From: Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [permaculture] For Haiti Discussion/ Sustainablity in a War Torn Nation by Rosemary Morrow/Hopedance Magazine
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:21:45 -0800
Global Sustainabilty Reports- Hopedance Magazine 2005?
This column encourages observation of
cultures around the world with the hope of seeing
positive sustainable patterns we in our own
communities might adopt. Sustainablity is a
worthy goal, but can it survive something as
destructive as war? What can even a practical
system like permaculture hope to contribute in
situations as difficult as these? And is it
possible to counter powerful forces that want and
need the resources of weaker developing nations?
We continue our look around the globe with a
focus this time on Cambodia and the permaculture
project trainings of Rosemary Morrow.
As always, readers are encouraged to submit their
own observations for future columns. Column
Editor, Margie Bushman
Sustainablity in a War Torn Nation
by Rosemary Morrow
I have been teaching permaculture for
nearly 16 years and during that time I have
examined many other types of sustainable living
practices. I have studied biodynamics, organic
gardening and farming, systems agriculture and so
on. Not one is as comprehensives as
permaculture. It has so many facets that it is
very difficult to find it all together in one
place. Teaching it in developing nations is a
challenge. In effect some things work in some
places, in some climates and with some people.
Lots of techniques fail. It can take years for
sustainable practices such as intergrated pest
management (IPM) to begin working. Soil
building, although a quicker process through
permaculture than nature, also takes time. But
can poor farmers afford the time and loss of crop
while they wait? Who will subsidize them while
they are repairing the land from devastating
things like war?
Cambodia is often called the country of
the `secret war, the country USA bombed heavily
without ever declaring war. 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. Neighbours who illegally cut
forests, people who traffic in women and
children, and a corrupt military can reduce
respect for the law and the countrys confidence
in its culture and ability to control its own
future. Greedy and ruthless industry enters the
vacuum left by war, then hard sells cigarettes,
pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, seed and a range of
other non-sustainable products. 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.
Quaker Service Australia (QSA) has a long
history in Cambodia, having arrived early and
served as a de facto consulate while the rest of
the world was boycotting the country because the
Vietnamese were occupying it and fighting the
Khmer Rouge. For some years they offered English
language training because the people, emerging
from trauma and genocide, needed a common
language to confer with the rest of the world.
Soon, QSA switched to offering permaculture
training projects to rural provinces. This has
been a small and certainly step-by-step, process.
I was sent to Cambodia by QSA, where I
spent some weeks discussing the possibilities of
introducing permaculture into the country. There
were talks with many organizations and finally
QSA approached the Cambodian Womens Union (later
the Ministry of Womens Affairs) which had a
network that reached into all the villages from
province, to district, to commune. I asked
whether some provincial staff would like to learn
permaculture in Phnom Penh and do training of
trainers, and they agreed. At this stage there
was no commitment for any further project but
just three months later a four week course was
held in Phnom Penh.
At the end of the Permaculture Design
Course, several women asked very specifically for
permaculture training in their own province. QSA
decided to work with one of the most able
provincial womens unions which later became the
Department of Womens Affairs(DWA) in Pursat
province, and some months later ran a
Permaculture Design Course to selected staff.
There were 16 district and Pursat town staff
women chosen by the director who would later
train other women and farmers in the communes and
villages.
In the meantime, another course had been
asked for by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and
participants from this course who had tertiary
agricultural training now translated key chapters
of my book into Khmer language. So those who
could read now had a reference book to refer to
afterwards.
The Australian Embassy made a grant and a
third course was held and this was open to
agricultural staff of other NGO's and IOs. A
sustainable agriculture centre soon opened in
Phnom Penh assisted by Japanese volunteers.
However the main problem was there are no models
of permaculture in a country which has been
devastated by war. So where to start? One
condition of the training was before starting
extension to farmers, all participants would
design and make their own gardens. Classic
permaculture items such as tire ponds and herb
spirals were not included. A tire pond where
there are no spare tires and it is bone dry and
not one drop of rain falls for 3-4 months is not
useful. However metre-square beds, kitchen door
beds and raised compost piles are. And generally
little effort was made to teach specific
techniques, instead participants were given the
principles and some strategies and then asked to
develop new or to use old techniques. So a type
of indigenous adapted permaculture was developed.
Trainers were then offered assistance in
making learning materials which consisted of
trainers books, posters and leaflets. These
could be used for literate, newly literate or
illiterate farmers. In this way the trainers
really used their experience of developing a
garden and ensured they knew the curriculum.
The project started small with a one year
trial among some farmers, then developed into a
three year project. There were millions of
problems, however essentially weaknesses were
identified, then special refresher courses given.
Trainers learned how to monitor. Then the
trainers were asked to train other NGOs.
Later some farmers who grew surplus food
participated in a food processing project and
were able to generate income. Today about 80% of
those who farmers who learned permaculture are
still practicing it. Many have gone beyond it
with new techniques and strategies. With other
NGOs, government officials and more awareness on
TV and radio, the boundaries of who learned what
and where are now blurred. A very strict
evaluation was not possible, nonetheless one was
attempted and the Department of Womens Affairs
in Pursat considers that the permaculture project
was their most successful for rural people.
Rosemary Morrow works as a consultant on
permaculture programs run by Quaker Service
Australia in South East Asia. She is passionate
about the right of everyone to have enough food
to eat and her life is dedicated to simplicity
and the right sharing of world resources. She
lectures, writes books, and runs workshops on
Permaculture in her home country of Australia,
and is very absorbed with Alternatives to
Violence programs. For more articles on her work
with QSA, see www.quakers.org.au
-END-
[permaculture] For Haiti Discussion/ Sustainablity in a War Torn Nation by Rosemary Morrow/Hopedance Magazine,
Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, 01/14/2010