Aid ProjectsCourses/Workshops

Extended Permaculture Design Course in the Negev

What: Extended Permaculture Design Course
When: The itinerary is based on weeks of 5 days where the weekends are free for advancing individual projects, rest or travel in Israel. Program starts on the 11th of March and ends on 15th of August 2012.
Where: The course and accommodations will take place at the Eco khan of Qasr A-Sir, a Bedouin village next to Dimona, Israel.

Vision for Bustan course:

This is going to be a very special permaculture course, that goes way beyond the remit of the normal 2 week intensive Permaculture Design Certificate. In the course of their 5 month stay in Qasr A-Sir, the participants will live and breathe permaculture; have time to absorb, process and discuss the information they are receiving; delve into the historic cultural journey of the human race; see examples of how ancient cultures dealt with their environmental problems and engage in the struggle of contemporary people to deal with theirs; and eventually actually design and implement some permaculture projects, leaving behind a legacy of enhanced sustainability and access to resources that will improve peoples’ quality of life in the host community, and gaining practical experience and know-how that they can take with them when they leave. This will not be just any course – this will be a life-changing experience.

The setting:

The Naqab (or ‘Negev’ in Hebrew) is a treasure-trove of archaeological and natural wonders. It is the crossroads of three continents; an epic landscape that has formed the stage for multiple key events in human history. Evidence can be seen for human presence dating back to the Palaeolithic era (early human pre-history, as people first expanded out of Africa), as well as some of the earliest attempts at agriculture, ancient trading routes, the ruins of Nabatean settlements and Roman fortresses.

The contemporary Naqab is no less fascinating, as it is home to 130 000 Bedouin citizens of Israel, as well as over 400 000 Jewish citizens. Beer Seba’a, the principle city of the region, is one of the fastest growing population centres in Israel. The contemporary Bedouin population are struggling to adapt to the rapid changes that are occurring around them, whilst also preserving their culture and traditional way of life. In the meantime, the Israeli State is putting them under extraordinary pressure to conform to ‘modern’ standards, to abandon pastoralism and to live in state-sanctioned housing in townships and cities.

Living with a Bedouin community that has received state ‘recognition’, students will see this struggle to adapt first-hand and participate in Bustan’s exciting initiative to show-case how allowing Bedouin communities self-determination can lead to stability and sustainability, and is a more productive and humane approach than the coercive and destructive methods currently being employed by the State.

Over-arching themes:

Natural Systems: What is our place in the ecosystem?

  • What is an ecosystem and how does it work? A non-anthropogenic perspective on life and resource flows.
  • How do ecosystems evolve?
  • What is biodiversity and why is it important?
  • Understanding ourselves as part of the system: not separated from it or above it.
  • How can we interact positively with the ecosystem to enhance its functioning and biodiversity rather than weakening it?

Culture: Weaving together narratives and stories – where have we come from and where are we going?

  • The historic cultural journey of the human race, from human origins and hunter-gatherer societies through to the origins of agriculture, industrialization and the age of technology.
  • Ancient knowledge and traditional technologies, Romans, Nabateans, Bedouins.
  • The stories of the contemporary peoples of the Negev: the Bedouins, the Jewish pioneer communities, the rapidly growing urban population of Beer Sheva etc.
  • ‘Cultural landscapes’ – the dynamic interaction between people and their environment that writes itself into the landscape they live in.
  • ‘Cultural clashes’ – between industrialised people and non-industrialised people, between famers and pastoralists, between pastoralists and hunter-gatherers – both globally and in the living example of the modern Negev.
  • How can we adapt our cultures to create the landscapes that we want to live in?

Community: Living and working together

  • What is a community and how does it function?
  • Questions of scale: local vs. global
  • Working as a community, working with the community
  • What existing knowledge can we draw on to build sustainable communities? What does sustainability mean in this context?
  • Human communities and “natural” communities: understanding the continuum
  • “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has” (Margaret Mead)

Structures: Building sustainability

  • Environmentally intelligent design – awareness of place
  • Environmentally appropriate design – availability of materials
  • Culturally appropriate design – attention to desired functions. Focus on traditional houses and the reasons for their design features
  • Putting it together to build beautiful, functional structures that conserve energy, harvest resources and are easy and pleasant to live a sustainable lifestyle in
  • Reducing or eliminating the need for external energy. Building what you need with what you have.

