The ‘Sustainable (R)evolution’ Book Project
Aid Projects, Alternatives to Political Systems, Bio-regional Organisations, Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, DVDs/Books, Demonstration Sites, Eco-Villages, Education Centres, News, People Systems, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor May 7, 2009
Have you ever wished, when explaining to someone about permaculture, you had a visual, easily accessible book that demonstrated what it is all about, and what the world could look like if permaculture design systems became mainstream thinking?
We’ll – we’re making that book.
The Permaculture Research Institute is getting behind a project that would see the creation of a large format book that profiles, with creative writing and quality photographs, some of the many successful Permaculture projects underway around the world. The purpose of this page is to solicit your help with the same.
The final version is unlikely to look like this, but it gives you an idea….
Assistance/Consultations for Establishment of New Permaculture Projects
Aid Projects, Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, Project Positions, Urban Projects — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor April 22, 2009
Because of increasing interest and demand for help in setting up new Permaculture projects worldwide, we’ve just added a couple of new documents to the site that will help get your started thinking at a practical level, and that will help us to engage in meaningful conversation with you as you seek to establish your own project.
- Advice and/or Resources: If you’re seeking help for your site, please complete our project questionnaire and email it to info (at) permaculturenews.org in the first instance. This is designed to gather information about potential projects before you make contact so that our initial conversations can be more situation specific.
- Timeline: You are also encouraged to read our timeline for project establishment as it will help focus your thought and energy on a practical, logical progression for establishment.
Although this post will slide down out of view – links to these documents can always be found via our Contact Us page. Also, these documents will likely get fleshed out more over time.
Comments OffPRI Training Centre Development Plans Approved
Aid Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, News — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor April 4, 2009
 Zaytuna Farm |
Good news people! We’ve just received local council approval on our development plans, which means we can move forward with our intention to improve the facilities and increase the capacity of our Permaculture training facility at PRI headquarters at Zaytuna Farm, close to The Channon village, in Northern NSW, Australia.
Up until now, accommodation for courses has been camping only, and facilities have been somewhat rudimentary. Once this development is complete we’ll have improved facilities for the campsite and five straw bale cabins as well!
I’ll put the design plans below so you can check ‘em out.
Comments (7)Community-Based Rainforest Restoration Work is Huge Success in Borneo
Aid Projects, Biodiversity, Community Projects, Deforestation, Demonstration Sites, Food Forests, Global Warming/Climate Change, Plant Systems, Regional Water Cycle, Rehabilitation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Trees, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor March 30, 2009
In his twenty minute talk, Willie Smits (a Dutch forestry scientist who emigrated to Indonesia 20 years ago to help the country grow trees) explains how a chance encounter with a dying baby Orangutan changed the direction of his work – culminating not only in his creating the biggest orangutan rehabilitation center in the world, but also in restoring large tracts of rainforest in a community-based endeavour that is bringing work and prosperity to the people too.
The word ‘Permaculture’ is never mentioned in the following TED presentation, but the project that is the subject of this talk certainly contains many elements of Permaculture design. Among the spectacular results of the project is a documented cooling in local climate, increased cloud cover and rainfall, and a rapid increase in biodiversity of flora and fauna.
Permaculture Master Plan Now in Spanish
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor March 17, 2009
Feel free to circulate:
Hacia Centros de Investigación del Permacultura por todo el Mundo
For more info, click here.
Thanks to Grifen Hope for facilitating this translation.
Comments (1)Jordan PDC Course Announcement
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor March 13, 2009
Permaculture Research Institute Australia and the newly established Permaculture Research Institute Jordan are please to announce PRI Jordan’s first Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course to be taught in the Dead Sea Valley, Jordan October 10 to the 23rd. This is near the site of the legendary Greening the Desert project.
Your attendance at this course will help subsidise the education of local Jordanians, and also go towards the sending of a local representative body to the International Permaculture Convergence Summit of 2009 held in Southern Africa. Among the goals of this trip will be to lobby for the International Permaculture Convergence of 2011 to be held in Jordan with the theme of conflict resolution through sustainable community solutions.
Comments (1)Report on our Iranian Consultancy Trip of December 2008
Aid Projects, Compost, Conservation, Courses/Workshops, Dams, Developments, Earth Banks, Gabions, Land, News, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Swales, Trees, Water Harvesting — by Geoff Lawton February 24, 2009
Editor’s Note: Iran has been making headlines in the media a great deal over the last few years. Here’s a side to the story you don’t normally get to hear, as experienced by our own Geoff Lawton.
We are applying Permaculture techniques to restore the landscape
in the hottest place on the planet
In December 2008 it was our great pleasure and honour to be invited to Iran to work for the Forest Rangeland Watershed Management Organisation, originally formed in 1928 (see Word doc on their work here). We were working with different departments of the organisation, like the Sand Dune Fixation Department that was formed in 1958 for the Bureau of Desert Affairs. All of this falls under the central government’s main organisation of Jihad Agriculture Ministry. We were invited to teach a 10-day Permaculture course focusing mainly on desert rehabilitation.
