permaculture

["keller" <ak.and.ak@on-line.de>]

> Seems the (information) rich get richer and the poor get nothing -
> again. The people that would most benefit from a Plants DB aren't
> being considered. Asia, South America and Africa should be catered
> for! And don't forget Australia and the Pacific :)

Thanks for saying that. Personally, I am interested in the project because
or Africa. The first species I would enter would be Gnetum Africanum ("Eru",
perenial vine growing in forests, with edible leafs. Leafs can be dried and
then stored or traded over some distance (thats also the problem of the
plant, it is now overharvested in the wild, I have even seen it in shops
here in Hamburg), have 23% or so protein...). There are so many interesting
plants there (food, medicinal and spices - njansan nuts, ndole, country
onion, ... ...), some of them threatened with extinction because of human
stupidity and with too little reserch being done on some of them.

>
> In fact, if the problem is the answer, perhaps funding for this Plants
> DB project might lay in the FAO, WHO or similar body, with emphasis in
> the funding application being that it is a global plants database. Any
> ideas on how much $$ it would be to create the DB??

That is an excelent Idea. Would be quite some work to extract the money from
them, but this should be tried. I recommend the "Worldwide Fundraiser's
Handbook - A guide for Southern NGOs and Voluntary Organisations" by Michael
Norton. I am just reading that book myself. Can't give much advice yet (I am
just starting in fundraising myself) but it should be tried to formulate the
project as a global development effort.

In fact what would be nice to have would be a permaculture fundraising
organisation that collects money to support importand pc-related projects,
especially in the poorer parts of the world (like Cameroon) or in
biodiversity hotspots (like Cameroon) or in desaster areas (e.g. getting a
pc training centre started in Afghanistan).

Does anybody here have experience in fundraising?

People should really get out of the "my garden is my castle" mentality.

> Wow, only six hours to Santa! Merry Christmas everyone :)

Just looked out of the window. Snow! We are having a white christmas, the
first time in years. Merry Christmas.

> Marcus

Andreas