Water in the desert: Designing for scarcity

  • Traditional methods: how did people cope with this problem in the past
  • Modern techniques: how are people dealing with it now?
  • The best of both worlds?
  • Fighting desertification vs. fighting the desert

Globally, more and more land is becoming arid to semi-arid. Learning (or re-learning) how to farm these areas sustainably will affect the survival and quality of life of hundreds of millions of people.

Contemporary global issues: Why do we need Permaculture?

  • Population growth and population density
  • Globalisation and cultural imperialism
  • Peak oil
  • Industrial agriculture and GM
  • Climate change
  • How do we adapt to the unprecedented challenges that we face today?

Permaculture and land-based resistance: clinging tenaciously to the land

  • How permaculture can help people to resist displacement
  • How permaculture priciples can be applied to designing other resistance activities.

The teachers:

Co-ordinating teacher: Alice Gray (BSc Ecology, MPhil Soil Science, PDC)

Alice is a dedicated and active permaculturalist, who has co-founded her own project (Bustan Qaraaqa), an initiative to propagate a permaculture movement in Palestine as a response to the ongoing humanitarian and environmental crises in the region. Alice has co-directed Bustan Qaraaqa since it was founded in 2008, developing it as a permaculture education centre and community project. Alice is also an experienced teacher, and has chaired the department of Environmental Studies at Al Quds Bard College for Liberal Arts and Sciences since 2010. She has worked in the environmental development sector in the Palestinian Territories since 2006, and is well versed in the environmental politics of the region, as well as being familiar with the struggle of the Bedouin communities in Israel to maintain their connection to the land and way of life.

She has well-rounded knowledge and experience of permaculture, from design to practical implementation to community organizing and fund-raising; and hopes to be able to inspire the students to go on to become active permaculturalists themselves both through teaching and example. Alice will be supported in the delivery of the course by an array of experts in their various fields, some of them PDC holders, some not, but all of them united by the excellence of their work.

Supporting teachers:

Thomas Fernley-Pearson: Plant identifaction skills, understanding plant communities, eco-building

Born and raised in the principles of ecological farming Tom has farmed on three continents, in conditions ranging from the frigid rain-soaked Pennines to the desiccation of the Atacama, from remote depths of the Amazon to the thronging super city of Bogotá. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of plants and will offer support in teaching plant identification skills and understanding the functioning of plant communities. Tom is also currently working on an ambitious and innovative eco-building project and will share his skills and experience when the class pays a visit to ‘Beit Igzaz’.

Chaym Feldman: Intensive food production (Bio-falcha)

Chaym is an innovative and talented eco-farmer and teacher, who has developed his own techniques for intensive vegetable production (bio-falcha), in cooperation with Achmad Awad from Budrus village in the West Bank. He is an experienced teacher with extensive knowledge gathered over many years of studying farming methodologies in Israel and the USA; and will be offering support in teaching ‘Zone 1’ intensive food production techniques.

Michal Vital: Ecological Architecture

Michal is a practicing architect and green building expert in the natural building movement of Israel. For more than a decade she has led dozens of projects in the non-profit and private sectors and works with the Ministry in Defense of the Enviroment. Michal designs buildings, writes and lectures to bring green initiatives to the public. Michal will be leading the eco-building component of the course.

Dor Havkin: Rainwater harvesting

Dor is a certified permaculture consultant (PRI Australia) and an experienced teacher with years of experience in implementing environmental development initiatives. Dor will be teaching landscape water harvesting techniques.

Elad Orian: Renewable Energy

Elad Orian is the co-founder of Comet-ME, an Israeli-Palestinian NGO whose mission is the provision of basic energy services for off-grid communities in a way that is both environmentally and socially sustainable. He is interested in how grassroots activism can mend structural environmental injustice. Elad is a Graduate of the university of Manchester and Tel Aviv, and holds a M.Sc. in Physics and another M.Sc. in Environmental science and policy. Elad will be teaching on the use of renewable energy, and the class will visit some of Comet-ME’s projects in the South Hebron Hills.

Philip Jones and Lorena Viladomat: Aquaculture and Aquaponics

Philip and Lorena work together on the development of Aquaculture and Aquaponics systems in the West Bank. They are part of the Bustan Qaraaqa team, and have done ground-breaking work in bringing these innovative food production techniques to food insecure Palestinian communities. They will be giving the students an overview of the techniques available to incorporate the production of fish into permaculture systems and a ‘taster’ course in aquaponics.

Register for this course

Please contact permanegev (at) bustan.org for further information and registration.

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