permaculture

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson <lakinroe@silcom.com>]

Hi everyone
	I have collected  articles on the Permaculture Project in Macedonia from 
UN sites and more.
	I went to Louisiana and heard four of the Macedonians working on the 
Project give a talk plus Australian Permaculture Teacher Designer Geoff 
Lawton. Also present where Andrew Johnson (Permaculture Graduate) Manager 
of the Cegrane Refugee Camp  largest Refugee Camp in the Balkans. For more 
info go to Northern Louisiana Commerce Center website at www.nwlcc.com and 
check out there newsletter. NWLCC are hoping to establish a Permaculture 
based Training Education Center for International Aid at the former 
Military Base . Here is a Workshop posting "The goal would be to further 
understand the current need for an educational training center for 
emergency aid and post crisis development"  This is just one approach. Hope 
this will help the discussion
                                                Wes Roe Santa Barbara Ca
ps below is a radio interview with some of the folks

PERMACULTURE IN MACEDONIA  http://www.loe.org/archives/000721.htm#feature4

                     TOOMEY: It's Living on Earth. I'm Diane Toomey.
                     Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians fled the
                     war in the former Yugoslav republic of Kosovo last
                     year. Nearly 50,000 of them camped near the
                     northern villages of Cegrane and Forino in
                     neighboring Macedonia. After the refugees returned
                     to Kosovo their camp was left in shambles, but
                     international aid workers and local residents
                     decided to rehabilitate the site and give it a new
                     mission. It will soon be a facility to teach the
                     principles of something called permaculture, a
                     design for living that makes sustainable use of the
                     land and its waste. Cindy Shiner reports from
                     Cegrane, Macedonia.

                     (Hammering)

                     SHINER: Workers at the Rudina mountain site are
                     laboring feverishly in the dry midday heat. Some
                     are assembling the frame of the new library and
                     teaching facility.

                     (A chainsaw revs up)

                     SHINER: Others are perched on top of the building's
                     skeleton, cutting wooden beams down to size.
                     They're rushing to finish before an upcoming party
                     to celebrate the end of phase two of the Rudina
                     permaculture project. When Albanian refugees left
                     the 125-acre emergency camp last year to return to
                     their homeland, tent poles, wire, and scrap metal
                     remained as monuments, both to the refugees and
                     to the money spent to house them. Now, with
                     donations from CARE International and other
                     organizations, a plan is underway with a few goals
                     in mind: to rework the land, establish a
                     permaculture demonstration and teaching center,
                     and foster local economic development.

                     (Water flows)

                     SHINER: Standing next to a man watering one of
                     thousands of fruit trees planted on Rudina ,
                     National Manager Patjim Saiti is inspecting the
                     mountainside through dark rectangular sunglasses.
                     Trees are growing, grass is sprouting, vegetables
                     are flourishing….

                     (Digging)

                     SHINER: …all in an area whose name means "dry
                     mountain."

                     SAITI: This might have been dry for centuries, I can
                     say, and no products have been produced here.
                     With our working less than eight months, now we
                     have our products, and we have changed the
                     history. We are proud of that.

                     SHINER: Permaculture is a concept derived from the
                     words "permanent" and "agriculture." Ecology is
                     used as the basis for designing integrated systems
                     of food production, housing, technology, and
                     community, that can continue without degrading
                     the environment. Since the idea was developed in
                     Australia in the 1970s, hundreds of permaculture
                     sites have sprung up around the globe, including
                     the United States. Environmentalist Dave Clark
                     wants to spread the word about permaculture. He
                     says it's necessary to help offset damage caused by
                     conventional agriculture, or monoculture, whereby
                     the soil is depleted of its nutrients.

                     CLARK: We're losing our soil at an incredible rate.
                     It takes nature, in a good situation, maybe 100
                     years to build up a couple of inches of topsoil. And
                     the wheat fields of west Australia and other parts
                     of the world are losing soil at the rate of an inch a
                     year. That's 1,000 tons to the acre per crop. The
                     production of sugar, for every ton of white sugar
                     that goes on our tables, we lose 53 tons of soil
                     forever, into the sea. This is obviously not
                     sustainable.

