There are currently at least two conversations going on
about holding a national permaculture convergence in the USA. Here is one of
them.
There is the possibility of the 3rd Northwest
Permaculture Convergence hosting a national permaculture convergence.
A little history. The 2nd NWPCC was held at the
Columbia County Fairgrounds near Portland, Oregon this October, 2011 and
attracted 463 participants. The 1st NWPCC was held at the South Seattle
Community College in
September 2010 and had 371 participants. Leading up to the NWPCC were the
Washington State Permaculture Convergences held in 2009 and 2008. I was the
lead organizer for the WSPCs in 2008 and 2009 but took a back seat in 2010 and
2011. The organizing team for the 3rd NWPCC (to be held in
Washington State) is still forming. I am on that team and have asked my
teammates if they would be willing to scale up their efforts and host a
national pc convergence.
There is a tentative yes,
IF we are the best candidate in the running
AND providing that the permaculture community thinks this is
a good idea,
AND it would require a bunch more strong players joining the
organizing team.
Anyone interested?
The US has never had a national pc convergence, per se, but
the 2nd International Permaculture Convergence and Conference in
1986 was held in the USA. The convergence was held in Breitenbush Hot Springs,
Oregon and the IPC Conference was held at the Evergreen State College in
Olympia, Washington. 700 people attended the conference from around the US and
around the world. A large-scale US
pc convergence has not happened since.
Initial polls show that some permaculturists think this is a
good idea and other ones think it is a bad idea. Why do a national
convergence?
* Information exchange. This would not be permaculture 101.
Each region has its share of experts when it comes to forest gardening,
natural
building, water systems, etc. The information at a national convergence would
include:
+ What are the
best educational systems for permaculture?
+ Where are the best functioning models/examples in the US?
+ How can they be scaled up?
+ Where has permaculture successfully integrated into
schools, colleges and universities?
+ Discussion about curriculum, national standards,
certification.
+ Comparing notes.
*Set up networks for inter-regional information exchange. We
have the internet… how can we use it better? Remembering our permaculture
principle of “multiple elements
for single functions”, what is our back up to internet communication?
* Personal relationships are built face to face. Perhaps the
most important thing is the synergy and dynamism that happen when people meet
and interact face to face. Things
can happen that the internet does not allow.
* I just got an email from Max Lindegger in Australia and he
advises “Make sure you have a real purpose, aim.” Suggestions?
Our proposal is not just a national convergence, but rather,
adding a national component to our regional convergence. There would
definitely
still be a need for lots of workshops on forest gardening, natural building,
etc to satisfy our regional participants’ desire for hands-on permaculture
info. Judging from our growth curve we would expect the 2012 NWPCC to attract
500 people or so from around the PNW region. Adding a national aspect would
likely add another 200 or more.
The ecological fuel costs of people coming long distances is
not to be taken lightly. People should not come from far away for idle
curiousity. The farther away you come, the stronger your permaculture
credentials should be. Trains take longer than planes, but it would behoove us
to take trains.
Blah, blah, blah. You probably already know if you would or
wouldn’t want to attend a national pc gathering. I suppose it depends on how
far away it was. Would you travel
100 miles? 500 miles? 1,000 miles? Across the country? Personally I was
thinking 700 miles.
Obviously a national convergence would rotate around the
country. Midwest, west coast, east coast, etc. You gotta start somewhere. We
can all take turns.
To sum up:
* Send me feedback. What do YOU think of the idea of a
national convergence?
* Who else is thinking of hosting a national convergence at
this time?
* Would anyone want to volunteer their region/organization
to host one at some point in the future?
Of course, the 2012 Northwest Permaculture Convergence team
and I would be thrilled if someone has a better offer than us and we would be
glad to support them from our end. We can do it another time. This is a
tentative offer at any rate.
Towards a greener and happier world,
Michael Pilarski, Friends of the Trees Society
friendsofthetrees@yahoo.com
>From friendsofthetrees@yahoo.com Thu Dec 15 12:33:37 2011
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Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:33:36 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Pilarski <friendsofthetrees@yahoo.com>
To: friendsofthetrees@yahoo.com
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Subject: [permaculture] Greetings from spain
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Hope you get this on time,sorry I didn't inform you about my trip in Spain
for a program, I'm presently in Madrid and am having some difficulties here
because i misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money and other
valuable things were kept.I want� you to assist me with a loan of 2950 Euros
to sort-out my hotel bills and� to get myself back home.
