This is an update to some of the IPC8 organizing activities underway
and some of the results. First the news of the website:
- The Conference theme "Complementary Economics" has been kindly written
by our own Dr. Margrit Kennedy and tri translated and posted on the
web. Check it out. It´s when information becomes good medicine.
- Likewise, the International Course information has been written and
translated and is about to be posted on the web. Sometime in the next week
or so the Conference site location and other information will be posted too.
- An official IPC8 travel agency has been selected and this material
too is being translated and will soon be posted. Similarly, hotels are
being selected.
Several long backbreaking meetings have been held regarding the
Conference: the process of structuring the three panels is developing a
greater clarity and articulation. In thinking about what we are trying to
do, there are four different groups: green economists (of whom there are
six different types), permaculture people, banks and business. I have been
thinking about who can speak most easily to whom and what we want to get
from each other, and I think the critical factor is the banks. Businesses
already understand the importance of a sustainable future. What is not
clearly understood is that banks have begun to open their doors to a green
economy, but what we need is for them to understand that the real issue is
not about green products, but about systemic thinking, including the whole
community that goes around any one product. Banks fund the business cycle,
so they have to understand this systemic thinking. So we need a powerful
language with which they can resonate. Maybe not today but maybe tomorrow
that can be Permaculture.
The Banking panel will have reps from the World Bank, HSBC, ABN, Banco
do Brasil and several others. They will present the moves that they are
taking and it would be wise for us to listen to them because our role will
be to empower and inform decision makers of the principles of permaculture
design. Actually, deep waters notwithstanding, some of these behemoths are
making promising noises.
At the same table will be the Grameen, Permaculture Credit Union and
Messrs. Bernard Lietaer, Margrit Kennedy and Stephen DeMeulenare. This
should be fun!
The Business panel will host a variety of business ventures that have
sustainable goals and specific criteria and are making remarkable
progress. Once again, our role will be to empower and inform.
The Innovation panel will be our opportunity to present a few
permaculture projects and innovations of scale happening around the
world. For this I need your information. Permaculture projects per se can
be presented during the Convergence, but here, for the Conference, we need
scale and data that will stand scrutiny. So please write in. At present,
the work of the venerable George Chan is on the table.
To date, no work has been done on the work of developing the
Convergence other than site selection. This needs to start soon.
Finally, the last point, and this is important. Will everybody please
start preregistering as soon as possible? This will be an enormous
help. We need to get an idea of where we are at with everything.
Ali Sharif
IPC8 Coordinator
8th International Permaculture Conference and Convergence
Brazil ~ May 2007 http://www.ipc8.org
[permaculture] [ipc8] International Permaculture Conference 8 Newsletter 2,
Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson, 08/29/2006