixed urban/ rural area in
Britain. I worked with the group between 2000 & 2006, and can recommend
them as an example of ecological restoration and development of resilient
landscapes on a bioregional level, including woodland creation edible
landscaping. All done by a group without owning any land. The key is to
tap into the enlightened self-interest of the local land owners, and write
up sensible medium-term land management agreements. For more information,
you can check the website

http://treesponsibility.com/

and there's also a book about the project.

Good Luck!
Tomas

> As a food forester who advocates planting trees and has lived in various
> communities, I can vouch for the necessity of personal access to land in
> order to create sustainable systems, for multiple reasons.  Though I have
> personally created food forests on land I did not have permanent access
> to, it has been pretty futile to get others to plant trees on land they
> don't own.  Renters generally don't want to invest in land that they might
> not always live on, or that might be taken away, even if they have been
> there for 25 years.  And the food forests that I created were destroyed or
> neglected, anyway, once I left.  Annuals definitely have some advantages
> for people that don't have permanent access to land.  Perennial systems
> require a long-term view, and are often of a complexity that requires
> intimate, long-term relationships.  People are most likely to devote their
> energies to land when they feel they have permission to, and when they
> know they will
> be around to benefit from their work.  In addition, it is often hard to
> meld the different strategies of different managers.  As is many things,
> a project often thrives best when one person is mainly responsible for
> it.
>  
> Maybe my opinion is too heavily shaped by living in a capitalist,
> individualist culture where even the nuclear family is almost a thing of
> the past.  I would love to know more about the food forest ownership and
> management styles of other cultures (such as in Kenya, Kerala, Java, etc),
> but we should at least be realistic about what currently works in our own
> culture.  I have seen way too many idealistic projects fail because of the
> above.
>  
> Rain



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Tomas Remiarz - GreenLand Services
Ecological Restoration
Woodland Creation and Management
Permaculture Design, Practice & Teaching





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