I have spoken to the embassy here but they are not responding to the matter
effectively,I will appreciate whatever you can afford to assist me with,I'll
Refund the money back to you as soon as i return, let me know if you can be
of any help. I don't have a phone where i can be reached. Please let me know
immediately.
��
���� Thanks
Michael Pilarski
>From alex1mcc@yahoo.com Sun Dec 11 00:39:02 2011
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Subject: [permaculture] PDC at Strawberry Field Eco Lodge, Konso,
Ethiopia: February 2012
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72h Permaculture Design Course, Konso, Ethiopia: Certified under the PRI’s
Master Plan
This PDC will take place in Konso, south Ethiopia, from 13th – 25th December
2011, at Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge. It will have a special focus on the
application of Permaculture to communities in the developing world and low
tech solutions to food establishment in rural and urban schools and
communities drawing inspiration from established projects in a range of
locations and climate zones around the country.
Facilitators: Tichafa Makovere and Alex McCausland
Dates: December 5th to 18th, 2011
Location: Konso, South Ethiopia
Venue: Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge
Cost: US$650 ($500 for Ethiopians)
Includes: course fees, food and accommodation for the period of the course
Excludes: Transport, accommodation in Addis, travel insurance etc.
The Course
This PDC will be lead by Alex McCausland, Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge’s
founder and director, and Tichafa Makovere, a veteran consultant and trainer
of the Schools and Colleges Outreach Permaculture Program (SCOPE), with 17
years experience working and training in Permaculture around southern and
eastern Africa. This PDC is of particular relevance for those interested in
rural development and indigenous communities in Africa and the wider 3rd
world. The focus is on appropriate technology, soil and water harvesting,
indigenous knowledge systems and Permaculture in schools. Schools are a key
focus point for the communities and a chance to influence the coming
generation to shift away from the mentality of dependence on aid towards self
sufficiency and sustainable resource use.
The Facilitators
Tichafa Makovere
Tichafa grew up in a marginalised farming community in Shurugwe, Zimbabwe. He
has developed a career in education over 30 years, including 20 years as a
successful headmaster in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Botswana. In June 1994 he took
a PDC at the Fambidzanai Permaculture Centre in Zimbabwe sponsored by the
SCOPE (Permaculture in Schools and Colleges Outreach) Program. He went on to
take first prize for best implementing school nationally, in 1995. He sat as
secretary of the Permaculture Association of Zimbabwe (PAZ) for 2 years from
1994 – 1996 and subsequently as chair person from 1996 – 1998. He took the
Training of Trainers Course and become the official lead facilitator for the
SCOPE Program in 2001. His activities as a SCOPE, and more latterly ReSCOPE,
have included: Drawing up 1-week and 2-week programs for SCOPE have included
facilitating at both 1-week and 2-week workshops; producing training
materials and handouts, making follow-up visits to
schools; participation on the curriculum, training and fundraising
committees for the advancement of Permaculture in Zimbabwean schools;
attending and contributing to Permaculture planning workshops, reviewing and
monitoring workshops for expansion of Permaculture in schools in 66 districts
of Zimbabwe, representing SCOPE at international fora e.g. Environmental
Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA) and reviewing books on
Permaculture before they were published e.g. SCOPE Learners Book [on
Permaculture for primary and secondary schools].
In November 2008 Tichafa travelled to Ethiopia and took up the role of
Resident PC Facilitator and Farm Manager for Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge in
Konso, where he has to date facilitated a total of 17 PDCs. He subsequently
went on to spear-head the formation of the Permaculture in Konso Schools
Project working in partnership with various NGOs as well as SFEL itself. In
June 2010 Tichafa formed his own independent consultancy, Shumba Integrated
Eco Designs (SIED) and handed management of the model farm at Strawberry
Fields over to Alex McCausland, SFEL’s Director.
