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[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>]

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Sustainable World Radio: Friday 9am- 10am PST , 
Jan 25 IPC9 International Permaculture Conference 
Africa  Interview with Mugove Walter Nyika  KCSB 
91.9 FM in Santa Barbara, California and 
streaming live on www.kcsb.org. , posted on 
ipc9.org in a few days after live interview


Join Jill Cloutier of Sustainable World Radio and 
Wes Roe of the IPC9 International  Suppport Group 
on Friday, January 25 , from 9-10am PST  for an 
interview with Mugove Walter Nyika , Director of 
the 9 th International Permaculture Conference 
www.ipc9.org and Convergence and Regional 
Co-ordinator of Regional Schools and Colleges 
Permaculture (ReSCOPE) Programme in Malawi . The 
theme of IPC9 will be Designing solutions for a 
sustainable future and will  takeIPC9 will take 
place in Africa July 2009 in South Africa, Zimbabe and Malawi .

Designed as an international forum for 
permaculturists to gather and share their 
experiences, since the early 1980s IPCs have been 
held in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Nepal, 
Scandinavia, and Croatia. IPC8 events were last 
year held in Brazil, between mid May and early 
June, and attended by close to 600 delegates from 
across the world. It was there that the decision 
to have IPC in Africa for the first time was made.

According to the IPC8 official report, each IPC 
consists of four separate events: a permaculture 
conference open to the general public; a 
convergence for practising permaculturalists; a 
design course and a site tour. The three IPC9 
hosting countries will divide up these events 
amongst themselves, with each of them expected to 
do their own fund-raising for most of the events 
to be held in their respective territories.

The proposed theme for IPC 9 is "Designing 
solutions for a sustainable future".  Subthemes 
are: "Permaculture as a Regional Planning Tool 
for Sustainable Livelihoods and Earth Care, Food 
Security and Sovereignty through Organic 
Production and Marketing, Education, Green 
Economics and Lifestyles, Health and Nutrition, 
HIV/AIDS, Housing and Sustainable Cities, and Disaster Management."


The IPC 9 events will be held in July of 2009, 
but dates have not yet been announced.  Malawi 
will host the 9th International Permaculture 
Convergence, South Africa will host the 9th 
International Permaculture Conference to be held 
in Johannesburg, and Zimbabwe will host the 9th 
International Permaculture Design Course to be 
held at the Fambidzanai Permaculture Centre in Harare.



NOTES ON IPC9 CONCEPT IN AFRICA 2009

THE 9TH INTERNATIONAL PERMACULTURE CONFERENCE & CONVERGENCE (IPC9)

1. Global Context:

Humanity's future is at risk unless urgent action 
is taken. Over the past 20 years, almost every 
index of the planet's health has worsened, whilst 
personal wealth in the richest countries has 
grown by a third, with unprecedented economic 
gains for developed nations, which, for many 
people, have masked the growing crisis.
In the last 2 decades the financial wealth of the 
planet has soared by around a third. Yet, at the 
same time much of the 'natural' capital upon 
which so much of human well-being and economic 
activity depends  water, land, the air and 
atmosphere, biodiversity and marine 
resources  have continued their seemingly inexorable decline.
The systematic destruction of the Earth's natural 
and nature-based resources has reached a point 
where the economic viability of economies is 
being challenged  and the bill we hand on to our 
children may prove impossible to pay. 
Permaculture design and planning offers an 
accelerated effort to reform the way we 
collectively do business on planet Earth,
UNEP's Global Environment Outlook (GEO-4) October 2007
2.      Background

The 9th International Permaculture Conference 
(IPC) will be hosted in Africa, with the 
conference planned to take place in South Africa 
and the Convergence in Malawi in July 2009. The 
conference has been hosted every two years since 
1996. Past host sites have been Australia, USA, 
New Zealand, Scandinavia, Nepal, Croatia and Brazil.
IPC 9 comes at a critical time for Africa’s 
development where existing paradigms are being 
challenged and there is an ever increasing demand 
on the planet’s resources. Permaculture provides 
a practical and common sense approach to 
identifying and maximizing our available natural 
and social capital, to empower an African renaissance.
Permaculture (PC) is an holistic land design 
science that is being used as a tool for 
promoting sustainable living by a growing number 
of people worldwide. The global PC community 
organises a biennial conference and convergence 
to share experiences, network and fast track 
development solutions. The International 
Permaculture Conference (IPCa) is the public 
interface of this gathering while the 
International Permaculture Convergence (IPCb) is 
a closed meeting for the PC enthusiasts.

