permaculture

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

hi Jude
        Margie and I attended the IPC8 and will 
be reporting to the list our comments soon , we 
just got back on Sunday and are still catching up 
on our personal lifes after being away nearly 4 
weeks. But I will post a report from Robin 
Francis from Australia who posted this report on 
the Conference and Convergence on the Permaculture International Website
                wes

IPC8- Brazil - Report
by Robyn Francis ­ last modified 13-06-2007 21:22
 
http://www.permacultureinternational.org/Members/robynfrancis/ipc8-brazil-report

The 8th International Permaculture Convergence in 
Brazil in May 2007was a resounding success, with 
permaculture practitioners and representatives 
from 42 countries attending to share their work 
and experience. Following is a brief report.


Delegates from Australia, Argentina, NZ & Cuba at the Convergence
The 3-day public IPC8 conference was symbolically 
held in the green heart of Sao Paulo, the world’s 
third largest city. The conference theme of 
Greening Economics brought together bankers, 
financiers and grassroots economists with the 
permaculture movement. Presentation topics 
included ethical banking, the economic challenges 
of climate change, potential and pitfalls of 
carbon trading and taxing strategies, corporate 
social responsibility, local and complementary 
currencies and inspiring first-hand accounts of 
community responses to economic crisis from 
Argentina and Cuba. Highlights included Brock ‘s 
(USA) inspiring and thought provoking 
presentation on water and Paul Stamets 
relevations about the cutting edge of fungi 
research brought the entire 400-strong audience 
to its feet with a standing ovation. Roberto 
Perez presentation on the Cuba experience 
balanced humour and probing insights into the 
potential for community response to crisis and 
the ongoing challenges facing Cuba. In 
acknowledgement of the multilingual nature of 
conference participants and presenters, all 
delegates were issued with headphones for 
simultaneous translation of proceedings into 
English, Spanish and Portugese. The venue 
included a permaculture tradefair of mainly Latin 
American permaculture groups, institutes and 
projects, beautiful bamboo installations 
functioned as spacial screens and display boards 
for international delegates to present visual 
poster displays. The sheer number of young 
Brazilians attending the conference was in itself 
inspiring, as was their concern and enthusiasm to 
embrace permaculture strategies for 
sustainability. It was an exceptional honour for 
me to be invited to give a keynote presentation 
on the opening day of the conference on 
Permaculture Solutions and provide a local to 
global perspective on the range of activities 
permaculture is involved in. It was also 
privileged to close the conference with a premier 
performance of Supplication to Gaia from my new 
music CD. The entire conference was 
professionally filmed and edited footage will be 
available soon for those who could not attend to 
tap into the sheer wealth of information and 
inspiration shared during the event. From Sau 
Paulo we made our way north to Pirenoupolis, near 
the capital of Brasilia for the 4-day 
Permaculture Designers Convergence hosted by 
IPEC. The convergence is the professional 
in-house event of our national conferencing and 
here we enjoyed a balance of plenary sessions, 
presentations on permaculture project work and 
discussions exploring permaculture responses and 
strategies for a changing world. The IPEC site 
was in itself an inspiring example of 
permaculture in practice with extensive gardens, 
educational displays and innovative examples of 
alternative architecture and natural buildings 
infused with creativity and every structure a 
work of art in its own right. A large brick dome 
auditorium for the plenaries amply seated the 
150-plus delegates, and workshop stations 
included 2 large temporary geodesic domes erected 
for the occasion. It was quite a dilemma trying 
to choose between 4 stations of concurrent 
workshop presentations. Some of the most powerful 
presenters were of the amazing dedication and 
work of permaculturists in places such as Uganda, 
central India, Nepal and the struggles of 
rebuilding war-torn Cambodia. Central and South 
American projects were well represented and the 
three Cuban delegates gave an inspiring 
presentation on urban food production and update 
on organic farming and environmental issues 
facing Cuba. The Cubans expressed sincere thanks 
to the support of Australian permaculture 
trainers who brought permaculture concepts to 
Cuba in the early 1990’s and have requested 
support for advanced training and workshops with 
urban planners on integrated urban design for 
Havana and other Cuban population centres. 
Australian delegates included Rosemary Morrow 
(Blue Mountains), Faith (Sydney), Stewart Wilson 
(Tasmania), Bood (Far Nth Qld), David Holmgren 
and Sue (Victoria) and myself. The plenary 
session on education commenced with an overview 
of the Accredited Permaculture Training™ in 
Australia, which generated keen interest from 
educators in other countries regarding this form 
of vocational education and training. A short 
article cannot do justice to the wealth of 
information and experience shared during this 
exceptional and truly international event. The 
number of young permaculturists present 
represented a major generational shift in the 
movement and encouragement for the future of 
permaculture as an effective means of instigating 
effective change and responses to a planet in 
crisis through mobilising communities and 
developing partnerships with government and 
non-government organizations around the world. 
The next IPC will be held in South Africa and 
Malawi in April 2009. Robyn Francis
r

At 07:51 AM 6/13/2007, you wrote:

> --
>   Hello All,
>      I've found it curious that we have had post after post on political
>      commentary but to my knowledge no one responded to Jim's email on
>      what happened at the Permaculture Gathering/ Convergence in Brazil.
>
>      Did anyone on this list attend?  Your thoughts?
>
>      Thanks for keeping us in the Permie loop...,
>      Jude
>      Agro-Ecology Northwest
>      Eugene, Oregon
>      541-342-1160
>      http://www.cascadiapermaculture.com