Alex McCausland
Alex an ecologist by background and has been developing as a Permaculture
practitioner and trainer over the last 5 years. His lifelong passion for
ecology and the allowed him to excel academically in that area. He graduated
from with a BSc in Biological Sciences in 2003 form Oxford University but by
that time he had became disillusioned with reductionist science and turned
his back on academia. He then spent two years to travelling the world,
WOOFing, working on farms and learning about cultures and languages, during
which time he became interested in development and food-security issues. In
2005 he heard about Permaculture and realised it combined holistic ecology
with the practical action and community orientation that the academic
approach completely lacked. He then dreamed up a plan to establish a project
which would promote Permaculture as a means to achieve sustainable
development in the third world. The next year he came across Ethiopia. Seeing
a
land of great ecological wealth and yet economic poverty and food
insecurity, he resolved that this would be the location for the project. He
took his first PDC later that year in Catalunya, Spain. In 2007 he returned
to Ethiopia to establish a viable Permaculture–based business which would
facilitate the local community to learn about and practice PC. It ended up
being an Eco Lodge in the South of the country, which went on to become the
site for Ethiopia's first model PC farm. The model farm has developed with
input from a number of volunteers, interns and PC practitioners, such as Guy
Rees, Dan Palmer and Tichafa. Working alongside these people Alex has
developed and honed his skills as a PC designer and practitioner over the
last 3 years. During this time the project has hosted a total of 24 PDCs to
date, 2 lead by Rosemary Morrow and 19 by Tichafa, 1 by Steve Cran and 1 by
Rhamis Kent and one by Alex himself. Alex has co-facilitated on many of
these while maintaining his role as administrator. He took over the running
of the demonstration farm in June 2010 and has designed and developed systems
such as drip irrigation and terraced vegetable beds, black water, composting
and compost powered water heating. Alex will explain and demonstrate some of
these systems during the PDC.
The Venue: Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge (SFEL)
The venue for the PDC will be Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge, the first working
PC demonstration site in Ethiopia, where a model design has been established
over the last 3½ years on degraded land to incorporate elements such as drip
irrigation, grey and black water re-use, composting toilets, hot composting,
tree nursery and solar fridge, solar power, solar shower and much more.
SFEL integrates an Eco-Lodge, model PC farm, an organic restaurant, a PC
design training facility and runs a program of trekking and community based
cultural activities in Konso. SFEL’s project objectives are to promote
alternative livelihoods for the Konso community through facilitating
community inclusion in eco-tourism activities, and to promote food security
locally and more widely in Ethiopia, through Permaculture. SFEL employs 20
permanent staff and up to 30 temporary workers seasonally.
Location: Konso, SNNPRS, Ethiopia
Konso Woreda is in the South Ethiopian Great Rift Valley (situated at 5'15' N
37'30' E). Konso’s capital, Karat-Konso, is at 1600m altitude, located 85km
south of Arba Minch, and around 590km south of Addis Ababa. The Konso people
have a unique culture, based on sedentary mixed agriculture, which
distinguishes them from their neighbours in the lowlands to the east and west
who are pastoralists. Their intensely social mode of life and love of hard
physical labour is unique in Ethiopia. Their villages are remarkable for the
beauty and simplicity of their workmanship, constructed entirely of natural
materials, cultivated or gathered from the surroundings, and ringed by
massive dry-stone walls, at least a meter thick and two meters high.
Stone-lined pavements run between the housing compounds and the stones have
often become polished to a shine by long years of service in the village’s
transport system.
Konso’s agricultural system is renowned for its terracing, which has been
constructed over large areas of the rugged landscape by centuries of communal
labour. The terraces are crafted to balance maximum infiltration of rain
water, with adequate drainage in times of deluge so they don’t collapse. They
are planted with sorghum, intercropped with a range of other species;
including trees, Moringa stenopetala (also called the cabbage tree)
Terminalia birowni, and Cordia africana; shrubs such as pigeon pea, coffee
and chat (Catha edulis) (a cash crop) and annuals including sunflowers,
maize, millet, chick peas, various bean species, cotton and cassava. The
terraces are fertilised with wastes from the villages including partially
burned plant residues mixed with animal dung, which acts to keep the soil
fertile.
The Permaculture in Konso Schools Project (PKSP)
Today Konso suffers increasingly frequent food insecurity due to climate
change. The UNDP’s Rapid Assessment Report: Konso Special Wereda, SNNPR
(1999) states that; “since the 1950s, drought induced famines have hit Konso
and the immediate area almost once every ten years.” “Konso was devastated by
the droughts in 1973/74 and 1983/84”. In 2008/9 Konso was again suffering
food shortage due to droughts.
The PKSP seeks to preserve aspects of indigenous (agri)culture which benefit
the local ecology, but fill gaps in the traditional system by incorporating
new practises, ideas and resources such as rain-water harvesting, small scale
irrigation, nutrition gardens, tree nurseries, small livestock, appropriate
labour-saving design-technology, alternative energy and nutrients based on
locally available resources.
To date teachers from 10 schools have been trained in Permaculture and
produced PC designs for their school compounds. From those, three schools
have produced impressive model PC sites under the pilot phase of the project.
The PKSP is eventually looking to expand to all 70 schools in Konso with
likely support from the UK-based Ethiopia Permaculture Foundation. Visits to
the school model sites will be included as part of the PDC.