                     SHINER: Permaculture, he says, can help. Through
                     mulching and planting a diversity of vegetation, a
                     couple inches of soil per year can be saved.

                     (Footfalls)

                     IZAIRI: Behind you.

                     SHINER: Xhemile Izairi is a leader of one of the
                     women's on-site teams. Here, she plucks weeds
                     from around frilly heads of lettuce in a flourishing
                     garden that makes use of the permaculture
                     techniques of companion planting and curved
                     garden beds. In companion planting, different types
                     of plants growing together help one another, sort of
                     an agricultural democracy. The strong scent of
                     marigolds wards off some pests, and the roots of
                     one plant harvest the nutrients another needs. Few
                     women had ever held jobs in the Muslim community
                     around Rudina before this project began. Many of
                     them were already good gardeners, and the high
                     pay was something their husbands couldn't ignore.
                     Improving gender relations was an unexpected
                     social benefit of the permaculture program.

                     (Gathering straw)

                     SHINER: Recycling is another key component of
                     permaculture. Straw, for example, is a waste
                     product of agricultural production. Here at Rudina,
                     it's baled and used for building, because it's big
                     and easy to handle. This makes for thick walls,
                     which help with energy efficiency. Something
                     important in a poor area like Macedonia, which has
                     bitter winters and scorching summers.

                     (Clanking)

                     SHINER: The bales are secured with cement and
                     chickenwire. Architect Samantha Smith says all of
                     the buildings on the site were built with recycled
                     material, including some of the thousands of
                     blankets donated during the war.

                     SMITH: One of the big parts of this project was to
                     find a use for this junk. For the roofs, for example,
                     in those roundhouses is old fencing wire that's not
                     good for fencing any more, and refugee blankets
                     dipped in concrete and strung out over the frame.
                     And then we cover them in thatch to make them
                     look pretty, because while using the refugee
                     blankets was a good idea, though it wasn't very
                     pretty.

                     SHINER: But it was economical. Each year hundreds
                     of millions of dollars go toward relief efforts around
                     the world. Emergency refugee camps are often built
                     on poor-quality land. And grading it for temporary
                     housing damages the ground further. Reversing that
                     costs money. Some international donors see Rudina
                     as a model for how to respond to future refugee
                     crises. Patty Culpepper is with the U.S. Bureau of
                     Population Refugees and Migration, a key funder of
                     the Rudina endeavor.

                     (Milling voices)

                     CULPEPPER: This project is, basically it's a
                     benchmark of how you can use what's available in a
                     former refugee camp. Used in a positive way to
                     build something lasting for a community that used
                     to be a host community. I think the important thing
                     that I've seen in this particular project is how the
                     project leaders have sought to ensure that the local
                     communities feel that they are participants in the
                     project, and that they understand what's going on,
                     and they are part of the decision-making. And that
                     sort of grassroots decision-making, grassroots
                     democratization is really, I think, something that
                     sometimes is overlooked.

                     SHINER: And in a politically volatile area such as
                     the Balkans, that makes the potential benefits of
                     permaculture that much more striking. Rudina
                     Project Coordinator Brooke Watson says
                     permaculture is about working together and
                     improving lives.

                     WATSON: We've got recycling and we've got
                     harvest reduction and education courses, and all of
                     these things are ways in which the community can
                     make money on an ongoing basis. So our idea is to
                     try and empower the community, not only to deal
                     with their own issues but to help other communities
                     deal with their issues.

                     (Milling voices, laughter, shouting)

                     SHINER: Hundreds of people from the communities
                     surrounding Rudina pass through the site's gates to
                     celebrate the permaculture project, and remember
                     the refugees. The guests dip their hands in blue,
                     white, and green paint, and leave their hand prints
                     on two entrance walls: a symbol of working
                     together and the refugee plight.

                     (Music plays amidst the voices)

                     SHINER: The crowd files past the gardens, fruit
                     trees, and straw bale buildings, and settles back at
                     the site's amphitheater. Among the guests are two
                     mayors from rival political parties. All here to enjoy
                     the progress of this permaculture community.

                     (Music continues)

                     SHINER: For Living on Earth, I'm Cindy Shiner in
                     Cegrane, Macedonia.

                     (Music continues, up and under)

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