my name is marcos, i am a trained economist and work in management and economics consulting, i recently moved to playa del carmen, méxico, in the yucatán peninsula. my interest and research in the subject of desertification and how to reverse it led me to the work of people like Gordon Sato, John Liu, Pieter Hoff, as well as permaculture and distinguished practitioners like Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton. i really appreciate the results of the work done at the loess plateau, as well as the two greening the desert sites. in my spare time i have watched a lot of permaculture videos, and have a basic understanding of its principles. i also follow attentively Lawton's weekly videocasts. this is the way to go, mimicking nature and established systems, harnessing and working with all forces present in a given location instead of fighting them. i joined this forum because i'm researching to put together a prospectus for a permaculture design project here in the mayan riviera. i am interested in setting up a permaculture farm here in the mayan riviera to produce foodstuffs in large scale, but land is really expensive, so, i want to find out about the financial viability of such an enterprise. thanks, see you around, marcos
Hi Marcos, You live in a beautiful (and exotic!) area ... the Yucatan riveria is one of my favorite places, especially right now when the temperature outside is 14 degrees F. I might guess that in the tropical jungle of the Yucatan, a food forest-type operation might be extremely productive.
well, yes. this area is beautiful, it is great here. the weather is also superb, it's humid, sunny and hot year round. makes for happy and healthy living. anyway, a permaculture transformation is definitely needed in order to be able to produce foodstuffs locally. there is ample sunlight and rainfall most of the year in this area, but the soils need to be vastly improved, both to retain more water and to build up humus and biomass. the whole peninsula has calcareous soils which let most water through and are very poor.
yes, i think it will take quite a bit. some earthworks to create slopes and improve water retention. plenty of support species, compost, compost tea and all the other modern tricks available to permaculturists.
Also interested to hear your progress...I'm looking at areas with soils that are similar. Sandstone parent and similar yet to delve in for specifics. WAA