The African continent has never before hosted 
these international events despite the impressive 
work that has been done since Bill Mollison, the 
founder of PC, trained a group of Africans in 
Botswana in 1987 and later in South Africa in 
1991. Attempts for Africa to host the conference 
in the 1990’s did not succeed and therefore there 
are high expectations for the 9th International 
Permaculture Conference and Convergence (IPC 9) 
to be hosted for the first time by Africa in 2009.

The decision to grant Africa the right to host 
IPC 9 was deliberated and decided at  IPC 8 in 
Brazil in 2007 and Africa was the popular choice. 
A large international committee formed to assist 
Africans to prepare for IPC 9.

The conference will provide International, 
African and Regional speakers focusing on 
providing practical tools and steps for evolving 
the existing status quo where 80 percent of the 
worlds population live in poverty  to a people 
centred development approach focused on restoring 
the earth, creating productive eco-systems that 
generate wealth and create self sufficient regional economies.

3.      Aims:

·       To host a conference for International, 
African and Regional business, government and 
civil society leaders to promote Permaculture as 
a tool for regional development planning.
·       To mainstream Permaculture principles in 
broader society, to encourage, dialogue, policy 
development and informed/sustainable social investment.
·       To host an EXPO open to all to showcase 
projects, models of best practice, appropriate 
and alternative technologies, and
·       To showcase development people centred 
development strategies, regional demonstrations 
of low cost holistic approaches to economic 
development, incorporating indigenous cultural 
knowledge, integrating ideas and practice 
relating to land use, shelter, energy 
conservation and use, diet and health, waste 
management, recycling and the implementation of co-operative principles
4.      Rationale:

Africa has been a recipient of economic, 
political and cultural domination by foreign 
entities for centuries. These external forces 
have served to weaken the capacity of African 
communities to be self reliant, confident and to 
define their own paths to development, as well as 
in some instances leading to alienation from the 
land. In spite of this sustained foreign 
onslaught and exploitation, Africa remains rich 
in cultural and biological diversity.

Permaculture opens new horizons for African 
communities to use their inherent natural and 
social wealth for sustainable development. 
Africans who have been exposed to Permaculture 
are confident that the situation of hopelessness 
that has so far characterised the African story 
can be turned around to one of hope, self 
determination, sustainable and regional economic 
development, as well as to reclaim our connection 
to this continent which is indeed the birth place of our species.

The same scenario could be said of the other 
parts of the developing world and as members of 
the only ecosystem that we have, IPC 9 will be a 
good opportunity for the international community 
to come together and strategise for a sustainable 
future for humans on the planet.

5.  Theme
Designing solutions for a sustainable future :

At the close of the 8th International 
Permaculture Convergence in Pirenoplolis, Brazil. 
a participant remarked that ‘…in the west, 
Permaculture is a hobby while in Brazil and the 
rest of Latin America, Permaculture is 
political…’ In  Africa, Permaculture is about 
sustaining life and livelihoods. Permaculture 
addresses needs not wants. It is about finding 
solutions to everyday problems. For many it is 
about being able to put food on the table and 
provide for the needs of the family and move out 
of a vicious cycle of poverty and malnutrition. 
It is often a question of survival in a world 
that is determined to make Africans follow a 
development path that is based on foreign value 
systems, irrelevant processes and external high energy dependent inputs.

The Permaculture movement itself is faced with 
the challenge of gearing up its scope and scale 
of operations to regional levels, where areas are 
planned by watersheds, and economies of scale 
utilised to maximise available natural and human 
resources in a structured well planned approach 
to creating healthy balanced communities.

Read Complete IPC9 Concept Note and other 
documents on website 
www.ipcon.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=172&Itemid=133


Sustainable World Radio: Friday mornings at 9:00 
am PST on KCSB 91.9 FM in Santa Barbara, 
California and streaming live on www.kcsb.org. . 
Also posted later on ipc9.org , Also found 
on  www.sustainableworldradio.com, or www.radio4all.net later in the week