Comments (10)Research From the Field
Aid Projects, Demonstration Sites, Retrofitting, Trees, Urban Projects — by Eric Seider February 20, 2009
Field Research Article: Case No. 02192009
Location: Jordan Valley Permaculture Project
Subject: Using Drip Irrigation On Mulched Trees
Observations:
Checking drippers that are buried under mulch on over 100 trees creates feelings in oneself that are not appropriate to express on such an esteemed scientific venue.
Comments (11)
Developing Permaculture Aid Project Skills
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Project Positions — by Sakina Grome February 5, 2009
There are as many people holding different skills as there are species, and this diversity of skills is required to build permaculture projects around the world. As the world heads towards peak oil, peak soil, and peak water, the demand for permaculture education continues to grow, and at the forefront of this demand are people in developing countries who are dependent upon being able to grow their own food and whose livelihood depends on the health of the local soil.
The first Permaculture Project Aid Worker Course conducted by the Permaculture Research Institute was held in November at Zaytuna Farm in NSW, Australia. Geoff Lawton and Rosemary Morrow led the six-day course, which was attended by twenty-three students in total. Lawton established the course as a response to keeping up with the demand for skilled aid workers on overseas projects, as well as a vision to establish a network of permaculture education centres around the world.
Comments (2)Spotlight on Ethiopia
Aid Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Alex McCausland February 4, 2009
Ethiopia is a land of fantastic natural wealth and cultural diversity. In few places on earth can you buy locally grown apples and mangos from the very same market stall. But Ethiopia has a huge range of climates, which result from its truly awesome topology, making this a reality.
The great plains of Abyssinia sit atop two massive highland plateaus, cloven, as a coffee bean down the middle, by the Great Rift Valley. From the sweltering dry deserts of Somali Ogaden in the east, Sudan in the west and the Danakil in the North, where Africa crashes into Arabia, the land sweeps up, rising through semi-arid lowlands and pockets of tropical jungle, to montane forests, to alpine pastures on the slopes of the Simien, Bale and Ghugi mountain ranges, all of which top 4000m, and all of which are home to numerous endemic species of flora and fauna.
Comments OffGreening the Desert Project Outcomes Profiled
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conservation, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, Land, News, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Swales, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor January 29, 2009
Most readers will be familiar with the awesome, seemingly miraculous work Geoff and Nadia Lawton accomplished with the ‘Greening the Desert‘ project in Jordan (not to be confused with the new Jordan Valley Permaculture Project, where completely new miracles are under way).
Well, this work has now been well profiled in the ProAct Network’s recent release:
The Role of Environmental Management in Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation, Annex I, Case Studies (4.69mb PDF). Jump to page #59 in Acrobat Reader, or #98 if you’re scrolling by page numbers.
If you’re looking for more practical details on what happened, and is happening, there on the ground – this document should hit the spot, as it were.
Thanks to Andrew Jones for bringing this to my attention.
Comments (3)Letter from the Editor
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, News — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor
Howdy. Could you guys all take a seat for a minute? I’d like to have a little chat with you all today on a couple of points. Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble.
Comments (3)Reality Check one two…one two
Aid Projects, Building, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, Energy Systems, Ethical Investment, Land, Project Positions, Village Development — by Eric Seider January 26, 2009
If you were to get up and walk to the sink and turn on the faucet, there is a pretty damn good chance that water will come out. And if it didn’t you’d be surprised to say the least, more likely pissed off and annoyed at the inconvenience. You’d then wonder who is to blame for this unacceptable turn of events. I mean it is your god given right as a human being to expect water to come out of the tap when you need it….right?
Well…..Salaam Alaykum. Welcome to Jordan.
Beduoin Camp, Dead Sea Valley, Jordan
It doesn’t work like that here.
Comments (6)Courses in Sunny Far North Queensland
Aid Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites — by Kym Kruse January 22, 2009
 Rosella Waters |
At FreeRange Permaculture we are focussed on bringing a variety of world-class courses and workshops in a range of sustainable practices, to the Far North.
Our Permaculture demonstration site is Rosella Waters, located near the thriving international tourist city of Cairns. The 2.38Ha property is situated in Walkamin, on the edge of what is locally known as the “jump-up”, the aftermath of an ancient lava flow. At an elevation of close to 600 meters above sea level and with over 1000mm of rainfall per year, it has a unique climate within our wet tropics region. The property is fronted by 194 meters of the Barron River, which flows year round and is the major river in the region.
In November 2008 we held our first 2 week residential Permaculture Design Course (PDC) at Rosella Waters. The course was a great success with 26 people coming from as close as Cairns to as far away as California. A big thank you to both Geoff Lawton and Darren Doherty for sharing their expertise and knowledge and to all the participants for making the event so memorable and rewarding for everyone involved. Needless to say lives were changed, and one young man from Utah booked a plane ticket to Jordan to work on the PRI Jordan project before the course had even finished!
Comments OffGreenhouse Effect
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Village Development — by Allison Ford January 14, 2009
As The world warms, the dry areas of the globe are growing even drier. in Jordan, some villages are already working on what to do when the rain stops coming. Words by Allison Ford. Photography by Josh Estey/CARE. Originally published in Jo Magazine.
The last time rain fell in Bayoudeh was February 10. The land has only gotten dryer since then. People in and out of Jordan like to talk about how water poor the country really is, but 2008 arrived to prove it with a vengeance.
Um Mubarak increases the yeild of her trees with
mulch, and grows cactuses with gray water.
