permaculture

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

hi everyone
Permaculture & Sustainable Aid for the 21st Century: How to Change the 
Paradigm of Emergency Disaster Relief & Development to a Model of Life 
Affirming Assistance is the big event for Santa Barbara Permaculture 
Network this year on June 30, July 1, 2. As the title suggests, it tackles 
a huge subject. As Americans we have often thought of emergency relief in 
terms of sending aid to other countries, after Hurricane Katrina we also 
see a need to know how to respond in a better way to our own natural 
disasters. Natural disasters, wars, famines, how does the human family 
respond to each others needs during these stressful times? What new models 
can we create to assist each other better? Come listen to those who have 
been doing this work for many years with permaculture as a tool---with not 
only immediate emergency relief, but longer term recovery and development 
efforts, and land care strategies that permaculture can provide. Geoff 
Lawton, Nadia Abu Yahia and Andrew Jones are the key speakers, please see 
below for bios and more info about the event

Permaculture & Sustainable Aid for the 21st Century
Workshop and Lecture
How to change the paradigm of emergency disaster relief and development to a
model of life affirming assistance.

Fri June 30 7pm Lecture Geoff Lawton
Fe Bland Auditorium  Santa Barbara City College West Campus  $15

Sat & Sun July 1 & 2, Workshop with Geoff Lawton, Nadia Lawton, and Andrew 
Jones including Panels discussions on Rebuilding Local Economies with Fair 
Trade Companies and Local Residents who went to help in New Orleans and more

Cost $160 Two Days , $90 per day or (Payments before June 8 - $120) Student 
$120
Fe Bland Auditorium, Business Communication Forum (BC Forum) Santa Barbara 
City College, West Campus   721 Cliff Dr Santa Barbara, CA 93109-2394

For more info and registration Santa Barbara Permaculture Network 
margie@sbpermaculture.org 805-962-2571
www.sbpermaculture.org
Checks made to Santa Barbara Permaculture Network PO Box. 92156 Santa 
Barbara Ca 93190

Nadia Abu Yahia (Lawton) was born in the Dead Sea Valley in Jordan. She 
learned traditional ways of land use from her father, an expert farmer and 
herbal healer of Palestinian, Bedouin descent. She later went on to 
complete her permaculture diploma in design, education and site development 
and has recently become a registered permaculture teacher.


Andrew Jones Australian has a background in ecology, permaculture, 
humanitarian aid and international development. Past 15 years has worked in 
a humanitarian aid and development context in the Middle East , the 
Pacific, Asia , Europe and the United States . With CARE International, the 
International Rescue Committee, Counterpart International and SurfAid 
International., United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Macedonia 
and Albania , and with the United Nations Environment Program most recently 
in Indonesia in a post-tsunami recovery context. (www.fullcirclellc.com) .

Geoff Lawton one of the world's foremost experts in "permaculture," 
providing consulting, designing, teaching and project implementation for 
clients that include private individuals, groups, communities, governments, 
aid organizations, non-government organizations and multi-national 
companies. Lawton has served clients in 17 different countries, including 
Jordan , Iraq , Egypt , USA , Mexico , Macedonia , Vietnam , Costa Rica , 
Brazil , Ecuador , Peru , England , Denmark , Australia and the South 
Pacific. Permaculture Research Institute (www.permaculture.org.au ).

QUOTES

Aid is a necessary but delicate affair; some forms of aid can produce
dependency, facilitate further inequities in a society, destroy or impair
cultural values, decrease the yields of the environment, upset balance
nutritional habits, or actually destroy sustainable local ecologies or
agricultural systems.
Bill Mollison Permaculture Design Manual

Overseas experience has shown that every dollar spent on disaster 
mitigation helps to save three dollars in later disaster response and 
recovery. Indonesian experience shows a bigger ratio of around 7 to 1. 
Overseas experience has also shown that it takes a community between four 
to twenty years to recover from a major disaster, depending largely on its 
level of preparedness.
Yayasan Indonesian Development of Education and Permaculture Community 
Based Disaster Management (CBDM) Kit
www.idepfoundation.org

War is a serious destroyer of sustainability and social coherence, and the 
genocide which followed the war in Cambodia further reduced sustainability. 
Bombing destroyed natural resources, cultivated areas and cultural heritage. .
War also reduces the ability of a country to withstand undesirable foreign 
influences....Foreign and disinterested world monetary organizations direct 
fiscal policy and reconstruction with no regard to sustainable outcomes, 
and blame the country for its poverty or inability to cope with their 
decisions. Sustainability finds itself in crisis and crisis requires relief.

"Sustainability in a Worn Torn Nation" Permaculture Projects in Cambodia, 
Rosemary Morrow , Hopedance Magazine



. In the aid context when things are really rough you get the sense that 
despair is almost a luxury that you can't afford because certainly the 
people around you for the most part are not wallowing in self-pity. They're 
getting on with their lives and doing their best. It's remarkable and 
humbling to work with people who are the focus of natural disasters or war 
and conflict because what you often see is an extremely high degree of dignity.
Andrew Jones Unpublished Interview for Permaculture & Sustainable Aid for 
the 21st Century Conference


I think the paradigm of aid and development is going to change drastically 
in the 21st century, because it needs to. Partly what we're dealing with, 
the reality of aid and development as it's currently practiced in broad 
senses is partly a result of having these massive global imbalances in 
wealth distribution, technological resources, and trade benefits.
Andrew Jones Unpublished Interview for Permaculture & Sustainable Aid for 
the 21st Century Conference


So I think that homegrown aid and regionally-based aid and networks between 
people are going to be the things that really grow and thrive as we're 
coming into a network age. I think that the ability for people to connect 
and work together as equals is of huge importance because that's actually 
going to be the most effective way of working with folks who are in 
situations of stress and facing challenges.
Andrew Jones Unpublished Interview for Permaculture & Sustainable Aid for 
the 21st Century Conference

For more info and registration Santa Barbara Permaculture Network 
margie@sbpermaculture.org 805-962-2571
www.sbpermaculture.org
Checks made to Santa Barbara Permaculture Network PO Box. 92156 Santa 
Barbara Ca 93190

Co sponsor
SBCC Environmental Horticulture Dept,  Environmental Studies Program Santa 
Barbara City College, Nutiva, Hopedance Media and Santa Barbara 
Permaculture Network