Part-Time Permaculture Design Certificate course, one Saturday a week over 10-Weeks at PRI Jordan

Permaculture (permanent agriculture but also permanent culture) is a system of design aimed at creating “productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way“. It is a working with, rather than against, nature: what species, what natural elements can we partner with to meet all our needs while benefiting life in all its forms? How can we transform degraded ecosystems into lush edible landscapes?

A PDC is an intensive 72-hour Permaculture Design Course that will lead to an accredited Permaculture Design Certificate. The course will be based on, but not limited to, Bill Mollison’s A Designers’ Manual:

• INTRODUCTION: a change in status – from the most negative to the most beneficial element in today’s world, ethical basis for an ethical system
• CONCEPTS AND THEMES IN DESIGN: resources and yield, diversity and stability, opportunities in space and time, the problem is the solution
• METHODS OF DESIGN: elements and their interconnections, observation and creative thinking, zone and sector analysis, what to include in a design
• PATTERN UNDERSTANDING: patterns in nature and patterning in design, another way to look at the landscape, the richness of the edge
• CLIMATIC FACTORS: precipitation and winds, latitude and altitude, radiation and distance from the ocean, what determines the climate we live in
• TREES AND THEIR ENERGY TRANSACTIONS: trees as moderators and translators of incoming energy, cycling of nutrients and life forms, how a forest creates rain
• WATER: water cycle and water harvesting, rain gardens and gravity irrigation, how slowing down water equals to spreading life, wastewater and biological filters
• SOILS: soil structure and classification, soil life and the soil food web, pH and the availability of nutrients, erosion and rehabilitation, speeding up natural mechanisms of soil creation
• EARTHWORKING AND EARTH RESOURCES: create shelter or stabilize the landscape, “plant the rain” or store water, man-made or machine-made – an earthwork for every situation
• DRYLAND, THE HUMID TROPICS AND COOL TO COLD CLIMATES: house, garden, animal systems and food forest design for every climate, focus on dryland strategies, desertification and the salting of soils, ecosystem restoration
• AQUACULTURE: hierarchy of life in water, fish species and pond design, food producing aquatic systems
• STRATEGIES OF AN ALTERNATIVE GLOBAL NATION: trusts and organic farm share, community gardens and bioregional organization, a global network for a local community

About the Teacher:

Massi is a permaculture trainer and practitioner currently running the Greening the Desert II project, along with the Jordanian farm manager and consultant Hayel Ahmed. Born and raised in Italy, he has direct experience in seedling production (his father is running a vegetable nursery), organic farming in the Uk and Kenya and a year-long training in permaculture with Geoff Lawton and his international crew at the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia. The passion and enthusiasm he found in Jordan engaged him in a one-year commitment aimed at helping in the transition from a degraded environment to a functional ecosystem that actually provides for the needs of all its inhabitants.

For bookings, please click here

Or email Massi at [email protected] or email the PRI at [email protected]